![]() These became known as capesize bulk carriers because, like the windjammers, they sailed south of Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope. Bigger and bigger bulk carriers where built which no longer fit through the canals. Then around the 1970s, something changed. Any commercial advantage that a sailing ship may have had was gone. As soon ships could take the short cut through the canals there was no longer a need to round the treacherous and windy capes. It is often said that the two major canals, the Suez and Panama, killed the windships. They were beautiful brutes of ships which sailed with often less than half the number of sailors employed on the old clippers, despite being much bigger ships themselves. Most of the yards and masts were also steel, and their rigging was steel cable, rather than hemp. The windjammers were much larger ships, often two to three times larger than the typical clipper ship. The graceful clippers were built of wood with hemp rigging. The windjammers of our recent past were dramatically different from the famous clipper ships of the mid-19th century. In their day, the windjammers were among the largest bulk carriers sailing the oceans. They carried the lower value bulk cargoes – wool, coal, iron, and nitrates. The reason that the windjammers held on so long was because they sailed where the steamers couldn’t or wouldn’t go – on the long windy passages through the Southern Ocean, south of the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. A few are still even out sailing the world’s oceans. More than a dozen of these mighty ships still exist as museums, restaurants or tourist venues. The last commercial voyage by a merchant windjammer was in 1957. At the turn of the 20th century there were still close to 5,000 of these grand sailing ships hanging on against competition from the steamers. Windjammers began to disappear less than a hundred years ago. But before we look at the windjammers of the future, we should take a quick look at the windjammers of the not so distant past. ![]() The wind is not, and never has been, free but it may be attractive once again when the day comes that fossil fuels become significantly more expensive, as assuredly one day they must. The ageless winds still blow, girdling the globe in great bands of usable and ready energy. Is there a future for commercial sailing ships? I wouldn’t rule it out. I’ve looked back at the sailing ships of the recent past and imagined the future windjammers that may yet be. I have been daydreaming recently of windjammers, the last of the great merchant sailing ships. Passat, retired from commercial trade in 1957
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |