In the middle 19th Century softwood clipper ships raced with light cargoes from Australia and China to Europe, riding high, running dry, sailed by full crews of crack sailors, by masters who drove their ships under full sail all the way.∙ They carried tea and gold in a hurry. Last of the cargoes now carried in sail are Chilean nitrates and Australian wheat and wool. There is no hurry about getting cheap wheat from Australia to Britain. Sailing ships give free warehousing. On the long slow way the price of wheat may go up. Every winter since the War a fleet of Finnish, Swedish and German windjammers has set out for Britain from Australia, scupper-deep with Australian wheat. They call it the "grain race."
Last January Australians watched the first two of the old steel-hulled plugs sail off on the 15th race, reviving ghosts of the oldtime crack clippers, booming under sails like cumulus cloud banks. Until late April the others followed: 16 Finnish, two German, one Swedish, carrying a total of 900,000 bags of wheat. Some were so old that the sailors could not chip the hull for fear the chipping hammers would go clean through the plates. Built from 16 to 45 years ago, sailed on a capital representing scrap value, the ships were uninsured.† Their masters knew they could not drive them for fear of losing one of their two suits of old sails, losing all the voyage's small margin of profit. As compared to a clipper ship's one able seaman for every 100 register tons, they had one to every 1,000 register tons. Most of the crews are 17-year-old boys who want to serve in square-rigged sail, required by many governments to qualify for officers' papers in the merchant service. They are paid from $5 to $10 a month, the masters about $50 a month. Some of the apprentices pay for the privilege of signing up. They know that about one in 20 of them is lost over the side. Some ships have crews of 13, most less than 20, none more than 40.
None of this year's grain "racers" had a radio. Ten of them belonged to Captain Gustaf Erikson, a retired master mariner of Mariehamn, Finland. Though every ship had a 100 A-1 rating at Lloyd's, one or more might vanish, capsize or stagger into port without masts. Running far out of the steamer routes, few planned to show lights at night. Most would take four months, some five, a few would crowd to get in under three months.