The Way

I just finished reading The Way of a Ship, Alan Villiers. Originally published in 1953 the book chronicles the peak of the age of sail, the big square rigged "Cape horners", and then their demise as steam powered ships took over. Also in the mix is a fair dose of technical details of how these ships are operated, how the economics worked, the men (and a couple of woman) who sailed them. Villiers had a long career as a sailor, owner, author, and photographer starting during WW1 when he went to sea in Australia.

Villiers bought part ownership of the Parma (model pictured) in 1931, at that time the largest sailing ship in the world. Despite the bad economy at the time, Parma made money carrying wheat from Australia to Europe. This was one of the last runs where sail competed successfully with steam, the other being the nitrate trade between Chile and Europe. The grain trade evolved into a kind of race with the first ship of the season that arrived in England commanding a higher price for her cargo. This trade was in some ways similar to the tea trade of the 1860's where the first ship from China carrying the seasons tea harvest was well rewarded.

One theme that runs through the book is the changing of an era. Villiers faces head on the fact that steamships were driving his beloved ships off the ocean, but that doesn't stop him from feeling they will be missed and the world a lesser place without them. The sailors lived a healthy life of fresh air and exercise, not confined to the stinking 'tween decks of a coal burning monster. The sailing captains, or more properly masters, were a unique breed of technician, businessman and strict disciplinarian, not like the slothful steamship captain whose main duty involved dining with the passengers. Even today, there are some full rigged training ships that operate on the presumption that even though sailors will never need to brace a yard in their actual career they will be better off because they've done it.

I guess technological changes always bring out this fondness for the past and the belief that people were better off back then. Witness the computer veteran who will regale you with stories of how "real men" punched cards and hung tapes, not like the current crop of sissies who don't understand that java is something you drink.

The reality is that the fresh air the sailors enjoyed could be a freezing gale around Cape Horn and they did occasionally fall off the topgallant yard into the boiling ocean and were never seen again. But they were real men, not the babies who today touch a button to navigate their container ship through the warm waters of the Panama canal.