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In May of 2022, the Hudson River Maritime Museum will be running a Grain Race in cooperation with the Schooner Apollonia, The Northeast Grainshed Alliance, and the Center for Post Carbon Logistics. Anyone interested in the race can find out more here.  This May, the Northeast Grain Race spanned the Hudson Valley: Two vehicles entered with impressive scores for each, pitting Solar against Wind power. There were far more shipments, and we'll get to those shortly. First, let's take a look at the shipments: Solar Sal Boats entered a cargo in the Micro Category of 550 pounds of flour and grains from Ithaca Mills, which they brought to the People's Place in Kingston. They picked up the grains with an electric car which was charged by an off-grid solar array, then transferred the load to a Solar Sal 24 solar boat at Waterford, NY. Then, down the canal and river they came to Kingston, docked at the HRMM docks, and unloaded to another electric car. This is when things get really great for this particular delivery: While the car was parked and the boat at the dock, there was some time before the stated delivery needed to arrive, so the car was plugged into the solar array of the boat. By the time they departed to make the final 2 miles of delivery, the car was charged enough to make it at least that far on just the boat's contribution. Everything about the entry was completely solar powered, and off grid, so no points were lost to fuel or energy use. Thank you to Dr. Borton of Solar Sal Boats for the video. The second entry was by Schooner Apollonia, running their usual May cargo run full of Malt and Flour. Technically, this was a few different entries spanning from Hudson NY to New York City, and used a similar combination of vehicles and methods. The Malt they carried was from Hudson Valley Malt, in Germantown, and moved to the docks with a vegetable oil powered truck. Then, of course, the Apollonia sailed the entries south, delivering the last mile by solar-charged cargo bike. The flour they carried was from Wild Hive flour, and made it to the dock in an electric car charged at the farm's off-grid solar power system. The flour was only about 425 pounds in total, but there were over three tons of malt on board. The malt and flour got dropped off at various locations, making score calculations complex, but the impressively low use of the engines on Apollonia meant points against for fuel use were minimal: The engine only got used for 105 minutes, and burned under 2 gallons of fuel. In total, there were 7 entries onboard Apollonia. Now to the big question: Who won? For the Micro Category: Solar Sal Boats, Ithaca Mills, and The People's Place, with 21.5 points. For the ½ TEU Category: Schooner Apollonia, Hudson Valley Malt, and Sing Sing Kill Brewery, with 212.5 points. Overall, Apollonia wracked up 245 points, an impressive score to beat next year. The ingenuity of the Solar Sal entry in using a solar boat to charge an electric car sets the bar high for future competitors, and even points out another use for solar boats and vehicles which I don't think has been looked at very closely thus far: How they can directly contribute to balancing each other's energy needs. Planning for next year's Grain Race is underway, and I'm looking forward to more entries and greater ambitions in the coming year. Until then, keep an eye out for more developments on Sail Freight, Sustainability, Resilience, and Climate Change here at the Hudson River Maritime Museum. AuthorSteven Woods is the Solaris and Education coordinator at HRMM. He earned his Master's degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College, and wrote his thesis on the revival of Sail Freight for supplying the New York Metro Area's food needs. Steven has worked in Museums for over 20 years. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
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Welcome to Sail Freighter Fridays! This article is part of a series linked to our new exhibit: "A New Age Of Sail: The History And Future Of Sail Freight In The Hudson Valley," and tells the stories of sailing cargo ships both modern and historical, on the Hudson River and around the world. Anyone interested in how to support Sail Freight should also check out the Conference in November, and the International Windship Association's Decade of Wind Propulsion.  "The Parma in full sail." Allan C Green, between 1921-1936. This week's Sail Freighter is of especial interest to those who like the 20th century story of sail powered trade, Parma made the fastest run on the Grain Races from Australia to the UK: 15,000 miles around Cape Horn in only 83 days. Originally named Arrow when she launched at Glasgow in 1902, she was renamed Parma upon her purchase by the F. Laeisz Line as one of the "Flying P-Liners" in 1912. Parma was a 4-masted Steel Barque typical of her time, with fast lines, 327 feet long on deck, and capable of carrying 5,300 deadweight tons of cargo. She served on a variety of trades through her eventful career, parts of which were well documented by a famous figure in maritime history who we will talk about a bit later. When she was launched, she went into the fossil fuels trade, under the flag of the Anglo-American Oil Company, but after a decade she was sold and renamed as a Flying P-Liner, where her reputation really starts to get established. Newly rechristened Parma and put to work in the Nitrates Trade between Chile and Germany, carrying Guano for making fertilizer and explosives.  "On the forecastle head of the 'Parma' in fine weather." Alan Villiers, 1933. When the First World War broke out, she was in Chile, and she was interned there as a belligerent ship in a neutral port. At the end of the war, she was given to the UK Government as Reparations, then sold to Belgium, before being repurchased by the Laeisz Line in 1921, returning to the Nitrates Trade. She racked up some impressive speed records on this run over the next decade. In 1931, Parma was sold to noted maritime historian and photographer Alan Villiers. She shifted from the Nitrates Trade to the Grain Trade from Australia. In 1933, Villiers was aboard when she made the fastest run recorded by a sailing vessel between Port Victoria, Australia and Falmouth, England, winning that year's grain race. In 1936, Parma crashed into a dock in Glasgow and was severely damaged. While repairs to her hull were made, she was sold, derigged, and effectively ended her career as a sailing vessel. She was scrapped two years later in 1938. The 1933 voyage from Australia to the UK in the Grain Races which had Villiers onboard is well documented, and his collection of photos from the trip are publicly available on Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the UK's National Maritime Museum. Villiers was a major force in helping preserve the skills and history of sailing vessels, and wrote many books on the subject. Without these and similar efforts, we would likely not have the preserved vessels and skills necessary to revive sail freight today. AuthorSteven Woods is the Solaris and Education coordinator at HRMM. He earned his Master's degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College, and wrote his thesis on the revival of Sail Freight for supplying the New York Metro Area's food needs. Steven has worked in Museums for over 20 years. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
Welcome to Sail Freighter Fridays! This article is part of a series linked to our new exhibit: "A New Age Of Sail: The History And Future Of Sail Freight In The Hudson Valley," and tells the stories of sailing cargo ships both modern and historical, on the Hudson River and around the world. Anyone interested in how to support Sail Freight should also check out the Conference in November, and the International Windship Association's Decade of Wind Propulsion.  "Herzogin Cecilie" Henry Mohrmann, 1907. This week we continue our series of Sail Freighters involved with the Great Grain Races, with likely the most famous of them all: The 4 masted Barque Herzogin Cecilie. Built in 1902 at Bremerhaven, Germany, and was named for the German Crown Princess. She was initially employed in the Nitrates trade between Chile and Europe for making fertilizer and explosives, as did the Parma, Passat, and Pamir. After spending the First World War interned in Chile, she was granted to France as war reparations, then quickly purchased by Gustaf Erikson of Finland. Erikson continued to employ Herzogin Cecilie for 16 years, in the Australian Grain Trade. Her speed and unique while paint made her stand out, and she became quite famous worldwide. Alan Villiers, a major figure in the end of the windjammer era and the preservation of sailing skills in the 20th century, was aboard for one of these grain runs, which inspired his book "To Falmouth For Orders." He would later purchase and sail the Parma in the 1933 Grain Race, one of the few Herzogin Cecilie didn't win in her era of competition.  From the "Seaman's Journal" of June, 1931. Herzogin Cecilie was a fast ship, one of the fastest of the windjammers. At one point in her career she booked over 20 knots. She even beat the record of the Famous tea clipper Cutty Sark, while carrying 5000 tons of grain to the Cutty Sark's empty holds. This turn of speed let the Herzogin Cecilie win 8 of the 11 Great Grain Races she participated in. In 1936, under the command of a less experienced captain (after her previous skipper retired), she won the grain race in a mere 86 days, the second-fastest ever. A few days later, she departed Falmouth for Ipswich to deliver the cargo to its final destination, but she ran aground in a fog on the coast of Devon, UK. Despite a protracted rescue effort which involved hauling her ashore, a storm battered her on the beach and she capsized, then sank, rendering her unrecoverable. Thus ended the career of one of the most famous of the 20th century Windjammers.  