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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 Ketch Nordlys is claimed to be the oldest engineless wooden sail freighter in service today, having been built in 1873 on the Isle of Wight. Though she started her career as a fishing trawler, she was converted to Sail Freight after being purchased by Fair Transport in 2014. She started coastal trading on European routes in 2015. As a Ketch, Nordlys is well suited to coastal trade. The Fore-&-Aft rig allows for sailing close to the wind, which is important when working in coastal waters. She is a small ship, only 82 feet long and carrying 25 tons of cargo. However, she is also light on crew, requiring only 5 professional crew and taking on up to 4 passengers or trainees. Her cargo is normally high value goods such as wine, whiskey, and similar products. As an engineless vessel, Nordlys is a representative of the most extreme version of Sail Freight. The majority of sail freighters have engines on board for emergency and docking use, as well as for use in crowded harbors. Nordlys, like her fleet-mate Tres Hombres, relies on the wind entirely for power, and this exposes the vessel to all the same threats and risks as sail freighters a century or more ago. While there are modern communications equipment and solar panels on board to power them, these are not a tool for propulsion. They do increase safety when interacting with other vessels, but can't shorten the time at sea if stuck in the doldrums or power the ship off a lee shore in a storm. In exchange for these disadvantages, engineless ships offer the largest carbon emissions gains, and in the case of Nordlys, even more than normal: She replaces trucks and trains instead of other ships due to her coastal trade routes, much like the far more local schooner Apollonia. You can learn more about Nordlys and Fair Transport 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!
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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 Grain de Sail is a modern small cargo schooner, launched in 2020 and in service since, carrying wines and chocolate from France to NYC and the Caribbean. The ship can carry a total of 35 tonnes of wine with a crew of 4, and takes about three months on her circuit from France to NYC, the Caribbean, and back. The plans are to have her make two circuits per year, one in spring and one in the fall, and has completed three voyages thus far. In 2021, Grain de Sail and Apollonia met up in New York Harbor and transferred cargo between the boats, one of the first such exchanges between inland and transoceanic sailing vessels in US Waters this century. Grain de Sail is unique, in that she is specifically designed for hauling wine. Her hold is climate controlled, the wines are types suited to the rolling motions of the ship, and other considerations have been made to ensure the wine is not damaged by transport. She is a Marconni-Rigged Schooner, using more modern designs of soft sails than the traditional gaff-rigged schooners which are iconic parts of the Downeast Maine seascape. These allow sailing slightly closer to the wind, and they make automated sail handling far easier. Roller-Furling replaces much of the crew labor in reefing or handling jibs and headsails, and sheets can be controlled remotely. While she has an engine onboard for emergency and docking use, she uses it very rarely. You can learn a bit more about Grain de Sail on their website: www.graindesailwines.com 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. The wooden Brigantine Tres Hombres was launched in the Netherlands in 1943, and served initially as a fishing boat. After her first career, she sat idle until 2007, when she was purchased by three friends intent on reviving sail freight. After a two year restoration, she was relaunched in 2009, and began her sail freight career. One of the early pioneers of transatlantic sail freight, Tres Hombres was one of the vessels which paved the way for others, proving the commercial viability of sail freight for high-value cargoes. Now, Grain de Sail has taken on this model with newly built sail freighters designed for carrying wine and chocolate, as just one example of follow-on movements from the Tres Hombres. Tres Hombres can carry 40 tons of cargo, mostly coffee, chocolate, rum, and other high-value items from the Caribbean to Europe. As an engineless vessel, she is a truly zero-emission vessel, and has made 12 transatlantic circuits since 2009. She is also involved with coastal trade in Europe, rebuilding coastal trade relationships which have fallen away in the last 80-100 years. With a crew of 7 and 8 additional trainees, Tres Hombres serves as a training vessel alongside moving cargo. This will be a big advantage to the Sail Freight movement, as her Brigantine rig combines both Square-Rig and Fore-And-Aft rig sailing, allowing for trainees to become familiar with both types of traditional rig. These trainees will be needed when they complete the program to crew other sail freighters in construction or planning, such as Ceiba, Brigantes, Hawaila, and the EcoClipper Fleet. You can learn more about Tres Hombres and the FairTransport company at https://fairtransport.eu/. The webpage also includes her sailing schedule, and how to sign up to sail as a trainee. 