The Forum was sponsored by the Maritime Awards Society of Canada. Any consideration of trade, transport or war in the Pacific basin is dominated by the great ocean.
Atlantic sailors have simply to double all the quantities of their experience.
Distances, fuel requirements, the size and fetch of swell and sea, the ferocity of storm and the consequence of error are all much magnified. Traders and warriors familiar with Europe, where the continental powers enjoy internal lines of communication and established infrastructure, find the Pacific very different. There the lanes of communication are toll-free and there is less inherent bias in favour of the old and established. And yet those opportunities do not come without cost and risk. Compared to established and known structures in Europe and North America, the Pacific is unorganized territory.