The restored Captain's cabin of the four-masted barque Herzogin Cecilie, in the Maritime Museum of Mariehamn, Finland, 15 July 2012. Photo by KDHOX. Wikimedia Commons. Most of the vessel's fittings were salvaged, and the Captain's Saloon is now reassembled as part of the Mariehamn Aland Islands Maritime Museum, Finland. She is also remembered in folk songs. The Herzogin Cecilie was a very remarkable sail freighter, and a classic piece of the end of working sail in the Atlantic. While she is gone, her model is one to follow, and even with modern technology and knowledge, might be hard to beat. AuthorSteven Woods is the Solaris and Education coordinator at HRMM. He earned his Master's degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College, and wrote his thesis on the revival of Sail Freight for supplying the New York Metro Area's food needs. Steven has worked in Museums for over 20 years. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
Welcome to Sail Freighter Fridays! This article is part of a series linked to our new exhibit: "A New Age Of Sail: The History And Future Of Sail Freight In The Hudson Valley," and tells the stories of sailing cargo ships both modern and historical, on the Hudson River and around the world. Anyone interested in how to support Sail Freight should also check out the Conference in November, and the International Windship Association's Decade of Wind Propulsion. .JPG) "Passat" under sail. Yasmina, 2015. In sticking with the major ships of the Great Grain Races while the Northeast Grain Race is going on, this week we're featuring the Passat, another of the Flying P-Liners of the Laeisz line from Hamburg, Germany. A Four-Masted, Steel-Hulled Barque, Passat was launched in 1911, and worked in the Nitrates trade like so many of the early 20th century windjammers, bringing Guano from Chile to Europe for making fertilizer and explosives. Like many of the other P-Liners, she was interned in Chile through the First World War, and granted to France as War Reparations in 1920. She was re-purchased by the Laeisz Line in 1921, and returned to the nitrates trade. In 1932 she was sold to Gustaf Erikson of Finland, who put her on the Australian Grain Trade, and she racked up an impressive 4 victories in the Grain Races. Her fastest run was in 94 days, an average of nearly 160 nautical miles per day, or 6.65 knots.  "Passat under sail" Swedish National Maritime Museums. Eventually, Passat and Pamir were the only two windjammers left on the Australia Run, and they raced each other for the last time in 1949, with Passat taking home the final victory of the Grain Races. After the 1949 race, regulatory changes made her operation economically impossible, when the 2-watch system was barred in favor of the 3-watch system used on motor vessels. The 3-watch system required more crew, which meant too much operating expense, and she was sold to be broken up in 1951. Passat had an eventful and long career, rounding Cape Horn 39 times in her 38 years. When you account for the 6 years she sat in Chile during the First World War, and sitting out 6 years of the Second World War, she rounded the horn more than once per year! Luckily, she was purchased and saved for use as a sail training vessel in the 1950s, and now serves as a youth hostel and museum ship in Lubbock, Germany.  "Passat" today. Photo by Peter Haas, 2011. AuthorSteven Woods is the Solaris and Education coordinator at HRMM. He earned his Master's degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College, and wrote his thesis on the revival of Sail Freight for supplying the New York Metro Area's food needs. Steven has worked in Museums for over 20 years. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
Welcome to Sail Freighter Fridays! This article is part of a series linked to our new exhibit: "A New Age Of Sail: The History And Future Of Sail Freight In The Hudson Valley," and tells the stories of sailing cargo ships both modern and historical, on the Hudson River and around the world. Anyone interested in how to support Sail Freight should also check out the Conference in November, and the International Windship Association's Decade of Wind Propulsion.  "Pamir under sail." Michael Zeno Diemer, Pre-1939. Düsseldorfer Auktionshaus Collection. Today's featured Sail Freighter is the Pamir, built in Hamburg, Germany in 1905. She was rigged as a 4-masted Barque, with her three forward masts square rigged and her aftermost mast rigged Fore-&-Aft. The Barque rig was used in later sailing vessels as it saved slightly on crew, compared to a full ship rig which would be square-rigged on all masts. The Pamir had an eventful 52-year commercial career, and is worth studying as a classical early 20th century engineless Windjammer. Pamir was built as one of the Flying P-Liners, which were part of the Laeisz Line of Germany, all had names starting with a "P." They earned the name of "Flying" P-Liners because of their speed: Many made up to 16 knots, better than most steamers at the time. After being launched in 1905, she sailed under the Laeisz Line in the Nitrates trade between South America and Germany, moving Guano in loads of more than 3000 tons at a time. Guano, or bird and bat dung, is rich in Nitrates, and was used in the production of fertilizers and explosives in Europe. It could not safely be transported in coal-fired steamers due to the risk of explosions ignited by any leak from smoke stacks. Sailing vessels stayed in this trade for many years after steamers had taken over other routes due to this risk, but were eventually replaced by internal combustion engine propelled ships that had a lower risk of fire and explosion.  "Pamir At The Entrance to the English Channel" 1949. National Library of Australia Collection. After the First World War, the Pamir was granted to Italy as War Reparations, then a few years later was purchased again by the Laeisz Line. In 1931, she was acquired by Gustaf Erikson, a Finnish ship owner who had the last fleet of windjammers until his death in 1947. The Pamir was captured by New Zealand during the Second World War, and was only returned to the Erikson Line in 1948, when she had the chance to participate in the Last Grain Race from Australia to England against the Passat, another former Flying P-Liner. After her participation in the Last Great Grain Race, she was sold to two different German lines in the 1950s. She was the last windjammer in commercial service in the Atlantic World in 1957 when she made her last voyage. In 1957, she set sail with a load of more than 3,700 tons of grain, which had been stowed by her inexperienced sail trainees. The captain was also inexperienced in sail powered cargo operations, though he had experience in Sail Training ships before taking command of the Pamir. The cargo was stowed loose in the holds and ballast tanks, with only a small amount in sacks on top to keep it from shifting in heavy seas. En Route to Germany, she encountered a hurricane, which caused her to heel and the cargo to shift. When it did, the ship did not right herself, leaving the hatch covers exposed to the direct impact of hurricane-driven seas. The hatch covers gave way, water filled the holds, she capsized, then sank. Because she had been heeled hard over by the shifted cargo, half of her lifeboats were underwater, while the other half could not be launched because they could only be dropped onto the side of the hull, where they were damaged by waves. Most of the crew made it to the few lifeboats which could be launched. Only two of the unprovisioned lifeboats were found after a nine day search off the Azore Islands, and of the 86 people on board, only 6 survived. The combination of unskilled hands and rough weather sealed her fate. The Pamir's fate is tragic, but is the ending point of a career spanning more than half a century. She was a remarkably successful Barque, and the last commercial sailing vessel in the Atlantic. This is worth recognizing and celebrating, while we learn some lessons about how to handle cargo from her demise. AuthorSteven Woods is the Solaris and Education coordinator at HRMM. He earned his Master's degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College, and wrote his thesis on the revival of Sail Freight for supplying the New York Metro Area's food needs. Steven has worked in Museums for over 20 years. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
Welcome to Sail Freighter Friday! This article is part of a series linked to our new exhibit: "A New Age Of Sail: The History And Future Of Sail Freight In The Hudson Valley," and tracks sailing cargo ships both modern and historical. Anyone interested in how to support Sail Freight should also check out the Conference in November, and the International Windship Association's Decade of Wind Propulsion.  Apollonia tied up at Newburgh, NY, 2021. Courtesy of Sam Merrett. Schooner Apollonia is one of our favorite Sail Freighters, because she's on the Hudson River right now. She has been carrying cargo for two years now, with a bit of a preview season in 2020, testing out cargos and becoming familiar with regional waterfront infrastructure. Apollonia is currently the only active sail freighter in the US. Apollonia is a 64' steel schooner built in Baltimore in 1946. Designed to carry cargo or operate as a pleasure yacht, she was purchased on Craigslist after spending 30 years on the hard and refitted as a cargo vessel. She was under restoration for four years before arriving at the Hudson River Maritime Museum in the fall of 2019 to build wooden blocks as she built out her full rigging. Her first official season was in 2021, when the vessel made 55 port calls at 15 ports on the Hudson River and in New York Harbor. Today she is homeported in Hudson NY, and often visits the Hudson River Maritime Museum docks as she works to connect the Hudson Valley and New York City. Captained by Sam Merrett, Apollonia carries a lot of malted grain for breweries as the main part of her cargo, but she also carries almost anything else: Solar panels, cider, hot sauce, beer, coffee, maple syrup, flour, honey, yarn, apparel, books, vegetables, red oak logs for a mushroom farm, were all on the list in 2021, and more will be involved in 2022. She can carry 10 tons (20,000 lbs) of cargo at a time, up to 600 cubic feet.  