Chili-ship The last sailing cargo-ships. After the famous wool and tea-clippers, who were build especially for their speed, in the second part of the 19th century, ship-owners needed ships who were not only build for speed but also could stow away a considerable load. The new generation steel windjammers builded at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, were the last sailing cargo-ships travelling all over the world in competition with steamships. In the years between the two worldwars, steamships, not depending of the wind, toke over, the best freight market, step-by-step. Sailing-ship owners lay-up or sold, if possible, their ships as training-, cruise- restaurant or museumship. The Fin Gustaf Erikson was one of the last sailing-ship owners in the commercial navigation, but how ? Till the early fifties, his ships transported the most dirty cargo: nitre and guano from Chili (Valparaiso and Iquique) to Europe, a trip of about eight months, rounding Cape Horn in every saison (the Panama-channel was to expensive). Hardly maintenance of the ships and a small and bad payed crew, mostly sailors elder than fifity, who did'nt felt at home on steamships. Image size: 260 x 360 mm