Cool!
“We know the wind is abundant, and we’ve known it for centuries,”
Gee really?
As a backup, the ship also has diesel electric engines.
Around 95% of the time, Le Grand says, the ship can rely entirely on sails.
On the first journey, delays meant that the ship missed the best weather window, and it needed to use fuel when it first left France. But the last 10 days of the trip were powered by the sails.
If it left “last month” on the 31st i’d say that’s about 50%, not 95.
Cool idea but humans want that crap plastic useless trinkets tomorrow, not next month. Time will tell…
I want to ride that as a passenger.
I’m putting this in the “less caustic” category of VC bro gig/hobby/hustles.
It’s niche, and that niche means it serves the upper class. They at least seem aware and forward about that.
TWOT lmao
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The headline says largest, not first?
It’s also not the largest. During the age of sail one of the largest shipping boat was almost 8 times larger than this one. They are just playing the technicality of being wind powered and not a sail ship to con startup investors out of their money. But there have been even larger sail cruise ships. It’s just the game tech bros play, reinventing the wheel but coming up with a catchy marketing name that looks like disrupting the status quo to bait capital injection.
If someone asks what is the world’s largest reptile, the answer is a saltwater croc and not an ichthyosaur. It doesn’t say largest ever.
Not the komodo?
I googled it right before commenting, I was going to put komodo but turns out the saltwater croc is way bigger.
Here’s from the wiki:
The saltwater crocodile is the largest living reptile.[5] Males can grow up to a weight of 1,000–1,500 kg (2,200–3,300 lb) and a length of 6 m (20 ft), rarely exceeding 6.3 m (21 ft).
Still by that standard, there are larger sail ships today. Just not cargo ships, but cruise ships. It’s still a manipulative statement.
It literally says cargo ship
On 5 November 1910,[2][3] on her 14th outbound voyage, carrying a mixed cargo including a number of pianos for Chile, Preussen was at 23:35 rammed by the small British cross-channel steamer Brighton 8 nautical miles (15 km) south of Newhaven.[4] Contrary to regulations, Brighton had tried to cross her bows, underestimating her high speed of 16 knots (30 km/h). Preussen was seriously damaged and lost much of her forward rigging (bowsprit, fore topgallant mast), making it impossible to steer the ship to safety.
Brighton returned to Newhaven to summon aid and the tug Alert was sent to assist Preussen. A November gale thwarted attempts to sail or tug her to safety in Dover Harbour. It was intended to anchor her off Dover, but both anchor chains broke, and Preussen was driven onto rocks at Crab Bay, where she sank as a result of the damage inflicted on her. While crew, cargo and some equipment could be saved from Preussen, with the keel broken she was rendered unsalvageable. She sits in 6 metres (3.3 fathoms) of water at 51°8.02′N 1°22.17′E. The Master of Brighton was found to be responsible for the accident and lost his licence as a result. A few ribs of Preussen can be seen off Crab Bay at low spring tides.
Wow, that captain messed up big time.
For some reason I also read “first” the first time I looked at the title
it was the first time in nearly a century that a large cargo ship crossed the Atlantic powered almost entirely by the wind.
Not that far off, really
Good thing we have highly trained historians on Lemmy to tell us these things.
Oh wow who would’ve thought?