Loading logs into the hold of Apollonia at the HRMM Docks, June 2021. Courtesy of Sam Merrett. Apollonia is a critical link in relearning the craft and trade of working sail. Inspired by the Vermont Sail Freight Project's Ceres, the project is a combination of sail freight and localized food economy with many educational side benefits. Apollonia builds connections between people and the river, as well as between businesses shipping goods sustainably by wind power, with first- and last-mile on-shore aspects done with a solar-powered cargo bike and trailer. You can find out more about the Apollonia's Impacts from the 2021 season here, and check out her schedule and cargos for 2022 - and get involved as a "Shore Angel" or sail freight customer - at her website. If you find her at the docks anywhere on her route this season (there's a tracker on the website), she has a mobile component of our new exhibit aboard, which is worth checking out. Apollonia is also partnering with the Museum for the Northeast Grain Race and the Sail Freight Conference in November. AuthorSteven Woods is the Solaris and Education coordinator at HRMM. He earned his Master's degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College, and wrote his thesis on the revival of Sail Freight for supplying the New York Metro Area's food needs. Steven has worked in Museums for over 20 years. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
In May of 2022, the Hudson River Maritime Museum will be running a Grain Race in cooperation with the Schooner Apollonia, The Northeast Grainshed Alliance, and the Center for Post Carbon Logistics. Anyone interested in the race can find out more here.  Four Masted Steel Bark Passat. Aconcagua, 2006. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. The Passat was a participant in the last Great Grain Race of 1949, and is now a museum ship in Travemunde, Germany. Rebuilding an industry that has been effectively dead for a century is no easy task. It is made harder by economic and political forces which make competing technologies artificially cheaper, transport infrastructure designed for use by a single technology, and a lack of public interest. These are the principal challenges to a Sail Freight future, and it should be noted that none of them are technical in nature. Humanity has been moving cargo under sail for tens of thousands of years, and continues to do so. The changes needed for a Sail Freight future are mostly cultural and social. Three keys are needed to get Sail Freight into the transportation mix at scale. The first is a change in speed requirements. As long as next day shipping is demanded at all costs, sail freight is less viable. When this social construct can be changed to allow for slower and less certain transportation, of both food and other goods, Sail Freight becomes viable. The second is based in social infrastructure. The networks of shipping relations by sail need to be rebuilt, between sailors and those sending and receiving goods. Within the food system, this can be quite complex, but is starting to make a recovery within local food systems. As the fleet expands, these relationships must expand as well. The third adaptation we will need to make for Sail Freight to be viable is increasing the economic cost of other means of transport. This will happen with the rise of carbon taxes, fuel scarcities, and other challenges which are likely to be part of the coming energy transition. At about $8/gallon of diesel fuel, Sail Freight at competitive wages and full crews will be highly competitive with long distance trucking and rail transport. The final challenge is to have a sufficient fleet of sail cargo vessels built and afloat, with sufficient sailors to crew them when the above conditions are met. This can all be accomplished if we set our minds to it, and then the more trivial matters of setting up brokerages, freight offices, and warehouses will be essentially trivial. To build a sustainable world, we have a lot of work to do. Thankfully, the work is clear and achievable if we choose to do it. You can find more information on the Grain Race here. AuthorSteven Woods is the Solaris and Education coordinator at HRMM. He earned his Master's degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College, and wrote his thesis on the revival of Sail Freight for supplying the New York Metro Area's food needs. Steven has worked in Museums for over 20 years. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
