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Thomas W. Lawson (ship)
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
. Built in 1902, the ship holds the distinction of being the largest schooner and the largest pure sailing vessel (without an auxiliary engine) ever built. Larger sailing vessels with auxiliary engines for propulsion were the French France II
(1911) and German R. C. Rickmers (1906), both five-masted barque
s.
The Thomas W. Lawson was destroyed off the uninhabited island of Annet
, in the Scilly Isles, in a storm on December 14, 1907, killing all but two of her 18 crew including the pilot who was already aboard ship. Her cargo of 58,000 barrels of light paraffin oil caused a tremendous oil spill
on the Scilly Isles, probably the first large oil spill from a ship in modern history.
(famous for his fast yacht
s) 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 vessel, in terms of tonnage, 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. However the ship's underwater hull was too large and its sail area was too small for good sailing properties, and a reduced load capacity from 11,000 to 7,400 long ton
s (see below) made 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 (seven gaff sails
, seven gaff topsails
, six topmast staysails and five jib sails
(fore staysail, jib, flying jib, jib topsail, balloon jib) 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', no. 7 being replaced by "spanker mast" later on. The names of the masts changed then 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 (which incorporated a possible misunderstanding between "fore" meaning "foremast" and "mast no. four"). Even a naming after the days of the week was discussed with the foremast being named "Sunday" and the spankermast "Saturday".
The ship consisted of a steel hull with high bulwarks and a double cellular bottom four feet deep and used 1,000 tons of water ballast
. She displaced
5,218 gross tons of water (10.460 tons at 7.600 ts cargo load), could carry nearly 11,000 tons of coal, and was operated by a crew of 16 to 18 including captain, engineer, two helmsmen
, and two stewards. 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 a reduced capacity of 7,400 tons in order to reduce her working draft
. She had two continuous deck
s, poop and forcastle decks, a large superstructure
on the poop deck
including the captain's rooms with fine furniture and leather seats, the officers' mess and rooms, card room, and a separate rudder house. On the main deck were two deckhouses around mast no. 5 and behind mast no. 6, as well as six main hatches to access the holds between the masts. Two huge steam winch
es were built in under the forecastle
and behind mast no. 6. on the main deck. Smaller electrically driven winches were installed beside each mast. The exhaust for the donkey engine
boiler was horizontally installed. All seven lower steel masts were secured by five (foremast: six) shroud
s per side, the wooden topmasts with four shrouds per side to the crosstrees. The two ship's stockless anchors weighed five tons each.
, the "copper baron", a Boston millionaire, stock-broker, book author, and President of the Boston "Bay State Gas Co." at that time.
trade, the schooner was used as collier
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 spar
s removed and had chartered her out as a sea-going barge for the transportation of case oil. In 1906, she was retrofitted for sail at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company for use as a bulk oil carrier using the lower steel masts to vent oil gasses from the holds. Her capacity was 60,000 barrels. Under charter to Sun Oil Company, she was the world's first pure sailing tanker, carrying bulk oil from Texas
to the eastern seaboard.
) and set sail on November 19 from the piers of Marcus Hook
Refinery
(20 miles south of Philadelphia) to London
with 58,000 barrels of light paraffin oil. Two days before leaving the new captain George Washington Dow had to hire six new men to the crew because six other seamen had quit their jobs due to payment problems. Those new men weren't able seamen
and some didn't speak fluent English. Leaving the mouth of the Delaware River the large schooner set course for England under fair weather conditions. But the following day the weather turned considerably worse. The ship was not sighted for more than 20 days during its first transatlantic
journey which was quite horrible in extremely stormy weather. With the loss of most of her sails, all but one lifeboat, 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, the schooner reached the Celtic Sea
north west of the Isles of Scilly
. On December 13, entering the English Channel, she mistakenly passed inside the Bishop Rock
lighthouse
, the westernmost one in Europe, and her captain anchored between the Nundeeps shallows and Gunner's Rock, north-west of Annet island
, to ride out an impending gale, refusing several requests of St. Agnes and St. Mary's lifeboat crews to abandon the ship. Captain Dow trusting in his anchors only accepted the Trinity House
pilot Billy "Cook" Hicks from St. Agnes lifeboat who came aboard at 5 p.m. on Friday 13. Both lifeboats of St. Agnes and St. Mary's had to return to their stations because of an unconscious crewman on the former and a broken mast on the latter. They cabled to Falmouth, Cornwall
for a tug which couldn't put to sea, unable to face the storm.
