Sail Training - Genesis in The 1930s

Genesis in The 1930s

While many countries of the world operated sailing ships as training vessels for officers in their Merchant Marine in the 1920s and 30s, several sailing ship owners such as Carl Laeisz and Gustav Erickson determined that there was still a profit to be made from the last of the sailing ships.

Erickson purchased existing ships that required the minimum of capital investment and repaired them with parts cannibalised from other ships. Identifying the bulk cargo routes that would still offer paying freights, he manned the ships with a smattering of paid experienced officers.

The deckhands were apprentices from steamship lines and other adventurous youth who had all paid a premium to sail while being trained. These crews were considered trainees and were the first formalization of sail trainers with crew drawn from members of the public who just went for the adventure, as opposed to a career.

With manning costs netted out on Erickson's balance sheet, the ships continued to return a paper profit. However Erickson was under no illusions as to the long term profitability of his venture, which depended on ignoring the depreciation on his ships and a shrinking supply of sound hulls and rigs. The company would use their profits to diversify into steam after World War II.

While the shipping companies of Erickson and F. Laeisz gradually turned to steam, the next generation of captains were crawling through up the hawsehole and taking command of their own vessels, redefining sail training as a purely educational endeavour with trainees as the cargo.

From 1932 through 1958, Irving Johnson and his wife Electa "Exy" Johnson circumnavigated the world 7 times with amateur youth crews on board their vessels named Yankee. Over the years, their voyages were featured in books they authored, and in National Geographic magazines and TV specials like "Irving Johnson, High Seas Adventurer". Their archives are at Mystic Seaport, Connecticut.

Australian Alan Villiers purchased the old school ship George Stage from Denmark in 1934. Renaming her the Joseph Conrad, he sailed her round the world with no paying cargo and a crew of youth who had paid to be there. He also took as many non-paying youth as he could afford to fit in the budget, those he considered at risk on the streets of their inner cities and in need of what was then called "character building". These trips were the genesis of current modern sail training, using manually operated ships and the harsh discipline imposed by the sea to further personal development and taking those disadvantaged by circumstance to benefit from the experience.

By the end of World War II, the numbers of traditionally rigged sailing ships left were dwindling and public interest waned. After the German school ship Niobe had sunk in 1932, killing 69, the loss of the Pamir in 1957 and the Albatross in 1961 drew further ill will and seemed to signal the end of an era.