In May of 2022, the Hudson River Maritime Museum will be running a Grain Race in cooperation with the Schooner Apollonia, The Northeast Grainshed Alliance, and the Center for Post Carbon Logistics. Anyone interested in the race can find out more here.  Loading bagged cargo on board Brigantine Tres Hombres. Courtesy of FairTransport.eu Once a shipload of grains arrives in a harbor, what do you do with it? In the sail freight systems of the past, and the likely sail freight systems of the future, this is an important question which needs to be answered as part of the integration of sail freight into commercial networks. Traditionally, and throughout most of the world, grain was and is still stored in Granaries, warehouses specifically designed to have favorable conditions for keeping grain and keeping out rats and other pests. The designs are as varied as the cultures who build them, but all have the same basic objectives. While some are built at the scale of a farm or small village, others were absolutely massive, such as those used in the Cura Annonae systems of ancient Rome. At export and import hubs these massive granaries could be found, and were an important stopping and storage point for grain before it made its way to table. Throughout history these types of systems have been organized either by the state or commercial interests under the same basic technical arrangements of aggregation, movement, and distribution. Another option is immediate distribution without storage. In this case, the sale of the cargo happens immediately, and it is taken away to the points of use such as mills, breweries, malt houses, bakeries, and homes. This Just-In-Time delivery system is not well suited to Sail Freight, as schedules when running your economy on the weather are not precise. While not a good option at an economy or city scale, this works fine for a single cargo. These are the two basic options for doing something with your cargo of grains through history, and they haven't changed a lot in the last few hundred years. However, there are a few variations on them. In some situations, cargos of grain would sit on ships until prices rose, or until there was space in granaries to take the cargo. This especially happens with foods when they are in season, as illustrated by Hedden in his 1929 book "How Great Cities Are Fed." While Hedden referred to warehouses and railroad cars as the means of storage, with railcars being the flexible storage space, ships can and do serve the same purpose as floating granaries. When granaries are full, ships can add to the capacity, or sell directly, leaving granary stocks untouched. In addition, ships full of grain can function as storage en route, and as mobile storage. For example, if the granaries at the point of arrival are full, a ship can be diverted to another port without incurring additional labor of loading and cross loading. With modern communications systems, ships can be diverted while still at sea, preventing congestion of both ports and granaries. At the systems scale, storage is highly important, whether onboard a ship, in a rail car, or in a granary. It is normally better to have this storage near the point of use than near the point of production. As we saw recently in the COVID-10 Pandemic, food systems can be easily disrupted, and having food stored in reserve near the point of use is an easy way to mitigate these disruptions. It was recommended in 2015 that between 16-43 days of food be stored near US Cities for just this type of pandemic risk; clearly this warning was ignored, as we saw disruptions across the board in early 2020. In an Energy-Scarce future, warehouses can function as a type of energy storage by letting us use energy when it is plentiful to get crops to the city, and not transport foods when energy is scarcer. What we will likely be doing with most shiploads of grains in a sail freight future is unloading them into storage, and selling them directly when the granaries are full. You can find more information on the Grain Race here. AuthorSteven Woods is the Solaris and Education coordinator at HRMM. He earned his Master's degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College, and wrote his thesis on the revival of Sail Freight for supplying the New York Metro Area's food needs. Steven has worked in Museums for over 20 years. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
