For a few days in August 2025, Amsterdam looked a little more like it did hundreds of years ago. About 10,000 ships filled the city’s harbor.
Among them were replicas of the tall ships that sailed in the 15th century and earlier, including the Santa Maria, used by Christopher Columbus during his first voyage across the Atlantic, and the Nao Victoria, which became the first vessel to sail around the world in 1522.
Shipping played a large part in the Netherlands’ rise to global power in the 17th century. Many of the journeys taken by the tall ships of that era — with big hulls and giant masts built to bring large amounts of cargo across the oceans — were part of the Atlantic slave trade, taking enslaved people from Africa to the Americas.
SAIL largely overlooks that history.
(words by Claire Moses)
