Can sail cargo help move us towards a carbon free future?

We want to find out.

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Carbon Free Shipping

Coastal communities in the Puget Sound were once more connected as vessels crisscrossed the Salish Sea bringing trade, passengers and news. This has largely disappeared. For centuries the Lummi, Samish and other coastal tribes used canoes to connect with communities around the region.  In the late 1800s, large clipper ships brought goods across the Pacific to Seattle and Victoria while smaller schooners shipped timber and other supplies along the coast from Washington to Seattle. In the 1900s the Mosquito fleet connected emerging communities of colonizing settlers and turned coastal towns into rich agricultural centers.

The Glory of the Seas will reinvigorate these links through both the act of sailing and trade. Given the resurgence in farming and local cottage industries there is increasingly a need for trade routes between these towns. 

In order to address climate change carbon free sail transport has become an increasingly viable option for shipping cargo. The global shipping sector emitted just over a billion tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2018, equivalent to around 3% of global emissions.  A major study found shipping emissions rose by 10% between 2012 and 2018, and projected that they could rise up to 50% more by 2050 as more goods are shipped around the world. We are years away from sail driven container ships, but a global movement is proving the viability by repurposing traditional tall ships.

If you are a creator, producer, or business in the San Juan Islands, Port Townsend or Seattle and interested in shipping goods or selling sail shipped products, let’s work together!

Please write us with your ideas.

 

The Glory of the Seas is planning to commence shipping as soon as the vessel is refitted. We are planning for a pilot season to bring attention to the project, determine the risks and opportunities, and provide data for a long term financially sustainable business model. Working with small business, providers and makers we will bring locally made goods and produce between these locations along with a small number of paying passengers. 

The Glory of the Seas can carry up to 30 tons in its hold, and 10 tons on deck. The vessel is designed as a smaller replica of the timber trading coasting schooners that used to travel between Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California. It’s an ideal size for the smaller ports and waterways of the Salish Sea, but large enough to take plenty of cargo and crew. In addition to cargo we will take paying guest crew interested in slow travel and learning sailing skills in the beautiful waters of the Salish Sea. Our sail cargo initiative will: 

1) Provide a living model to preserve historical ways of work. 

2) Facilitate connections between coastal communities.

3) Inspire us to reduce carbon in shipping while illuminating the costs of our current transport system, 

4) Connect small producers with larger markets enabling regions like the San Juan Islands to reduce their dependence on tourism economy, 

5) Highlight the need to protect our Salish sea ecosystem.

Possible Cargo Routes:  

  • Up the inside passage retracing the journey of the timber trading schooners it was modeled on.

  • A weekly cargo runs serving the San Juan Islands, Port Townsend, and Seattle from May until September. Each trip will take six guest crew and serve as an opportunity for sail training for youth volunteers.

  • In addition to carrying goods, we are researching the possibility of holding events in each port to serve farm and sea to table meals on deck, conduct boat tours and workshops and hold pop-up dockside markets.

 

We are inspired by many other sail cargo efforts around the world. Please learn more from the links below: 

 

Sail Cargo:

https://fairtransport.eu/tres-hombres/

https://www.sailcargo.org/

https://www.newdawntraders.com/

https://timbercoast.com/en/

https://windshiptechnology.com/solutions/

https://www.schoonerapollonia.com/