During the night around 1:15 a.m. the storm increased, her port anchor chain broke, and half an hour later the starboard anchor chain snapped close the hawsepipe. Left to the mercy of the raging seas the pounding schooner was smashed starboardside on against Shag Rock
near Annet by tremendously heavy seas after having grounded the dangerous underwater rocks. All seven masts broke off and fell into the sea with all seamen who had climbed up the rigging for safety on their captain's command. The stern section broke apart behind mast no. 6, drifting off the capsizing and sinking ship. In the morning light the ship's upturned keel could be seen near the reef from which the wreck slid off into deeper water later on. Some 16 of the 18 crewmen and the Scillonian pilot Wm. "Cook" Hicks who was already on board having climbed up the spanker rigging for safety were lost, captain George W. Dow and engineer Edward L. Rowe from Boston being the only survivors probably because they managed to get on deck from the rigging and jumped into the sea before the ship capsized. Both were lucky in being washed to a rock in the Hellweathers, to the south of the wrecking site, to be rescued hours later on, by the pilot's son looking for his father, Despite wearing their lifebelts, the other seamen died of the thick oil layer, the smashing seas and the schooner's rigging that had drowned so many of the crew, including the pilot. Four dead bodies were found later on - those of Mark Stenton from Brooklyn, cabin boy, and of two seamen from Germany and Scandinavia, and that of a man from Nova Scotia
or Maine; furthermore some bodies without heads, legs or arms were also found which couldn't be identified. They were all buried in a mass grave in St. Agnes cemetery.
The broken up and scattered wreck lies 56 ft deep on position 49°53′38"N 06°22′55"W and can be visited by scuba divers under calm weather conditions. The broken-off stern with the spanker mast lies a few hundred yards southwest.
, Billy "Cook" Hicks. The seat, made of granite from a St Breward
quarry, faces the mass, unmarked grave of many of the Lawson dead.
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
originally planned for the Pacific trade, but then used primarily to haul coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
and oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
along the East Coast of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Built in 1902, the ship holds the distinction of being the largest schooner and the largest pure sailing vessel (without an auxiliary engine) ever built. Larger sailing vessels with auxiliary engines for propulsion were the French France II
France II
The France II was a French sailing ship and the second one of that name. She was the largest commercial merchant sailing ship ever built.- Design:...
(1911) and German R. C. Rickmers (1906), both five-masted barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
s.
The Thomas W. Lawson was destroyed off the uninhabited island of Annet
Annet, Isles of Scilly
Annet is the second largest of the fifty or so uninhabited Isles of Scilly, one km west of St Agnes with a length of one km and approximately 22 ha in area. The low lying island is almost divided in two by a narrow neck of land at West Porth which can, at times, be covered by waves...
, in the Scilly Isles, in a storm on December 14, 1907, killing all but two of her 18 crew including the pilot who was already aboard ship. Her cargo of 58,000 barrels of light paraffin oil caused a tremendous oil spill
Oil spill
An oil spill is the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution. The term is mostly used to describe marine oil spills, where oil is released into the ocean or coastal waters...
on the Scilly Isles, probably the first large oil spill from a ship in modern history.
Development and construction
Designed by naval architect Bowdoin B. CrowninshieldBowdoin B. Crowninshield
Bowdoin Bradlee Crowninshield was an American naval architect who specialized in the design of racing yachts.-Life:Born October 13, 1867 in New York, Crowninshield grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts, into the wealthy Crowninshield family with long-standing ties to the sea...
(famous for his fast yacht
Yacht
A yacht is a recreational boat or ship. The term originated from the Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt". It was originally defined as a light fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries...
s) 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
Treasure ship
A Treasure ship is the name for a type of large wooden vessel commanded by the Chinese admiral Zheng He on seven voyages in the early 15th century in Ming Dynasty...
), the largest schooner and the largest pure sailing vessel, in terms of tonnage, 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. However the ship's underwater hull was too large and its sail area was too small for good sailing properties, and a reduced load capacity from 11,000 to 7,400 long ton
Long ton
Long ton is the name for the unit called the "ton" in the avoirdupois or Imperial system of measurements, as used in the United Kingdom and several other Commonwealth countries. It has been mostly replaced by the tonne, and in the United States by the short ton...
s (see below) made 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 (seven gaff sails
Gaff rig
Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar called the gaff...
