Cruising Asia | JOURNEYS
From my balcony onboard the Norwegian Jewel, I watch as the ship hews a path through the South China Sea, leaving the mountainous archipelago of the Philippines behind us. I'm mesmerised – by the waves that fold in on themselves endlessly. By the gentle heave of the ship as it rides the ocean's eternal pulse. And by the unfathomable depths beneath us, so vast that it weaves my mind in mariner's knots to merely imagine it. Earlier, I'd snorkelled in the impossibly turquoise waters off Palawan. Schools of tiny fish flitted past my goggles, an iridescent microcosm of the world hidden beneath the water's skin.
Looking out at the boundless vista, I picture the centuries of seafarers who came before me, marvelling at the limitless planes of water as I do now, soaking in the sublime as they shrank before the immensity of the ocean. There's a reason the oceans are known as The Free Seas – and it's tied to the very waters Norwegian Jewel is traversing in this moment.
In the Age of Discovery, Portugal claimed a monopoly over the trade routes to the Spice Islands of Southeast Asia. The seas, they argued, could be asserted as their territory, just like the land. But Dutch theologian Hugo () would become a foundational principle of international law. I'm certainly no expert on maritime legal philosophy. But as I sit on the ship, margarita in hand, feeling the warm sea breeze whip my hair around my face, I understand what Grotius was getting at. How could the seas be anything but free?
