In March 1803 on the Forth and Clyde Canal, the steamboat Charlotte Dundas made history. She towed two seventy-ton barges nineteen miles upwind to Glasgow in just nine hours and twenty-five minutes, ushering in a new era of steam-powered boats. SS Savanna made the first steam-assisted transatlantic crossing in 1819 and the world of powered engines opened up the oceans.
Sail and steam coexisted in peace until the 1900s, when internal combustion engines changed the face of the industry. In 1903, the French barge Petit Pierre and the Russian river tanker Vandal were fitted with diesel engines, marking the start of the motor ship era.
In 2020, we’re progressing in the opposite direction. Sail-assisted vessels are back, but they’re nothing