Unique Tradition
Golden Era
Grain Races
Men at Sea
New Dawn
Present Day

Front Page

A Unique Tradition

In the year 1869 Finland's seafaring fleet counted 334 windjammers. At the turn of the century there were up to 10 000 Finnish seamen, and the number increased to 15 000 by 1924. In 1875 almost half of all the country's sailing ships were built and owned by peasants, but the tonnage of these 1 000 ships was small.

It was common for the ships to be jointly owned: normally 2-3 families together would own one ship. Sometimes one could buy also smaller shares of the ship, so that the community would own one another's ships - or at least shares in them.

After the mid 19th century sailing ships had no real significance anywhere else in the world. Finnish ships that were cheaply built and sailing with low maintenance costs had demand for decades still.

In Finland the era of the windjammers lasted longer than elsewhere: here sailing ships were used to transport building materials from e.g. Åland to the mainland until the mid 1970's. Though at the end the ships had no sails anymore but had been converted to motor ships.

<<2/2 Previous Page