, seven gaff topsails
Topsail
A topsail is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails.- Square rig :On a square rigged vessel, a topsail is a square sail rigged above the course sail and below the topgallant sail where carried...
, six topmast staysails and five jib sails
Jib
A jib is a triangular staysail set ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bow, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast...
(fore staysail, jib, flying jib, jib topsail, balloon jib) 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
Mast (sailing)
The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall, vertical, or near vertical, spar, or arrangement of spars, which supports the sails. Large ships have several masts, with the size and configuration depending on the style of ship...
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', no. 7 being replaced by "spanker mast" later on. The names of the masts changed then 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 (which incorporated a possible misunderstanding between "fore" meaning "foremast" and "mast no. four"). Even a naming after the days of the week was discussed with the foremast being named "Sunday" and the spankermast "Saturday".
The ship consisted of a steel hull with high bulwarks and a double cellular bottom four feet deep and used 1,000 tons of water ballast
Sailing ballast
Ballast is used in sailboats to provide moment to resist the lateral forces on the sail. Insufficiently ballasted boats will tend to tip, or heel, excessively in high winds. Too much heel may result in the boat capsizing. If a sailing vessel should need to voyage without cargo then ballast of...
. She displaced
Displacement (fluid)
In fluid mechanics, displacement occurs when an object is immersed in a fluid, pushing it out of the way and taking its place. The volume of the fluid displaced can then be measured, as in the illustration, and from this the volume of the immersed object can be deduced .An object that sinks...
5,218 gross tons of water (10.460 tons at 7.600 ts cargo load), could carry nearly 11,000 tons of coal, and was operated by a crew of 16 to 18 including captain, engineer, two helmsmen
Helmsman
A helmsman is a person who steers a ship, sailboat, submarine, or other type of maritime vessel. On small vessels, particularly privately-owned noncommercial vessels, the functions of skipper and helmsman may be combined in one person. On larger vessels, there is a separate officer of the watch,...
, and two stewards. Due to the low depth of the eastern ports except Newport News, VA
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, she could not enter them with her maximum load. As a result, she carried a reduced capacity of 7,400 tons in order to reduce her working draft
Draft (hull)
The draft of a ship's hull is the vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the hull , with the thickness of the hull included; in the case of not being included the draft outline would be obtained...
. She had two continuous deck
Deck (ship)
A deck is a permanent covering over a compartment or a hull of a ship. On a boat or ship, the primary deck is the horizontal structure which forms the 'roof' for the hull, which both strengthens the hull and serves as the primary working surface...
s, poop and forcastle decks, a large superstructure
Superstructure
A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships...
on the poop deck
Poop deck
In naval architecture, a poop deck is a deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear, or "aft", part of the superstructure of a ship.The name originates from the French word for stern, la poupe, from Latin puppis...
including the captain's rooms with fine furniture and leather seats, the officers' mess and rooms, card room, and a separate rudder house. On the main deck were two deckhouses around mast no. 5 and behind mast no. 6, as well as six main hatches to access the holds between the masts. Two huge steam winch
Winch
A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in or let out or otherwise adjust the "tension" of a rope or wire rope . In its simplest form it consists of a spool and attached hand crank. In larger forms, winches stand at the heart of machines as diverse as tow trucks, steam shovels and...
es were built in under the forecastle
Forecastle
Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters...
and behind mast no. 6. on the main deck. Smaller electrically driven winches were installed beside each mast. The exhaust for the donkey engine
Steam donkey
Steam donkey, or donkey engine is the common nickname for a steam-powered winch, or logging engine widely used in past logging operations, though not limited to logging...
boiler was horizontally installed. All seven lower steel masts were secured by five (foremast: six) shroud
Shroud
Shroud usually refers to an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to burial sheets, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the famous Shroud of Turin or Tachrichim that Jews are dressed in for burial...
s per side, the wooden topmasts with four shrouds per side to the crosstrees. The two ship's stockless anchors weighed five tons each.
Namesake
The ship was named for Thomas W. LawsonThomas W. Lawson (businessman)
Thomas William Lawson was an American businessman and author. A highly controversial Boston stock promoter, he is known for both his efforts to promote reforms in the stock markets and the fortune he amassed for himself through highly dubious stock manipulations.The Scituate, Massachusetts...
, the "copper baron", a Boston millionaire, stock-broker, book author, and President of the Boston "Bay State Gas Co." at that time.
