Dead Reckoning

Piracy, mutiny and crime on the open sea

Juma Otieno2 episodes2 min of audio156 playsEpisodic

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S1 · E2Sep 6, 20260:4888 plays Preview

The Years Off Eyl: How Somali Piracy Rose and Fell, 2005 to 2012

For seven years ships in the Gulf of Aden faced skiffs, ladders and ransom negotiations. Juma explains the economics on shore, the naval patrols and the crew practices that ended the surge.

S1 · E1Aug 22, 20260:4968 plays Members

Nobody Aboard: The Mary Celeste, December 1872

A brigantine was found drifting between the Azores and Portugal, seaworthy, cargo intact and crew gone. Juma examines the Gibraltar salvage hearing, the alcohol cargo and the theories a sailor finds p…

About the show

Dead Reckoning is a narrated history of crime at sea, from the Barbary corsairs and the pirate queen Zheng Yi Sao to insurance fraud on cargo ships and the Somali piracy years off the Horn of Africa. Juma Otieno served eleven years in the Kenya Coast Guard and then worked for a maritime security firm in Mombasa, so he has watched the Indian Ocean shipping lanes from both a patrol boat and an operations room. Each fortnightly episode of around 40 minutes takes one case or one era, explains how the sea makes certain crimes possible, and follows the investigators, insurers and sailors who dealt with the consequences. Interviews with former hostages are handled with their consent and care, and there is no romance about piracy. For listeners who love ships, maps and the rules of the sea, and who want the real story behind the legends.

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