In May of 2022, the Hudson River Maritime Museum will be running a Grain Race in cooperation with the Schooner Apollonia, The Northeast Grainshed Alliance, and the Center for Post Carbon Logistics. Anyone interested in the race can find out more here  Image courtesy of GoSailCargo.com "The coming sailing vessel of the future, however, is the auxiliary; no matter what her rig may be. A vessel fitted with [Electric] engines, placed aft for convenience, offers a decided advantage to navigators and one that is beginning to be appreciated. [Electric] engines [and batteries] take up a certain amount of hold space, to be sure, but the advantage gained through being able to make headway in all kinds of weather should not be undervalued. When a dead beat to windward is encountered, instead of sailing 500 miles to make 250, all that is necessary is to start the engines and plow ahead into the wind's eye. Again, in light airs, the engines can be used to advantage in decreasing the port-to-port time. If the vessel should happen to be dismasted, the engines are there to be called into service. If anchored near a lee shore with no chance of ratcheting off- Start the engines." --Modified from: Reisenberg, Standard Seamanship For The Merchant Service. New York, NY: D Van Nostrand Co, 1922. Page 17. While improvement of the early sailing auxiliary designs and capability was abandoned due to the low price of fuel in the majority of the 20th century, Wind Assist systems such as kytes, Flettner Rotors, and Wing Sails are being deployed through the EU today as a way of reducing fuel costs. Modern Wind-Assist systems can give up to 50% fuel savings on certain routes, using properly designed vessels, and some add-on modules for existing container and bulk carrier ships are showing 20-30% fuel savings. The International Windship Association has a large list of ships planning on or having already adopted these technologies. Adding traditional sailing rigs to smaller cargo vessels was experimented with extensively in the 1970s to 1980s, and showed significant fuel savings of up to 30% on some routes. This was most successful in South East Asia, where the Oil Crises of the 1970s and early 1980s had made fuel nearly unaffordable to small island states who were entirely dependent on imported diesel. The SV Kwai is a great example of this type of adaptation in the same region, operating today. This goes to show that to adopt Sail Freight, we need not abandon modern technology, we simply need to rethink and reapply it. In the world of Sustainable Shipping and Sail Freight, there are far more places to avoid carbon emissions than using sails to reduce heavy fuel oil use slightly. Starting from the idea of an auxiliary sailer as described above, but using modern motors and knowledge, one can create a near-zero carbon cargo vessel. An Australian designer and shipwright is doing just this in the realm of small cargo vessels. Designed with essentially traditional Ketch or Schooner rigs, electric motors, propeller regeneration under sail to charge the batteries, and the capability to carry containerized cargo, these modern designs are simply an update or evolution of older vessels to suit modern needs and wants, such as auxiliary engines and containerized cargo. Pairing electric motors and batteries with sailing rigs can be a highly sustainable, near-zero carbon means of sail freight shipping which retains the advantages outlined in the 1920s. This is especially true of vessels like the Electric Clippers mentioned here that are designed for as long a service life as possible. With a practical limit to the size of a traditional sailing vessel being imposed by the nature of wind power at around 12,000 tons displacement we will need a far larger number of these vessels than current, conventional, container ships to accommodate shipping requirements, but the benefits to the world in reduced carbon emissions and transport system resiliency can be astounding. Other innovations are in progress, such as entirely modern, very large sailing vessels. Neoliner is one of these, which is building a 136 meter long, 11,000 ton displacement sailing vessel of entirely modern design. The vessel is designed for RO-RO (Roll On-Roll Off) of vehicles, can carry 5,000 tons of cargo, and is also equipped with auxiliary engines. There are a few traditionalists in the Sail Freight Revival, including EcoClipper and Fair Transport, which are planning on using and making strictly sail powered vessels with no engines. However, these ships are still equipped with modern navigation and communications equipment, which is responsible for significant improvements in safety for crew and cargo. Even the traditionalists want to improve health and safety. There's no need to abandon modern technology in moving forward to a post-carbon future. There is, however, a need to recombine it with older technologies in a way which serves human purposes while respecting environmental boundaries. You can find more information on the Grain Race here. AuthorSteven Woods is the Solaris and Education coordinator at HRMM. He earned his Master's degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College, and wrote his thesis on the revival of Sail Freight for supplying the New York Metro Area's food needs. Steven has worked in Museums for over 20 years. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
