“The BROWN FLEET”, load sailing ships

Today there are about 900 ships of this kind in the Netherlands.

We had the opportunity in Harlingen to discover one of the oldest and most traditional fleets of Holland. The so-called “Brown fleet” are clippers, load boats of 28 meters long and 6 meters wide, which were built between 1890 and 1920 with steel hull and rigging of wood that were used to transport goods such as coal and building materials throughout the Netherlands and neighboring countries.

Its two towering mastils that reach 26 meters high from the water line, bore 420 square meters of sail area, which allowed him to move, for its time, fairly quickly.

Well adapted to their environment, once they caught the low tide, they rested on the bottom and waited for the tide to come up again to continue their journey.

Many of them are used to carry tourists and others for attempting to carry out social reintegration projects for young people with problems and many are used as housing for families who prefer to keep these boats as their own home rather than live in the city center.