Our Journal

Our Journal has moved to blogger.

You can read the full articles of our first two posts on this page. 

For future Journal posts, please enjoy the stories through the blogger link below.

Sail to Steam and Back Again

This journal entry was originally written for EcoClipper in 2022

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For many, the tea races of the mid 19th century were the pinnacle of the sailing ship. It was a time when  famous Clippers and Windjammers constituted the ‘thoroughbreds of the sea’. However, expanding industrialization around the world saw enormous projects such as the building of the Suez Canal, which opened in 1869, rise alongside the fitting of steam engines to sea-going vessels. Such changes began to curtail the thousand-year age of sail.

After a great deal of trial and error during the eighteenth century, the first engine driven vessel in Europe was the Charlotte Dundas which began trials in 1802. Paddles circled slowly, turn after turn, and the ship moved along the Forth and Clyde Canal near Glasgow. 

Paddle boats began to grow in size, along with the paddles themselves. Yet they were flawed when it came to travel beyond canals, broad rivers (the turbulence caused by the paddles eroded the banks on narrow rivers) and quiet shorelines. Most paddle ships were simply unable to cope with choppy waves. They were liable to either become overwhelmed and waterlogged or, as the boat crested a wave and the paddles turned without the resistance of the water, the engines were damaged.

Nevertheless, the American paddle ship Savannah managed to cross the Atlantic in 1819. For safety reasons, the ship was fully rigged. The wind was still the most consistent and secure way to guarantee forward momentum.

In 1833, Royal William crossed from America, using their sails only during necessary boiler maintenance which would otherwise have left the ship dead in the water.  

In l838, two British sidewheel paddle ships, Great Western and Sirius, raced each other to New York and were able to complete the journey using steam power alone. These too, had full rigs ready to be set, should the ships get into difficulties.

By 1840, paddles had been mostly replaced by screw propellers and these engine driven ships were becoming more common on the world’s oceans. Yet a great many ships continued to run with masts and sails, stowed but ready in case of emergencies, until well into the twentieth century.

Engines allowed for consistent and steady movement through the water. They were able to push against the wind without issue but as we now know, the emissions pumped from the chimneys of these ships did more than simply ignore the flow of nature. They slowly but surely began to destroy it.

Diesel replaced coal and steam and the modern engines that burn heavy diesel fuel are responsible for an enormous amount of dangerous emissions. While often considered efficient for the amount of cargo shipped, a large seagoing container ship is capable of producing the same amount of pollution as 50 million cars. 

The shipping industry is dangerously unregulated in the area of environmental damage.

There are alternatives. Some companies are exploring huge kites that can reduce fuel consumption. Others are looking to fit sails to existing ships. It all comes back, again and again, to the free and limitless wind.

As these plans expand, we will soon come full circle, only this time, many will believe that sailing vessels require an engine for their safety.

Nevertheless, existing ships like Tres Hombres, Blue Mermaid and the planned EcoClipper500 series show that a continuation of pre-industrial revolution sail technology remains a consistent and reliable method of movement. With the addition of modern technology for weather tracking, it could be argued that this proven technique for travel is safer now than it ever was, and has no need of engine power. Cargo and travel might become slower, but will once more be in harmony with the environment. 

As life races past, to slow down is to return to the pace of nature, and a chance for greater, peaceful wellbeing. 

Where Savannah was initially built to be a sailing ship and converted to an auxiliary steamship in an effort to gain the prestige of being the first steam powered vessel across the Atlantic, today we see vessels like Tres Hombres having their engine removed and converted to a full sailing ship in an effort to reduce the huge natural damage of the shipping industry.

Where once the world moved from sail to steam, it is time to return.

Nostalgia and the sea

This journal entry was originally written for EcoClipper in 2021.

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Some think of nostalgia as a yearning for the past, yet we often take great comfort in reliving a story to simply enjoy a sense of peace in knowing how that story will end. 

The past can “feel complete, stable, coherent, safe… so very unlike the present”.  

Yet, nostalgia for the sea can be experienced very differently. The sounds, sights and smells can remain unchanged throughout our lives. Landscapes may alter but the seascape endures.  

For those who dream of the sea, returning to it can be a step directly into nostalgia. The wind and the waves roll onward without pause.

THE SEA! the sea! the open sea! 

This is the opening to Barry Cornwall’s poem ‘The Sea’. Poets and storytellers are fascinated by the sea, often describing a sea that sings, a sea that sparkles, a sea that lurks deep in the imagination. 

Poems, stories and songs have been written about the sea, to the sea or for the sea for as long as people have stood on the shore or ventured into the open water. 

I wonder what early humans might have thought when they first stood before the sea? The seemingly boundless water that extended into the sky; little spikes of land barely visible but just close enough for the most adventurous to try and reach. 

The waves are part of a shared history. When you stand on the beach you see a scene that has not changed for thousands of years, a view that looks back through time. 

Ever since we learned how, humans have been using the sustainable and inexhaustible wind to move ourselves and cargo across the sea. Each generation improving on the last, culminating in the sleek Clippers and Windjammers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Names like Cutty Sark in the UK or Noach in The Netherlands still loom large in our collective imagination. 

Nostalgia for the sea is so much more than a longing for the past, it is a part of the present and links intricately to the future.

A nostalgic future.

At the culmination of sail, and using only wind power, voyages were made faster year on year. By the mid-late 19th century tea was being raced from ports in China to Britain in less than 100 days. 

Famous ships competed to move their cargo in record breaking time. Premiums were placed on the first shipment to reach the docks; rewards were given to the crew and the progress of each ship was followed closely in the shipping intelligence column of major newspapers.  

All that changed with the arrival of steam. 

Journey time might have improved but today the shipping industry is responsible for approximately 2-3% of all man-made fossil fuel emissions.  

It is to the nostalgic days of the age of sail shipping that sail cargo companies are now looking to as an inspiration for the future.

History is a resource. Shipbuilders and sailors have used the collected knowledge of their forebears to learn and improve ever since the first canoe was scrapped out of a fallen log. Despite 200 years of steam and motor vessels, the skill of sailing with the wind remains with us. 

With environmental awareness rising worldwide, and sustainability now an established watchword for both individuals and businesses, companies of sailors are re-envisioning the days of sail for the future.  

Modern weather tracking and navigation techniques allow for greater efficiency in the journeys and accuracy in their timings. Ethical producers will link to consumers, using a sustainable transport system.  

With the return of sail and with this growing demand, the nostalgic past will live once again when magnificent sail cargo vessels return to harbours across the world on a regular basis. 

References: 

Barry Cornwall (1787-1874). The Sea 

Howard, S.A. (2012) Nostalgia. Analysis Vol 72 (4) p641-650 

Niemeyer, K. (2014) Media and nostalgia. Yearning for the past, present and future. Palgrave Macmillan, London