In May of 2022, the Hudson River Maritime Museum will be running a Grain Race in cooperation with the Schooner Apollonia, The Northeast Grainshed Alliance, and the Center for Post Carbon Logistics. Anyone interested in the race can find out more here.  Schooner Apollonia under sail, Hudson River off Rondout Lighthouse. Steven Woods, 2021. Moving food is important, as we've mentioned here before. Without food movement, people will starve, and without near-carbonless food movement, the world's efforts at climate change mitigation are likely to fail. One of the ways to move food with little to no carbon is through Sail Freight, which is a fitting subject for a maritime museum to talk about. So, what would a Sail Freight Future look like? We can take some clues from the past, of course, about how a sail freight future might look. In this case, we can see rivers and coastlines dotted with the image of sails and ships at harbor, moving large amounts of cargo between the countryside and cities, and between cities themselves. We can see thousands of supporting jobs building and maintaining ships, making sails, ropes, tar, and pitch, and fittings for keeping ships underway. However, those clues from the past are unlikely to give us an accurate idea of what we will need and can accomplish in a future of sailing cargo. First, we can’t simply revert to the past as the climate changes. Doing so is impossible, and shouldn't be desirable to begin with. Second, we now know more about the world than we did in the past, and can incorporate new sustainable technologies into modern sail freight. Our focus today will be reason number three: The world has significantly changed since Sail Freight was last common in the 1920s, and is now absolutely dependent on fossil fuels in both transportation and food production. In a sail freight future, we will need to have a food system which is capable of dealing with the realities of sail freight, which include less precise timing of deliveries, longer travel times, and in many areas a seasonality currently unknown. Less precise timing of deliveries means warehousing will have to come into more prominent use in the food system nearer to the point of end use for far more than just food. With a warehouse capable of holding several months' supplies, if a shipment is delayed due to contrary winds or a storm, no one goes hungry. The current practices of Just-In-Time delivery will have to be significantly changed, and the growth in warehouse jobs will likely be significant. Longer travel times for foods also means certain foods might become less available in certain regions, leading to a re-regionalized diet. For example, the ability to import fresh avocados and lemons in winter to Maine or New York might not be possible. The same would go for tomatoes from California or strawberries from Florida. Since these foods would not be likely to make the journey in their fresh forms, other forms such as preserves, juices, dried foods, and others will take their place. Canned and Jarred versions of these products will likely come more into play, and localized production using innovative techniques will be important. Lastly, the issue of seasonality fits into both of the above. For harbors with ice in parts of the year, warehouses will need to be big enough to hold the iced-in season's food needs for an area without resupply by water in that time frame, unless other carbon-neutral overland transport capabilities are available with the energy to operate them. The types of foods stored will have to be nonperishable, and storage will need to be properly designed for the environment. For an example of the other changes which would need to be made for a Sail Freight Future, the sheer number of ships and crew members needed is significant. For just the minimum grain and potato supply of the New York Metro Area, the estimated fleet would need to be 1,357 ships with a cargo capacity of 111.25 tons each, and nearly 9,000 sailors. While larger ships would likely be more efficient in crew, this is not guaranteed. When adding all this up, a fleet of these ships which could supply the New York Metro Area's food needs could be built using all the shipyards in the US in a mere 20 years, if all these shipyards produced 4 ships per year. We would also need to train over 3,000 sailors each year to crew these ships. Clearly, then, we would need to make changes to our shipbuilding capacity, train more welders, shipwrights, and so on, as well as sailors and captains. Then, the building of warehouses and docks would require labor as well. The task is not a small one, nor easy; it is, however, still achievable if we put our minds, our money, and our backs to it. For those interested in foodsheds and local food systems, an excellent book is Rebuilding the Foodshed by Philip Ackerman-Leist. You can find more information on the Grain Race here. AuthorSteven Woods is the Solaris and Education coordinator at HRMM. He earned his Master's degree in Resilient and Sustainable Communities at Prescott College, and wrote his thesis on the revival of Sail Freight for supplying the New York Metro Area's food needs. Steven has worked in Museums for over 20 years. Tune in tonight for Steve's virtual lecture, "The History and Future of Grain Races!"
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