Hawila was built in 1935 as a cargo freighter to carry ice. The ship would be run by a single family and sail from Sweden to Norway. In the pits, they would harvest the ice, load it onto Hawila’s belly (up to 100 tons), and then sail it back to Sweden where it would be sold to fishermen to keep their catch fresh.
When we started the Hawila Project in 2015, ice did not need to be shipped anymore for many years – today it can be locally sourced in the nearby factory or goods kept fresh in a fridge. Even if today, most of our goods can be produced locally, globalisation makes it cheaper to produce things thousands of kilometers away from where they are consumed. It is an economic solution but an ecological disaster.
How can we deal with this in our daily lives?
What does really need to be shipped, and what not?
How can we transform such an ecologically damaging supply chain?
The Sail Cargo movement and all the people involved in it are trying to answer those questions with their actions.
For those curious about sail cargo around Denmark check out #Fairtransport who today, depart from Bornholm, arriving in Copenhagen and bringing beer from our friends at the wonderful brewery of #Svaneke and a huge amount of curved, dried oak for our refit, by sail!!! #Grayhoundventures are currently laying alongside Hawila in Holbaek Harbour ahead of schedule. She will stay a couple of days before departing for Odense, then to Göteborg to load her cargo of beer which she will sail to Germany from #oceanbeer.sb Feel free to drop by and say hello!
