E-Ship 1
IMO : 9417141
Build : in progress by Cassenwerft Shipyard – Emden in Germany, nr ??
Here is another strange addition to the world’s fleet of ocean-going ships. Soon to be sailing the seas near you……
This ship, still under construction, is actually going to be a green ship, not only the here much ridiculed painted green but also environmentally friendly green. She will use wind energy to cut down fuel costs which also helps to reduce emissions. And she is looking weird doing it. See below picture for an impression.
Dunno source, via the Interweb
The actual cargo-ship part of the vessel looks actually pretty good, me thinks, kinda non-ugly. The 4 sticking up parts are giant 25 meter high, 4 meter in diameter, rotating, vertical metal sailing rotors. And they make the ship said environmentally friendly, and also weird to look at.
The principle of those 4 rotors: A spinning cylinder in a moving airstream creates a lateral force perpendicular to the direction of the airstream which, when used on ships, propels the ship to move forward. See below pic for a graphic explanation.
It’s called the Magnus effect.
There have been others:
The Buckau :
Dunno source, via http://openlearn.open.ac.uk
The Baden-Baden :
Dunno source, via http://openlearn.open.ac.uk
The Buckau was a prototype, the Baden-Baden was an actual working vessel.
And the most famous one : the Cousteau Society’s expedition ship, Alcyone :
Dunno source, via http://openlearn.open.ac.uk
More info about this whole principle can be found HERE.
Update (10-03-2010)
When we published this post in January she wasn’t finished yet but now she is (almost), painted and all…….please see below pics for the final product.
To be honest: she looks worse than I thought she would…..I retract my comments from above and officially pronounce her ugly! Damn, How could I have been so wrong!
Update II (13-08-2010)
This vessel has now been delivered to her owners and they are sending her to all kinds of ports world-wide to show off her dancing steps and her smooth ugly lines.
So you better watch out when you casually walk to your local port, this green colored / green tinted turned around coffee-table might just be there.
BTW: here is a pic of their secret testing-prototype:
Dunno source, via the Interwebs
On another note:
I also found a nice picture of this wind assisted motorvessel meeting another one but of a totally different method.
The Beluga Skysails (IMO 9399129), the one on the right: a bit less ugly and more bland looking cargovessel is actually equipped with a giant Skysail, or what ordinary people would call a kite. Please see here and here for more information.
WWW.UGLYSHIPS.COM 
It is a common mistake to refer to the Alcyone as a Magnus Effect or Rotor ship. The Alcyone used “Turbo Sails” which are fat high lift airfoils using a fan to draw in air to prevent airflow seperation. The turbo sail design does NOT spin (and does not produce any magnus effect) at all but mearly can slowly turn to adjust for wind direct and desired direction of travel. Cousteau and the developers of the ship did originally seriously consider using Magnus Effect Rotors but in the end selected the more comventional but far less powerful Turbo Sail technology.
Just as an addition, I was looking into posting on this just the other day, and uncovered just a couple more tidbits. From what I can tell on Miramar Ship Index, the Buckau and Baden-Baden are actually the same ship. However, there was another, larger rotorship with three “sails” named the Barbara, 2077 GT, built in 1926, that later traded as a conventional freighter until 1978.
More info here:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_%28Schiff%29
I thought they were spuds!
i think titanic is still the best looking ship ever built
well, ugly is the new beautiful.
Will Uglyships.com then be the new Vogue?
One has to wonder why my ancestors are so interested in this fully debunked technology.
At some point someone invented the propellor and when given equal amounts of HP the lowly prop has proven over and over to be more efficient. Although the prop can on occasion cut a sea kitten…
Maybe this ship is not beautiful in terms of optical appearance. However, if one thinks about the intelligent use of wind energy and, thus, less emissions and contaminations than standard ships, then the optical appearance seems less important to me. The whole concept is actually attractive, even in an economical way…
“The Flettner rotors used by the E ship are four fixed large tower like masts on the deck of the ship. These large structures stop the E ship from entering many ports all over the world since it is seen as a threat to the cranes that are used for loading and unloading cargoes at different ports. Hence the access to the ports of the world is limited since it is not accepted in all ports.”
So it’s not just ugly but a fail design nevertheless.