Service
Often criticized by marine writers (and some seamen) and considered difficult to maneuver and sluggish (comparisons 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. She tended to yaw and needed a strong wind to be held on course. Originally built for the PacificPacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
trade, the schooner was used as collier
Collier (ship type)
Collier is a historical term used to describe a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially for naval use by coal-fired warships. In the late 18th century a number of wooden-hulled sailing colliers gained fame after being adapted for use in voyages of exploration in the South Pacific, for...
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 spar
Spar
In sailing, a spar is a pole of wood, metal or lightweight materials such as carbon fiber used on a sailing vessel. Spars of all types In sailing, a spar is a pole of wood, metal or lightweight materials such as carbon fiber used on a sailing vessel. Spars of all types In sailing, a spar is a...
s removed and had chartered her out as a sea-going barge for the transportation of case oil. In 1906, she was retrofitted for sail at the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company for use as a bulk oil carrier using the lower steel masts to vent oil gasses from the holds. Her capacity was 60,000 barrels. Under charter to Sun Oil Company, she was the world's first pure sailing tanker, carrying bulk oil from Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
to the eastern seaboard.
Wreck
In 1907, the Thomas W. Lawson was under charter to the Anglo-American Oil Company (part of Standard OilStandard Oil
Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...
) and set sail on November 19 from the piers of Marcus Hook
Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania
Marcus Hook is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population peaked in the 1920s with 5,324 inhabitants. 2,314 inhabitants were counted at the recent 2000 census. Marcus Hook's current mayor is James Schiliro. The borough calls itself "The Cornerstone of Pennsylvania"....
Refinery
Refinery
A refinery is a production facility composed of a group of chemical engineering unit processes and unit operations refining certain materials or converting raw material into products of value.-Types of refineries:Different types of refineries are as follows:...
(20 miles south of Philadelphia) to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with 58,000 barrels of light paraffin oil. Two days before leaving the new captain George Washington Dow had to hire six new men to the crew because six other seamen had quit their jobs due to payment problems. Those new men weren't able seamen
Able Seaman (occupation)
An able seaman is an unlicensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship. An AB may work as a watchstander, a day worker, or a combination of these roles.-Watchstander:...
and some didn't speak fluent English. Leaving the mouth of the Delaware River the large schooner set course for England under fair weather conditions. But the following day the weather turned considerably worse. The ship was not sighted for more than 20 days during its first transatlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
journey which was quite horrible in extremely stormy weather. With the loss of most of her sails, all but one lifeboat, 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, the schooner reached the Celtic Sea
Celtic Sea
The Celtic Sea is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the south coast of Ireland bounded to the east by Saint George's Channel; other limits include the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, as well as adjacent portions of Wales, Cornwall, Devon, and Brittany...
north west of the Isles of Scilly
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
. On December 13, entering the English Channel, she mistakenly passed inside the Bishop Rock
Bishop Rock
Bishop Rock is a small rock at the westernmost tip of the Isles of Scilly, known for its lighthouse, and listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's smallest island with a building on it....
lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
, the westernmost one in Europe, and her captain anchored between the Nundeeps shallows and Gunner's Rock, north-west of Annet island
Annet, Isles of Scilly
Annet is the second largest of the fifty or so uninhabited Isles of Scilly, one km west of St Agnes with a length of one km and approximately 22 ha in area. The low lying island is almost divided in two by a narrow neck of land at West Porth which can, at times, be covered by waves...
, to ride out an impending gale, refusing several requests of St. Agnes and St. Mary's lifeboat crews to abandon the ship. Captain Dow trusting in his anchors only accepted the Trinity House
Trinity House
The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond is the official General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and other British territorial waters...
pilot Billy "Cook" Hicks from St. Agnes lifeboat who came aboard at 5 p.m. on Friday 13. Both lifeboats of St. Agnes and St. Mary's had to return to their stations because of an unconscious crewman on the former and a broken mast on the latter. They cabled to Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth, Cornwall
Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....
for a tug which couldn't put to sea, unable to face the storm.
