A Notice to Motion: exploring states of stillness through the event of waiting on the arrested vessel WBI Trinity at the port of Cape Town

Abstract

The paper focuses on the theme of waiting during maritime arrest and the effect this has on the lives of men who are caught up in it. Here we present the case of WBI Trinity, a supply ship, arrested to foreclose a mortgage, at the port of Cape Town, during its voyage from Nigeria to Dubai. Focusing on a ‘dialectic of stasis and movement’ (Bissell and Fuller) and using moments of bodily stillness and movement as a trope, our research highlights a policy of waiting and shows how the sailors inhabit forms of stillness.