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. NOTE: This week's post is a guest post from Captain Shane Granger of the Historic Vessel Vega. The Vega has operated in the Pacific, between remote islands, since 2004, and was built in 1892. In early 1890 cement factory owner Johan Carlsson commissioned a sail powered cargo boat to service small villages along the coast of Sweden. That boat was named Vega, after his eldest daughter. At that time Sweden and Norway were one country so Mr. Carlsson looked to the ship builders of Norway for his newest Jacht (Jacht or Jaght being generic names for small sail powered cargo boats). Outstanding among Norwegian ships of the time were those of Hardanger fiord where a tradition of building strong swift sailing vessels was already well established in the late 1400’s. The finest Hardanger jachts of the day were designed and built by Ola H. Nerhus. According to Lars Nerhus, great grandson of Ola Nerhus and himself a boat builder, “By 1891 Ola Nerhus had an unrivalled reputation for strong well-formed ships and quality workmanship. He was the designer and surveyor for most prominent [ship]yards in this region of Norway.” From the beginning Vega was conceived to carry heavy concentrated loads and be certified for trade in the Arctic, a task most wooden boats shunned. Vega’s intended cargo demanded a strong full-bodied vessel with exceptional load bearing capacity for her length and beam. Due to existing tax, harbour, and pilot regulations Carlson specified she be a bit short of sixty feet between perpendiculars with a sixteen foot beam yet be rated at 55 tones to meet the demands of his cement trade. Similar regulations meant for the first few years of her life Vega was rigged as a traditional cutter, rather than the well proven two masted galleass with its more versatile sail area and smaller crew. Faced with the age-old conundrum of how to make a small boat carry the same cargo as a larger one Ola Nerhus did a splendid job designing Vega, one that would eventually win him an award for design innovations at the great Oslo exhibition of 1898. Our surveyor once commented, “Vega’s frames are more reminiscent of a naval man of war from the early 1800’s than a merchant ship.” Those frame sets consist of between 4 and 6 grown oak ribs tightly trunnelled and bolted together with only enough room between them for ventilation. 130 years later Vega is among the select few officially classified "Historic Vessel", a long way from the dilapidated state we discovered her in. Vega 1892 is a small “Mom & Pop” charity that operates on a purely volunteer basis. A large group of friends, who want to make a difference but wish their assistance to go directly into the hands of those who need it most, donate the tools and supplies we deliver each year based on lists given to us by the teachers and health workers we assist. Meggi and I volunteer ourselves and Vega, since that is all we have. There are no big companies throwing money at us. In many ways we are like a glorified DHL, delivering what we receive each year, or purchase with funds donated by friends. Our mission has always been simple and straight forward. We cannot save the world but we can make one small part of it a little bit better. Indonesia is a nation with over 17,500 islands. Many of the smallest islands have fallen through society’s cracks and been neglected, or are so difficult to access it is impractical for government to support them. Those are the forgotten people we have assisted for almost two decades. Every year we sail our 130-year-old wooden boat almost 6,000 miles to make those deliveries. For the past 20 years, until COVID struck, Vega delivered roughly 20 tons of new educational and medical supplies annually to remote island communities in Eastern Indonesia and East Timor supporting 22 rural schools, 122 midwives and 18 health posts. Some of those communities are so remote that when we leave they do not see another outside face until we return. The supplies we bring help save lives and improve education for the children on these remote islands. You might enjoy spending a few minutes exploring our website to discover more about our work. What we accomplish on microscopic budgets will amaze you. https://vega1892.com AuthorShane Granger is the captain and owner of Historic Vessel Vega. 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. Returning to the seemingly topical and relevant subject of Oil Crisis Era sail freight revivals, we have one from Long Island Sound which was much more successful than the John F Leavitt. The Phoenix was a motor-sailer with a steel hull, and there isn't a huge amount of information on her, unfortunately, but she operated a ferry service in Long Island Sound under sail for a few years at least. She required a crew of only two, and started operations in 1982. She could carry about 20 tons, plus passengers. The Phoenix is also listed in this bibliography of wind propulsion projects from 1980 as under construction in Captain Greg Brazier's back yard: A 70 foot cargo schooner for trade on the Long Island Sound. From the other aggregate sources, it appears she was about 50 gross tons and also faced resistance from residents near a former working dock which had been converted to leisure use. The Phoenix operated until at least 1984, when journalism on the project seems to disappear. The records are not clear as to what happened to the ship, but she may have converted to educational use. It seems in 1983 the ship wasn't making a profit on cargo alone between Long Island and Connecticut. What ultimately happened is unclear, but in 1985 the price of fuel dropped precipitously, and likely doomed the project as it did many others. With modern concerns about both oil supply and climate change, the 3-hour sailing ferry route may be worth reconsidering for a new generation of Sail Freighter. 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. Our featured sail freighter today is the Annie Watt, an Australian trading ketch which had a century long career in the Gulf of Saint Vincent, South Australia. She was in service as a sail freighter from her launch in 1870 until she was retired into a precarious chain of owners and neglect before she was acquired by the South Australian Maritime Museum. The Annie Watt was typical of the "Mosquito Fleet" of small sail freighters like her which were prevalent as late as the 1940s, when they began a marked decline. She was 64 foot long, carrying 44 tons, and Ketch rigged. This means she had two masts fore-and-aft rigged, with the mizzen mast shorter than the main (in the front). She, and other members of the Mosquito Fleet, were used in the shallow waters of the Gulf's small ports, acting as lighters to bring cargo like wheat to the larger windjammers which would sit at anchor, and bringing general cargo around the bay, where roads and railroads were slow to be built. Like many other vessels designed for shallow water, these Tasmanian Ketches used Centerboards and Drop Keels which are also seen in Hudson River sloops and schooners. Loading at some places was done by using the tide: The ketches would sail into shallow waters over a firm but sandy bottom, drop anchor or tie up to a post, and then let the tide recede, leaving the ship on the flats. Cargo would then be brought from the dry land to the boat before the next high tide lifted the ketch free. The same method was widely used in the UK in the 19th and early 20th century, and brought to Australia by settlers, as was the rig and many other portions of the UK Shipbuilding tradition. While the Mosquito Fleet, and some other small inland trading fleets survived very late, even into living memory, in developed countries, it ended just before the Oil Crisis of the 1970s brought a large resurgence of interest in sail freight. As that crisis is mimicked by the energy transition and the energy crisis we see before us today, it is interesting to note how durable sail freight was even without these economic pressures. Read more about the Annie Watt in this 2014 article by Rick Bullers, which is the source for the images used in this blog post. 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. The current oil price situation is strikingly similar to the crisis of the 1970s, and has sparked additional interest in Sail Freight. Alongside Climate Concerns, price of fuel is the main determining factor for the economic viability of windjammers. As a result, the oil crisis inspired a number of small scale revivals of sail freight: We've already covered the John F Leavitt, Na Mata-I-Sau, and Cagidonu, which were also used in this era, but we have another to add: Berta of Ibiza. The Berta of Ibiza was a relatively small schooner built in Spain in 1945, 110 feet long and with a cargo deadweight capacity of 150 tons. She sailed a cargo of furniture from Spain to New York, which sold at a small profit, and then took a cargo for Trinidad in November of 1978. She was the first sailing cargo vessel to leave New York Harbor with a cargo since 1943. She cost her owners $40,000 and was restored over a course of years. She was a wooden ship originally built for cargo work, made of oak, olive, and pitch pine, with quarters for 16 crew. Owned by 10 shareholders, 5 of whom were among the vessel's crew, the schooner was flagged in Panama to allow for payment through shares in the voyage. Berta was chartered for Trinidad due to fire damage on the main pier which prevented larger vessels from entering at Port of Spain. She was bound for a fishing dock instead, due to her relatively shallow draft and small size. After dropping her cargo in Trinidad, there is no reference to her again in the sail freight literature, so she drops off the historical radar in much the same way as Cagidonu. She was planned to be employed in the tramping trade around the Caribbean and elsewhere, but it is unknown if she remained engaged in that trade, or for how long. Until those records are available, though, her remaining career will remain a mystery. 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. The Schooner John F Leavitt was built at the Newbert & Wallace shipyard from 1976-1979, and launched in October of '79 in Thomlinson Maine. Built and financed by Ned Ackerman, a former teacher and schooner enthusiast, she was the first engineless cargo vessel built in the US since 1938. She was an 83 ton vessel with two masts, designed primarily for coastal trade between shallow water ports in the Northeast. Ackerman was the sole investor in the schooner, and the project was propelled by the ongoing oil crises of the 1970s (which our current energy situation parallels). Ackerman was not a professional sailor, nor were most of his crew. The initial voyage in ballast from Thomlinson Maine to Quincy Massachusetts started poorly by running aground on the way out of harbor, and she did not arrive in Quincy until November. She waited there for a time to receive her first cargo, which consisted of lumber and industrial chemicals bound for Haiti. One of the experienced crew was injured loading the cargo, and did not go with the ship when she left Quincy for Haiti, leaving the entire crew as amateurs on the North Atlantic in winter. After rounding Cape Cod and sailing south of Long Island, she encountered a Nor'Easter, which quickly overwhelmed the crew. Due to poor stowage, the chemicals leaked, meaning the small motor which ran pumps and winches could not be turned on without a high risk of igniting the cargo. After several days, the crew made a mayday call and were picked up by New York Air National Guard rescue helicopters. The Leavitt sank in heavy seas, and while the crew survived, replacing the vessel was financially impossible, estimated at a cost of around $500,000 (about $2 million today). It has been widely opined that the Leavitt was capable of surviving the incident, if better crewed (see pp 40-41 here). The documentary film "Coaster" was made from the footage available of the Leavitt's construction and voyage. The film met with high ratings and was received well when it was released in 1983. However, the very public failure of the Leavitt meant that the idea of sail freight suffered a crushing defeat just before the price of oil crashed a few years later. While a good attempt was made, the shortcomings and over ambition of the project ultimately led to her demise. While the idea of Sail Freight has been revived, the Leavitt's fate is still remembered in coastal Maine and New England's windjammer community. 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. NOTE: This week's post is a guest post from the Royal Museums Greenwich in the UK about the Cutty Sark, one of the most famous of the Tea Clippers. To learn more about the Cutty Sark check out the Royal Museums Greenwich website. Cutty Sark is the sole surviving tea clipper ship in the world. It wasn’t the first or the biggest; it wasn’t the fastest or most successful; it wasn’t even its owner’s favourite. But it is the last one left. And it is because of its survival that it has become one of the most iconic ships in the world: a symbol of the romantic ‘age of sail’; of the peak of clipper ship design; of Britain’s identity as a nation of tea-drinkers; of the exploitation and wealth of the British Empire and vital importance of merchant shipping to Britain, both then and now. Cutty Sark was launched in 1869, in Dumbarton, Scotland. It was built exclusively for the China tea trade, in which a fashion had developed for consuming the first of the season’s fresh tea. Thus it paid to be fast and as one of the last tea clippers to be built, Cutty Sark had some claims to be the pinnacle of a design, already at its apex. It is an ‘extreme clipper’, having all the design characteristics of clipper ships but with extra abundance. Clippers, typically, have three main design traits: a long, narrow hull; a sharp bow at the front of the ship for cutting through the waves rather than riding atop and a huge sail area. By the 1860s, composite construction, combining wood and iron to make a ship strong but lighter and with greater cargo space, was the favoured method of construction. Cutty Sark was one of these composite ships. Clipper