Onboard the world’s largest sailing cargo ship: is this the future of travel and transport?
The Neoliner Origin set off on its inaugural two-week voyage from France to the US with the aim of revolutionising the notoriously dirty shipping industryIt is 8pm on a Saturday evening and eight of us are sitting at a table onboard a ship, holding on to our plates of spaghetti carbonara as our chairs slide back and forth. Michel Péry, the dinner’s host, downplays the weather as a “tempête de journalistes” – something sailors would not categorise as a storm, but which drama-seeking journalists might refer to as such to entertain their readers.But after a white-knuckle night in our cabins with winds reaching 74mph or force 12 – officially a hurricane – Péry has to admit it was not just a “journalists’ storm”, but the real deal. Continue reading...
It is 8pm on a Saturday evening and eight of us are sitting at a table onboard a ship, holding on to our plates of spaghetti carbonara as our chairs slide back and forth. Michel Péry, the dinner’s host, downplays the weather as a “tempête de journalistes” – something sailors would not categorise as a storm, but which drama-seeking journalists might refer to as such to entertain their readers.But after a white-knuckle night in our cabins with winds reaching 74mph or force 12 – officially a hurricane – Péry has to admit it was not just a “journalists’ storm”, but the real deal.Part way through the journey the front sail had to be repaired. Photograph: Arthur Jacobs/NeolineI am onboard the Neoliner Origin, the world’s largest sailing cargo ship, for its two-week inaugural voyage from the west coast of France to Baltimore, Maryland, in the US. And it is not all plain sailing.By operating at a reduced speed, and chasing the wind, the Neoliner Origin’s goal is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% compared with an equivalent diesel-powered cargo ship – and in the process, chart a course to decarbonise the notoriously dirty shipping industry.It is being powered primarily by the two semi-rigid sails made from carbon and fibreglass and a backup diesel-electric engine.Onboard are eight passengers, more than a dozen crew and 1,204 tonnes of cargo, including 500,000 bottles of Hennessy cognac, container-loads of refrigerated French brioche, a dozen forklifts and eight hybrid Renault cars.I accepted the invitation to sail on the Neoliner Origin because, as an environmental writer, its first transatlantic journey happened to align with my own goal: to travel from my home in Berlin to visit my family in Canada without flying, in a bid to reduce my carbon footprint.Roughly 80% of goods traded worldwide are transported by ship, and the industry accounts for about 3% of global carbon emissions. If shipping were a country, it would be the world’s sixth-largest emitter. Much of the shipping industry also uses one of the dirtiest of all fossil fuels: called heavy fuel oil, or bunker fuel, it is the tar-like sludge found at the bottom of a barrel of refined oil.To do something real for the planet – it’s the dream of my lifeWind-powered cargo ships could even offer an alternative to flying, one of the most carbon-intensive activities. Though only 10% of the global population flies, aviation accounts for 2.5% of global emissions.“I’ve been dreaming about being captain on this ship for 15 years,” says one of the Neoliner Origin’s captains, Antonin Petit, who grew up sailing off Brittany with his family, collecting rubbish from the sea as they went along the French coast.Two semi-rigid sails made of carbon and fibreglass power the Neoliner Origin, which also has a backup diesel engine“To do something real for the planet by not burning any fuel oil into the atmosphere to carry goods by sea – it’s the dream of my life,” he says.Onboard, the days soon find their own rhythm: breakfast, lunch and dinner with the other passengers and crew in the dining room, meals often inspired by French cuisine, and always followed by a cheese plate. We entertain ourselves with card games in the passengers’ lounge and whale-watching from the top deck, where we spot fin whales and dolphins, as well as seabirds of all shapes and sizes.We are invited up to the bridge, where we learn that the engine is only being used at 20% to 50% of its capacity, which means the sails are doing their job and reducing fuel consumption.But three days into the journey, things take a turn. The top panel of one of the carbon sails cracks and then shatters, rendering it