The E-Ship 1

I spent the morning around the harbour in Peterhead and was rewarded by seeing one of the most interesting ships that I have ever come across.

The E-Ship 1 is a cargo ship that made its first voyage with cargo in August 2010. She is owned by the world's third-largest wind turbine manufacturer, Germany's Enercon GmbH, and is used to transport wind turbine components. You can see her loaded cargo of turbine blades in the "extra " photograph. Later, she set sail for Larne in Northern Ireland.

The E-Ship 1 is a Flettner ship: with four large rotorsails, resembling four large cylinders mounted on the ship's deck. They are 27 meters tall and 4 meters in diameter. The sails, or Flettner rotors, aid the ship's propulsion by means of the Magnus effect – the perpendicular force that is exerted on a spinning body moving through a fluid stream. This video explains how the rotors work.