During the night around 1:15 a.m. the storm increased, her port anchor chain broke, and half an hour later the starboard anchor chain snapped close the hawsepipe. Left to the mercy of the raging seas the pounding schooner was smashed starboardside on against Shag Rock
Shag Rock
Shag Rock may refer to the following places:in the Antarctica:* Shag Rock in the United States:* Shag Rock in New Zealand:* Rapanui Rock, also called "Shag Rock"in Australia:*Shag Rock...
near Annet by tremendously heavy seas after having grounded the dangerous underwater rocks. All seven masts broke off and fell into the sea with all seamen who had climbed up the rigging for safety on their captain's command. The stern section broke apart behind mast no. 6, drifting off the capsizing and sinking ship. In the morning light the ship's upturned keel could be seen near the reef from which the wreck slid off into deeper water later on. Some 16 of the 18 crewmen and the Scillonian pilot Wm. "Cook" Hicks who was already on board having climbed up the spanker rigging for safety were lost, captain George W. Dow and engineer Edward L. Rowe from Boston being the only survivors probably because they managed to get on deck from the rigging and jumped into the sea before the ship capsized. Both were lucky in being washed to a rock in the Hellweathers, to the south of the wrecking site, to be rescued hours later on, by the pilot's son looking for his father, Despite wearing their lifebelts, the other seamen died of the thick oil layer, the smashing seas and the schooner's rigging that had drowned so many of the crew, including the pilot. Four dead bodies were found later on - those of Mark Stenton from Brooklyn, cabin boy, and of two seamen from Germany and Scandinavia, and that of a man from Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
or Maine; furthermore some bodies without heads, legs or arms were also found which couldn't be identified. They were all buried in a mass grave in St. Agnes cemetery.
The broken up and scattered wreck lies 56 ft deep on position 49°53′38"N 06°22′55"W and can be visited by scuba divers under calm weather conditions. The broken-off stern with the spanker mast lies a few hundred yards southwest.
Memorial
In 2008 a memorial seat was blessed by the Reverend Guy Scott in the churchyard of St Agnes, the nearest inhabitable island to the wreck and the home of the pilotMaritime pilot
A pilot is a mariner who guides ships through dangerous or congested waters, such as harbours or river mouths. With the exception of the Panama Canal, the pilot is only an advisor, as the captain remains in legal, overriding command of the vessel....
, Billy "Cook" Hicks. The seat, made of granite from a St Breward
St Breward
St Breward is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated on the western side of Bodmin Moor approximately 6 miles north of Bodmin.The parish name derives from Saint Branwalader...
quarry, faces the mass, unmarked grave of many of the Lawson dead.
Further reading
- Hall, Thomas S., The T. W. Lawson - The fate of the world's only seven-masted schooner. ScituateScituate, MassachusettsScituate is a seacoast town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States, on the South Shore, midway between Boston and Plymouth. The population was 18,133 at the 2010 census....
, MA (2005). - Hall, Thomas S., The T. W. Lawson - The Fate of the World's Only Seven-Masted Schooner. The History PressThe History PressThe History Press is one of the UK’s largest local and specialist history publishers, publishing approximately 500 books per year.Created in December 2007, The History Press has integrated core elements of the NPI Media Group within it, including all existing published titles, plus all the future...
, CharlestonCharleston, South CarolinaCharleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, SC, (2006). ISBN 1-59629-208-3 - Hornsby, Thomas, The Last Voyage of the Thomas W. Lawson. Publ. in the 'Nautical Research Journal' Vol. 5 (1959), pp. 53-59, 61, illust.
- The Western Weekly News: DISASTER AT SCILLY - American Sailing Ship Lost. Hugh TownHugh TownHugh Town is the main settlement on the Isles of Scilly. The town is situated on the island of St. Mary's It is located on a narrow isthmus which joins the peninsula known as The Garrison with the rest of the island of St. Mary's....
, 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).
- Largest Vessel of Her Class Ever Constructed In A Shipyard, San Francisco Call, Volume 90, Number 160, 7 November 1901
External links
- Enlarged photograph of the Thomas W. Lawson before starting her maiden voyage
- Characteristics of the Thomas W. Lawson on www.bruzelius.info
- The Masts of the Thomas W. Lawson
- The Glamorous Sixmasters - the large New England six-masted schooners including the Thomas W. Lawson
- Photograph taken during her maiden voyage
- Photograph of the Thomas W. Lawson ; lying deeply laden in the roads (of Boston harbor)
- Realistic oil painting of the Thomas W. Lawson under full sail by Thomas H. Willis providing several detail enlargements of the painting
- Enlarged painting of the Thomas W. Lawson by Thomas H. Willis
- Model and characteristics of the ship
- Photograph of the Thomas W. Lawson lying in ballast in the roads