unusable – suspected to be due to a flaw in the design and dimensions of the panel.Dolphins were seen on the voyage, as well as fin whales. Photograph: Arthur Jacobs/NeolineThe sail cannot be repaired until we arrive in the tiny archipelago of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon off Canada’s coast a week later, when a team of five technicians fly in from France and painstakingly reconstruct the sail in a makeshift workshop in the cargo hold over the next five days.The front sail is still usable, so onward and westward we go. But this single sail throws the ambitious fuel and emissions reductions goals for the journey into disarray. The crew are forced to rely on the 4,000kW engine for the next 12 days of the crossing until Baltimore.It is also bad timing. We have navigated towards a low-pressure system, hoping to use the powerful winds to propel us. But the winds do not behave as the weather-forecasting software has modelled – a gap between prediction and reality that crew members say is becoming more common thanks to the effects of climate breakdown.Antonin Petit, one of Neoliner Origin’s captains. Photograph: Arthur Jacobs/NeolineInstead, the depression stops right on top of the ship and stays there for a day and a half, resulting in the slip-sliding dinner and leaving me relieved I remembered to pack sea sickness tablets.The new ship is still in its pilot phase, fresh from the shipyard, the crew reminds us, so hiccups are to be expected. For now, adventure is part of the cost of the journey.So is this really the future of transport and travel?According to research by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), 90% of shipping decarbonisation will require a switch from dirty bunker oil to greener fuels – renewable hydrogen, ideally – with the other 10% including efficiency improvements such as retrofitting sails to ships for wind-assisted propulsion.Bryan Comer, marine programme director with the ICCT, says: “There is an opportunity for wind-assisted propulsion to reduce fuel consumption and costs, which is useful because renewable hydrogen will be three to four times more expensive than fossil fuels.”For passenger ships, however, there is an additional cost – that of a ticket: a two-week crossing from Saint-Nazaire to Baltimore on Neoline costs €3,200 (£2,800).For cargo ships, using wind is not as simple as adding two sails, however. A cargo ship with sails must either be built from scratch – the Neoliner Origin cost €60m to build – or undergo an expensive retrofit.Neoliner Origin prepares to depart on its maiden voyage from Saint-Nazaire in Brittany. Photograph: A Jacobs/NeolineThere is also the question of size: the 136-metre-long roll-on, roll-off Neoliner Origin is the largest of a new wave of sailing cargo ships, but small compared with the 400-metre Suez canal-blocking behemoths used in international shipping.Wind propulsion can have a greater impact for smaller ships, but it would “require more of those ships to move the same amount of cargo,” says Comer.“So that doesn’t seem like a realistic pathway for international shipping, where things are just getting bigger and bigger.”Michaela onboard Neoliner Origin. Photograph: Arthur Jacobs/NeolineDespite the broken sail and low-pressure system, we arrive at the port of Baltimore only a day later than planned. Though Neoline will not publish its first set of data on its fuel consumption for another six months, estimates from the captain suggest that the ship reduced its fuel consumption by nearly half of what a conventional cargo ship would use, relying on just one sail and the engine. Neoliner Origin has sold more than 100 passenger tickets for further journeys over the next few months.After two weeks of adventure, I am happy to be reunited with terra firma. And the final accounting for my journey from Berlin to Ottawa without flying wound up as 22 days travelling over 9,500km (5,900 miles), through nine cities, with 30 hours spent on trains and 15 days on one very low-carbon and exciting cargo-ship crossing of the ocean.It was the end of my journey, but Petit sees the Neoliner Origin’s first crossing as not just the beginning of the ship’s life, but the culmination of decades of work. “I’m so proud to finally be here,” he says.To align his personal convictions with his professional life was worth waiting for, he says. “It’s a reconciliation of two parts of my life that were previously separate. Neoline allows me that – and we’ll try to strengthen that and make it last.”
