Wartime windjammers The last days of a great sailing fleet
Few people today would be aware that during the Second World War (1939–45), 27 large sail-driven ships were still carrying much-needed cargoes around the world. Wartime secrecy prevented detailed records of shipping movements being published after 1939, and much of the information that author and artist Robert Carter OAM has gained comes by word of mouth from the crews of the vessels engaged in this strange anachronism.
Trade Wind, Robert Carter, 1999. Passat survived World War II and is now preserved in Lubeck, Germany. All images Robert Carter
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Signals 133 Summer 2020–21
