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Rather than sticking to set schedules, voyages could be planned along routes with the most favourable winds, much as they used to be in the age of sail.
航行可以沿着最有利的风向进行规划，就像过去的航海时代一样，而不是遵守既定的时间表。
This might mean non-perishable goods take a bit longer to arrive, but shippers would be rewarded with a much lower carbon footprint.
这可能意味着不易腐烂的货物需要更长时间才能到达，但托运人将获得更低的碳足迹。
Other old ideas are being revived. In 1985 another unusual craft sailed into New York.
其他旧观念正在复兴。1985年，另一艘不寻常的船驶入纽约。
This was the Alcyone, a research vessel built by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, a French oceanographer and film-maker.
这就是Alcyone号，一艘由法国海洋学家和电影制片人雅克·伊夫·库斯托建造的科学考察船。
It was fitted with a pair of suction sails: tall cylinders fitted with electric fans to draw air into perforated strips down their sides.
它配备了一对吸风帆，即装有电风扇的高筒，可将空气吸入侧面的穿孔条中。
These suck the airflow closer to that side, reducing drag and creating up to seven times more force than a conventional sail according to bound4blue, a company based in Cantabria, northern Spain, which produces a modern version it calls eSAILS.
根据总部位于西班牙北部坎塔布里亚的bound4blue公司的说法，这些风帆将气流吸得更靠近那一侧，减少了阻力，并产生比传统风帆高出七倍的力量，该公司生产了一种名为“eSAILS”的现代版本。
Founded in 2014 by three aerospace engineers, bound4blue counts Bertrand Charrier, who helped Cousteau develop the Alcyone, among its advisers.
bound4blue由三名航空航天工程师于2014年创立，其顾问包括帮助库斯托开发Alcyone的Bertrand Charrier。
The firm has already installed a number of eSAILS including three 22-metre versions retrofitted to the Ville de Bordeaux, a roll-on-roll-off transport ship also chartered to Airbus.
该公司已经安装了许多eSAILS，其中包括在Ville de Bordeaux上改装的三个22米高的版本，这是一艘也租给Airbus的滚装运输船。
The company has five other installations in progress, including a chemical tanker. Again, fuel savings depend on the type of vessel being powered and on the details of how it is operated.
该公司还有其他五项设施正在进行中，其中包括一艘化学品船。同样，燃料节省取决于所供电船舶的类型及其操作细节。
The company is having third-party evaluations done to establish typical performance figures.
该公司正在进行第三方评估以确定典型的性能数据。
The eSAILS could be used on almost any large marine vessel, says Dana Camps the firm's head of marketing, although they might have to be modified for some ships.
该公司营销主管Dana Camps表示，eSAILS几乎可以在任何大型船舶上使用，尽管对于某些船舶可能需要调整。
As the deck of a container ship, for example, is usually piled high with boxes, which need regular handling, any auxiliary wind-power system needs to avoid getting in the way.
例如，由于集装箱船的甲板上通常堆满了需要定期搬运的箱子，因此任何辅助风力发电系统都需要避免妨碍。
Helpfully, rotors and suction sails can be fitted with lowering mechanisms, which are also useful when passing under low bridges.
好在转子和吸力帆可以配备下降机制，这在通过低桥时也很有用。
Similarly unobtrusive systems could also be installed on cruise liners, which now resemble giant floating apartment blocks, but the payback period would be longer because they spend a greater proportion of their time with their passengers relaxing in ports.
同样，不显眼的系统也可以安装在游轮上，这些游轮现在就像巨大的浮动公寓楼，但投资回收期会更长，因为它们花更多的时间与乘客在港口放松。
Some large vessels continue to hoist sails, albeit of the rigid variety used on modern racing yachts. These, too, work like vertical aircraft wings.
一些大型船只继续扬帆，尽管配备的是现代赛艇上使用的硬帆。它们的工作原理也类似于垂直飞机机翼。
One ship fitted with rigid sails is Pyxis Ocean, a bulk carrier owned by the Mitsubishi Corporation.
三菱公司的散货船Pyxis Ocean配备的就是硬帆。
The five-year-old vessel was retrofitted in China with two 375-metre-high sails called WindWings, designed by BAR Technologies, a marine-engineering firm based in Portsmouth on Britain's south coast.
这艘已有五年船龄的船只在中国进行了改装，安装了两块375米高的WindWings翼帆，由位于英国南海岸朴茨茅斯的海洋工程公司BAR Technologies设计。
The Pyxis Ocean has been chartered by Cargill, a giant foods group, to carry grain.
Pyxis Ocean已被食品巨头嘉吉公司特许用于运输谷物。
After six months at sea the WindWings have cut fuel consumption by about 15% although the company reckons three sails could cut average fuel use by 30% or more.
经过六个月的海上航行后，WindWings已将燃料消耗减少了约15%，不过该公司认为三个帆可以将平均燃料消耗减少30%及以上。
Oceanbird, a Swedish company, is installing six giant wing sails on the Orcelle Wind, a new vehicle-carrier with a capacity for some 7,000 cars, due to enter service in 2027.
瑞典公司Oceanbird正在Orcelle Wind上安装六个巨型翼帆，这是一艘可容纳约7000辆汽车的新型车辆运输船，将于2027年投入使用。
Oceanbird reckons the sails could deliver 50-60% lower emissions compared with conventional vehicle-carriers.
Oceanbird认为，与传统车辆运输船相比，这种风帆可以减少50%至60%的排放。
Another option is to tow ships along with giant kite sails, similar to the parafoil kites used by kiteboarders.
另一种选择是用巨大的风筝帆拖船，类似于风筝冲浪者使用的翼伞风筝。
In February Kawasaki Kisen Kaishaa big Japanese shipowner also known as K Line, acquired a French startup called Airseas, which has been developing a kite sail it calls Seawing.
今年2月，日本大型船东川崎汽船株式会社（Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha）收购了一家名为Airseas的法国初创公司，该公司一直在开发一种名为Seawing的风筝帆。
These can be launched and retrieved automatically from a ship's bow, minimising their on-deck footprint. Airseas tested a Seawing last year on a K Line cargo ship.
它们可以从船头自动发射和回收，从而最大限度地减少它们在甲板上的占地面积。Airseas去年在一艘K Line货船上测试了Seawing。
They are expected to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions by some 20%, says K Line.
K Line表示，预计他们将减少约20%的二氧化碳排放量。
With some 50,000 large cargo vessels of various sorts plying the high seas, each with an average life expectancy of 30 years or so, it is going to take some time for the shipping industry to clean up its act. But clean it up it must.
大约有5万艘各类大型货船在公海上航行，每艘货船的平均寿命为30年左右，航运业需要一段时间才能整顿其行为，但一定要清理干净。
If their vessels continue to belch fumes then shipowners will soon find themselves unable to operate within many ports.
如果他们的船只继续喷出烟雾，那么船东很快就会发现自己无法在许多港口运营。
Though the number of vessels returning to wind power remains small for now, this technology clearly has the wind in its sails.
尽管目前恢复风力发电的船舶数量仍然很少，但这项技术显然已是大势所趋。
