Seems most businesses in this space don't compete on price for bulk goods. They compete on sustainability, similar to e.g. people buying Fairtrade coffee even though it's more expensive than "normal" coffee.
Also sometimes they have other non-freight income, such as only a few of the people onboard lift a salary, the rest are trainees paying for the privilege of working on a sailing ship, or even passengers.
You can of course claim that this is just a daydream of hippies, and it can never scale up to provide anything near the cargo carrying capacity of the current shipping industry, and you're probably right. So what?
Also sometimes they have other non-freight income, such as only a few of the people onboard lift a salary, the rest are trainees paying for the privilege of working on a sailing ship, or even passengers.
You can of course claim that this is just a daydream of hippies, and it can never scale up to provide anything near the cargo carrying capacity of the current shipping industry, and you're probably right. So what?