Lawhill

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Career
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched: 24 August 1892
Fate: broken up 1960s
General characteristics
Displacement: 2748 tons (registered)
Length: 317.4 ft (96.74 m)
Beam: 45 ft (14 m)
Draught: 25 ft (7.6 m)
Propulsion: sail
Speed:
Complement: 25–30

Lawhill was a steel-hulled four-masted barque active in the early part of the 20th century. Although her career was not especially remarkable, save perhaps for being consistently profitable as a cargo carrier, in the 1930s Richard Cookson went on board and extensively documented Lawhill's internals and construction, which was later published in the Anatomy of the Ship series.

Lawhill was built at the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company yard of W. B. Thompson in Dundee, Scotland, and launched on 24 August 1892. Named after the Law, a hill in the middle of Dundee, Lawhill had been ordered by shipowner Charles Barrie for the jute trade, but only made two voyages carrying jute before the business became unprofitable, and shifted to other cargoes.

During the 1890s, a demand was developing for kerosene in the Far East, which could be more efficiently carried by sail at the time (the Falls of Clyde would take up this unusual trade several years later), and in 1899 Lawhill was sold to the Anglo American Oil Company. She made nine voyages carrying oil and other cargoes, then the development of storage tank capacity reduced demand, and Lawhill went to G. Windram and Company in 1911.

In 1914, she was sold to Finnish owner August Troberg, and Lawhill became Finland's largest sailing ship. Despite the hazards of World War I, Lawhill continued to sail, managing to elude U-boats and arrive unescorted into Brest in May 1917, carrying wheat from Australia. However, French authorities refused to let Lawhill leave, citing the risks, and used her as a store ship. While in port, Lawhill was purchased by another Finn, Gustaf Erikson, but before she could get to sea, Finland became an ally of Germany, and in June 1918, the French government officially requisitioned Lawhill. The French started to convert Lawhill to a motor ship, but after much protest, Erikson finally got her back in January 1919, and she resumed carrying wheat, first from Argentina, then from Australia again, as well as timber and other cargoes. On October 1, 1932 she rammed and sunk Polish steamer SS Niemen (3107 BRT) in Kattegat (the Lawhill captain was found not guilty).

After twenty years of steady service as a grain carrier, Lawhill was seized by South Africa in August 1941, Finland having sided with the Axis. The ship was used by the South African government for cargo during the war, then sold to private citizens of South Africa, who used Lawhill on several voyages. Showing signs of deterioration, she was sold to a firm in Lourenco Marques and arrived there with great ceremony in September 1948. However, the necessary repairs were beyond the means of her new owners, and she rotted at anchor in the Tembe River for many years, and was finally broken up for scrap sometime in the 1960s.

[edit] References

  • Kenneth Anderson, Roderick Anderson, Richard Cookson, The four-masted barque Lawhill (Conway Maritime Press, 1996) ISBN 0-85177-676-0

A 1:48 scale model constructed by Roderick Anderson as part of his research for the Anatomy of a Ship book is currently on display in the new Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle.

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