ships were pioneered by the Americans in the early nineteenth century. These small, fast and agile ships, able to zip along ‘at a clip’, put an emphasis upon speed rather than cargo space. The gold rushes in California and then Australia in the middle of nineteenth century meant that orders for vessels flooded the American market. Spurred by the need to obtain even a slight advantage in speed, American designers were bold and inventive, developing clippers which seemed to turn ship design on its head. Across the Atlantic, British shipping was at risk of stagnation. A series of reforms, including the end of the East India Company’s monopoly on trade in the east prepared the scene. The first British clipper ship, Stornaway, was built in Aberdeen in 1850. Tea first came to Britain in the middle of the seventeenth century. Initially hailed for its medicinal qualities, it was mainly enjoyed by the wealthy. But thanks, in part, to an extensive smuggling network, tea soon became a popular beverage for all. Little more than one hundred years after its introduction, tea was embedded in the very fabric of British life. As a tea clipper, Cutty Sark played its role in converting tea from exotic leaf to national staple. It would deliver over 4.5 million kgs of tea to Britain in just eight years. Yet it never lived up to its promise. In a somewhat poetic twist of fate, the Suez Canal was opened just five days before Cutty Sark was launched. These two feats of engineering, one which would seal the fate of the other were inextricably linked, providing a marker in time, almost a ‘before and after’ in the world of shipping. The canal provided a ‘short-cut’ out to China and back. Rather than having to sail all the way around the continent of Africa, ships could now cut through the Mediterranean and Red Sea reducing the voyage by over 3,000 miles. But the challenging navigation of the Mediterranean and relative windless conditions and expensive tolls on the canal itself meant that it was only viable for steam ships. Ships like Cutty Sark would have to stick to the long route. In 1870, the year of Cutty Sark’s maiden voyage, there were over fifty other sailing ships heading out to China and back. By 1878, there were just nine. Unable to compete, Cutty Sark was forced from the trade for which it had been built after just eight voyages, a tea clipper without any tea. After leaving the tea trade, Cutty Sark spent the next few years tramping: taking whatever cargo it could from port to port. It is not without irony that in this period the ship regularly transported coal for steamships’ coal stations. In fact, in total it transported more coal than tea in its career. While the network of coal and water stations required for the efficient passage of steamers developed around the world, the quickest and most reliable method of getting their fuel to them was by sail. When John ‘White Hat’ Willis, the ship’s owner, elected to place Cutty Sark in the Australian wool trade, it was as if Cutty Sark had found its calling. The trade, at the time, too far away for steamers to contend in, suited Cutty Sark. The route home took the ship around Cape Horn and the ‘roaring forties’, the fastest trade winds in the world, allowing the ship to make full use of its impressive spread of canvas to surge home. Under the confident leadership of Captain Richard Woodget, the ship’s longest serving and most successful master, Cutty Sark consistently broke records. Its best passage was just 73 days back to London, racking up speeds of up to 17.5 knots an hour and enjoying a new reputation as one of the fastest ships afloat. In 1895 an aging Willis, with no heirs to pass his fleet onto, sold Cutty Sark to a Portuguese firm. Renamed Ferreira, the ship became a general cargo carrier – carrying anything from coal to whale bone and fish guano - traversing the Atlantic between Portugal, the West Coast of Africa and the continent of America. In 1922, after departing London, Ferreira was damaged in a storm, had to call in at Falmouth for repairs and experienced astonishing good luck. There was probably not much more working life left in the ship, so when the local retired sea captain Wilfred Dowman, spotted Ferreira, the ship’s fortune was changed forever. In 1895, Dowman had been a 16 year old apprentice, who watched as Cutty Sark surged past his ship, leaving a lasting impression on the young man. Twenty-seven years later, Ferreira was a shadow of its former self yet Dowman’s memory had not dimmed. He knew it was a special vessel. Together with his wife, Catharine, the pair were committed philanthropists who paid well over the odds to bring the ship back to Britain, restore it and rename it Cutty Sark once more. Two years later, it reopened as a cadet training ship and visitor attraction. Following Dowman’s premature death, the ship was given to the Incorporated Thames Nautical College to serve alongside HMS Worcester as a cadet training ship in Greenhithe on the Thames. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the cadets were evacuated and Cutty Sark suffered from a terrible lack of maintenance. By the end of the war, sail-training was no longer deemed necessary and Cutty Sark’s future looked bleak. But befitting of the ship’s story, it was thanks to a passionate individual and a stroke of good luck that it is here today. HMS Implacable had fought at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 but by the late 1940s, like Cutty Sark, it was in very poor condition. Recognising the ship’s significance, a place in Greenwich was offered to it but its restoration costs were soon deemed to be too expensive in an age of austerity. Instead the ship was scuttled. Understandably, this caused an outcry which Frank Carr, then director of the National Maritime Museum, was able to utilise to save Cutty Sark. He persuaded the London County Council to give the Greenwich site to Cutty Sark; he engaged the support of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and together they formed a society which raised public funds to restore the ship and create a new dry dock for it. They were also keen that Cutty Sark adopt yet another identity: that of memorial to the Merchant Navy, the days of sail and the 44,000 from the merchant service lost in both world wars. In 1954 the ship was floated into its new dock and final resting place. Three years later, after an extensive restoration, the ship was opened to the public by HM The Queen. In total, more than 650 men from 30 different nations served on Cutty Sark during its years as a British ship. Most would do so only once. On average, just 28 men would serve per voyage but it could be as few as 19. The oldest to serve was 54 and the youngest 14. These men had eleven miles of rigging and 32,000 square metres of sail to contend with in some of the most challenging conditions imaginable. The ship has visited nearly every major port in the world and transported millions of kgs of goods around the globe. Built to last just 30 years, it now sits in Maritime Greenwich, more than 150 years old and an inspiration to a new generation of sailing cargo ships. To find out more, please visit: Cutty Sark AuthorLouise Macfarlane is the Cutty Sark Curator at Royal Museums Greenwich, UK. 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. If you've been following Sail Freighter Friday, you'll have noticed last week was about a Fiji Government Vessel by the name of Na Mata-I-Sau. If you haven't read that article yet, you might want to catch up before you read this one. She was retrofitted with sails in 1984, but sank in January of 1985. Her rig was inherited by today's featured Sail Freighter, the Cagidonu. While the Cagidonu was larger than the Na Mata-I-Sau, the rig still proved useful, and the experiment in sail assisted propulsion continued. The Cagidonu was a similar ship to her predecessor, in that she displaced 338 tons (64 more than the Na Mata-I-Sau), and was on a similar route. However, the Cagidonu was originally designed as an auxiliary sail vessel. Due to lack of crew training and an overly heavy set of original rigging which destabilized the ship, her rig had been cut off soon after her launch in 1978. In 1985, she was equipped with a new, better designed rig and the crew training issue was also addressed. Logs from Na Mata-I-Sau were transferred to the new ship, and the experiment started earlier was continued with good results. Cagidonu used the modified rig for several years, saving around 21-36% on fuel, depending on her route and sail deployment. Since her engine-use strategy was to reduce port times, she rarely if ever sailed under wind power alone, so she wasn't a real Sail Freighter if we go by strict definitions. Despite pushing for the maximum speed instead of maximum fuel savings, she still performed well and encouraged research and expanded use of sail until the collapse of oil prices in 1986. However, she played a similar role to her predecessor, and proved that wind assist as a retrofit is effective in both cost and economic benefits on small vessels. This research and development can be critical to rapidly adopting sail freight in the present day, because many of the Pacific Island States are currently suffering from extremely similar forces to the Oil Crisis Era of 50 years ago: High oil prices, and an especially vulnerable exposure to the effects of climate change and sea level rise. The use of maritime transport in a nation defined by its dispersed island nature is non-negotiable and unavoidable, meaning the use of sail will be especially important to the survival of these regions for economic and ecological reasons in the coming years and decades. 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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