The Apollonia
Metadata
- The Apollonia
- July 30, 2021
- Category
- Language English
- Transcript/Script ((PKG)) SCHOONER APOLLONIA DELIVERS SAIL FREIGHT ((TRT: 10:00)) ((Topic Banner: Sustainability in Simplicity)) ((Reporter/Camera: Aaron Fedor)) ((Producer: Kathleen Mclaughlin)) ((Editor: Kyle Dubiel)) ((Map: Hudson River, New York City - New York)) ((Main character: 1 male)) ((Sub characters: 1 female; 7 male)) ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) Hi, I'm Sam Merrett. I'm Captain and Team Leader of the Schooner Apollonia which is the wonderful ship we're all aboard right now. The Apollonia is a schooner, which is just a fancy way of saying it's a sailboat which has more than one mast and we sail freight and cargo throughout the Hudson Valley from our home port, right back here in Hudson, New York, all the way down to New York City. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) All right. Is everybody ready on their lifts? ((Speaker 1)) Yup. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) All right. Go ahead and pull away both lifts. Let's go. All aboard. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) We’re using the wind to transport things sustainably, but with the purpose of weaving together all of these amazing producers throughout the Hudson Valley. So, we're connecting people who make maple syrup right here, people who make hot sauce right here with consumers down in New York City and then we're even flipping things around. When we turn around, we're sailing up cargoes like coffee and things like that, that you can't really grow around here. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) Our primary cargoes on the Apollonia are brewers malt, oak logs for mushroom cultivation, bulk flour that was grown and milled right here in the Hudson Valley and other grains. And those are what we consider the like bulk cargoes or the large cargoes. We also have individual cargoes. We work with small-scale producers delivering everything from honey to maple syrup to hot sauce. The Apollonia is an old boat. She actually turned 75 this year. She's from 1946. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) That's the Hudson Athens Lighthouse. That's from 1874 and it's a fascinating little spot. But yeah, that is up until the 1940s, there was actually a family that lived there that had to keep a lamp oil fire burning as the only means of navigation there. Now, the coast guard runs it with a little solar panel and it’s kind of a much simpler ordeal. Matt, let's see if we can get a little speed up and then we'll tack. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) The Hudson River's an amazing body of water. It presents all of the challenges of sailing anywhere that I've ever sailed. In some ways it's more challenging because it tends to be quite skinny. There's lots of commercial traffic. There's lots of shallow water, things like that. The wind is always changing and always fighting with you, but what's amazing about the Hudson River is the people that it connects. I think that's what really makes it work for me, is that we're constantly sailing past towns and people and we're interacting with them, right? We see our jobs very much as delivering cargo and also connecting people, connecting whether that's a producer to a consumer or whether that's just someone who lives in Hudson with the whereabouts of something cool that just happened in Kingston. You know, like that’s what ships were historically as they were messengers, not only of cargo and freight, but also of news and weather and you'd send something to a friend at another town. And so, I think as we're trying to encourage folks to think about how the Hudson River is a way to move things, understanding the connection is really important. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Brad Vogel, Partnerships and Logistics)) This is definitely a new thing at the same time because it just started within the last year to make these runs from Hudson, New York, down the Hudson River, to here in Brooklyn, New York, ((Photo Courtesy: Grain de Sail)) and really connecting a lot of different towns and communities along the way and showing people that there's a way forward on sustainable freights and cargo. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) Sail freight has been something people have done for thousands of years,150, 200 years ago in the Hudson Valley most of what was moved was moved by sloops and schooners like this on the Hudson River. And of course, today, there's this crisis we're having with the climate and we're looking for some solutions and I feel inspired by the past and feel like this is still a realistic solution. So, the concept is to try it out and see how it goes. We are looking to the past, but not in some living history kind of museum way, just in what were practical solutions like horses, total renewable energy. The wind obviously still exists. The Hudson River, still a resource that's here. Once it was the super highway of the region. Maybe it has a utility as such again. ((Jamie Pierce, Customer)) Today, I came down to pick up some honey and some cider that I ordered on the Apollonia. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) So, Lou right here, is riding our.....this is our standard distribution rig right here and you can just take off whenever you want. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) It is a Tern e-bike equipped with a Carla trailer. In the trailer is 400 pounds of malt from upstate farms and Lou is about to ride it for distribution. In addition to that, what we've got today is some friends came out with a team of horses. I mean, this is kind of, we've got in some ways reappropriation of 18th century technology to be the green version of the future and horses are obviously a renewable solution. ((NATS)) ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) The next load is going to Van Brunt, ((Robert Tronsky, Owner, Triple T Farm)) Okay. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) which is the closest delivery. So, that should be nice. Nice and refreshing load after last time. ((Robert Tronsky, Owner, Triple T Farm)) Yeah. Last one was a boatload. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) Yeah, totally. This one's right around the corner and it's the rye, which is the unmarked bags. Same stuff we got you. So, yeah, and he's using that to make a white rye whiskey. ((Robert Tronsky, Owner, Triple T Farm)) Oh. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) So, it should be good hopefully. ((Robert Tronsky, Owner, Triple T Farm)) Yeah. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) Actually, we will be ready by this fall. So, when we do this again in the fall, ((Robert Tronsky, Owner, Triple T Farm)) Yup. We'll go back out. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) you can taste some of the products of our labor. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) And on the way up, we're going to bring whiskey from Van Brunt Whiskey, and we're going to bring a bunch of mead from Enlightenment Wines. We're also rendezvousing with a French ship ((Photo Courtesy: Grain de Sail)) that sailed wine and chocolate over across the Atlantic Ocean on Monday. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) So, we're going to have some wine and chocolate in our northbound cargo. And there's probably something else I'm forgetting, but that’s, you know, it's been a long trip, been underway for about a week now. So, yeah, we're just trying to get the boat unloaded and things being squared away. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Speaker 2)) Hoist up the John B’s sails. See how the main sail sets. ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) You have to understand that the people we work with are very passionate about what they're making and very thoughtful about that. And they've thought about the taste. They've thought about the impact. They've thought about the producers. The idea of supporting local farms to a lot of these people is common practice, right? And the idea of organic produce and fair trade and how the labor is treated. And they're really trying to make the best product and that's not just flavor. That's also story and impact. And then I think, by and large, they all take the trucking part for granted, right? You build it. You need to get it to someone. You make it. You need to get it to someone. What do you do? You throw it on a truck that, sort of, is how our distribution network is set up. And so, when we approach them with the idea that there was an alternative, I think at first, they, sort of, didn't really believe us and then we've been, sort of, demonstrating that that's the case and building a network of people who have faith in us. ((Tanya van Renesse, Crew Member)) There's a lot of people who try and do something like this. I mean, when he got this boat, it was just bare bones. There wasn't no mast, no booms and in just a couple of years, he put it all together. If it wasn't for his just like amazing like drive and energy, it would never ever been able to take place. ((MUSIC/NATS)) ((Speaker 6)) I feel so broken up, I want to go home. ((MUSIC)) ((Sam Merrett, captain and team leader, Schooner Apollonia)) For us, part of this is that sailing and many of the, sort of, traditional crafts, you can't preserve them in books. I mean, you can write amazing stories about sailing. Obviously, you could write down the goods. But the truth is, if you don't do it, you'll never really know how to do it, right? There's an experiential side to it. And so, to some degree, engaging with people, getting them on boats, getting crew sailing again, keeping this wisdom alive is the only way it's going to persist, right? ((Matthew Soltesz, Crew member)) When people hear we're delivering by sail, they're first confused and just, "No way." Like, "No, really. No fossil fuels?" "Yeah, none." And then, "Interesting." And then their second question is, "Well, do the numbers add up?" I was like, "Well, that's the point. That's what we're working on." And I think when we explain what we're doing, I think people overwhelmingly just understand that, you know, the system that we have working now just does what's not working. The system that's in place right now is not working and it's not sustainable. And it's just the power structure, trade structure, everything. It's not sustainable. It's good for now. It's good for maybe 10 years, but it's not going to be good in 50 years and sure as hell not good for our grandchildren. So, there's got to be a way to change things. And this is a small attempt. It's a test case, but it gets the conversation started. So, that's the point. ((MUSIC/NATS))
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Program Name VOA Connect
- Network VOA
- Expiration Date August 29, 2021 16:06 EDT
- Embargo Date September 17, 2021 13:40 EDT
- Byline Aaron Fedor, Kathleen McLaughlin
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English