Thomas W. Lawson (ship)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Thomas W. Lawson was a seven-masted, steel-hulled schooner originally planned for the Pacific trade, but then used primarily to haul coal and oil along the East Coast of the United States. The ship holds the distinction of being the largest schooner and the third-largest sailing ship ever built, the larger sailing ships being the French and German five-masted barques France II  (1911) and R. C. Rickmers  (1906) respectively. Regarding only pure sailing ships without an auxiliary engine for propulsion ever built-in, the huge schooner was the world largest sailing ship of that kind followed by the famous German full-rigged five-masted ship Preußen (Prussia) of the Flying P-liner fleet, launched in the same year.

Contents

[edit] Development and Construction

Designed by naval architect Bowdoin B. Crowninshield (famous for his fast yachts) for Captain John G. Crowley of the Coastwise Transportation Company of Boston, Massachusetts, the construction of the Thomas W. Lawson was contracted to the Fore River Ship and Engine Company on June 25, 1901. At a cost of approximately $250,000, the Thomas W. Lawson holds the record of being the only seven-masted schooner, the only seven-masted sailing ship in modern time (see Zheng He's Treasure Ships), the largest schooner, and the largest pure sailing ship ever built. Her design and purpose was an ultimately unsuccessful bid to keep sailing ships competitive with the steam ships that were becoming more common for freight transport purposes. In fact the underwater hull was too large and the sail area too small for good sailing properties, the reduced load capacity from 11,000 to 7,500 (see below) made a working to capacity impossible, and cut the expected profits.

Launched on July 10, 1902, the Thomas W. Lawson was 395 feet (120.4 m) in length (lod = length on deck), contained seven masts of equal length (193 feet (58.8 m)) from which 25 sails (7 gaff sails, 7 gaff topsails, 6 staysails and 5 jib sails encompassing 43,000 square feet (4,000 m²)) of canvas would power her. Originally painted white the ship's hull appeared in black later on. The naming of her masts was always a subject for some discussion (see external link "The Masts of the Thomas W. Lawson"). In the original sail plan and during construction named (fore to aft): 'no. 1 to no. 7'. The names of the masts changed to: 'fore, main, mizzen, spanker, jigger, driver, and pusher' at launch and to: 'forecastle, fore, main, mizzen, jigger, and spanker' after launch. Later on a lot of different naming systems were formed, e.g. 'fore, main, mizzen, rusher, driver, jigger, and spanker' or 'fore, main, mizzen, no. 4, no. 5, no. 6, and no. 7', the naming preferred by the crew. Even a naming after the days of the week was discussed.

The ship consisted of a steel hull with a double cellular bottom 4 feet deep and used 1,000 tons of water ballast. She displaced 5,218 gross tons of water, could carry nearly 11,000 tons of coal, and carried a crew of 17 including captain, engineer, and steward. Due to the low depth of the eastern ports except Newport News, VA, she could not enter them with her maximum load. As a result, she carried the reduced capacity of 7,500 tons. She had three decks and a large superstructure on the poop deck and two deckhouses on the main deck at masts no. 5 and 6.

[edit] Namesake

The ship was named for Thomas W. Lawson, a Boston millionaire, stock-broker, and President of the Boston Bay State Gas Co at that time.

[edit] Service

Often criticized by marine writers and considered difficult to maneuver and sluggish (relations to a "bath tub" and a "beached whale" were made), the Thomas W. Lawson proved problematic in the ports she was intended to operate in due to the amount of water she displaced. Originally built for the Pacific trade, the schooner was used as coiler (coal carrier) along the American East Coast. A year later in 1903, Crowley withdrew her from the coal trade. He had the topmasts, gaff booms and all other wooden spars removed and had chartered her out as a sea-going barge for the transportation of case oil - the ship was towed all the time. In 1906, she was retrofitted at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company for use as a bulk oil carrier (sailing tanker) using the lower steel masts to vent the holds (tanks) from oil gases. Her capacity was 60,000 barrels. Under charter to Sun Oil Company, her purpose shifted from hauling coal to transporting bulk oil from Texas to the eastern seaboard. She was the world first pure sailing tanker.

[edit] Wreck

In 1907, the Thomas W. Lawson was under charter to the Anglo-American Oil Company (part of Standard Oil) and set sail on November 27 from Philadelphia to London with 58,000 barrels of paraffin oil. The transatlantic journey was quite horrible in extremly stormy weather with the loss of sails, all liveboats, and the breach of hatch no. 6, causing the ship's pumps to clog due to a mixture of intruding seawater and the engine's coal in the ship's hold. On December 13, the ship was caught in another winter gale off the west coast of the Scilly Isles near the Hellweather's Reef.  Her captain decided to try to anchor to weather up the gale refusing several requests to abandon the ship. But during the night the storm increased, her port anchor chain broke, and the pounding schooner was smashed starboardside on against the rocks by tremendously heavy seas. All seven masts broke off and fell into the sea with all seamen who have climbed up the rigging for safety. The stern section broke apart behind mast no. 6, the ship capsized and sunk. In the morning light the ship's upturned keel could be seen near the reef. 15 of the 17 crewmen and the Scillonian pilot Wm. Hicks who was already on board were lost, captain George W. Dow and engineer Edward Rowe from Boston being the only survivors. Despite wearing their lifebelts the seamen died of the thick oil layer, the smashing seas, and the schooner's rigging that had drowned so many of the crew.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

  • Hall, Thomas The T.W. Lawson: The Fate of the World's Only Seven-Masted Schooner. The History Press (Charleston, SC) 2006.
  • Hornsby, Thomas, The Last Voyage of the Thomas W. Lawson. Publ. in the 'Nautical Research Journal' Vol. 5 (1959), pp. 53-59, 61, illust.
  • Hall, Thomas, The T. W. Lawson - The fate of the world's only seven-masted schooner. Scituate (2005).
  • The Western Weekly News: DISASTER AT SCILLY - American Sailing Ship Lost. Hugh Town, Scilly Isles, December 21, 1907
  • Rodd, Peter, Wreck of Thomas W. Lawson. Publ. in The American Neptune Vol. 29, Salem (1969) pp. 133-138.
  • Coughlin, W. P., The Last Voyage of the Thomas W. Lawson. (1964).
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../t/h/o/Thomas_W._Lawson_%28ship%29_924c.html"
In other languages