Thomas W. Lawson
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The Thomas W. Lawson was the only seven - masted schooner in the world merchant fleet , plus the largest sailing ship ever built without auxiliary propulsion, the largest schooner ever built and the only seven - masted schooner ever built in recent times. It was one of the few steel structures of the late sailing ship era in the United States.
The five-masted full-rigged ship Prussia launched in the same year was the largest square sailer and the second largest sailing ship ever built without any auxiliary drive. Larger were the auxiliary five-masted barques RC Rickmers (1906) and the France II , which was commissioned in 1911 and which , after its two engines were removed, also became the largest sailing ship in 1919.
The Thomas W. Lawson was supposed to bring in large quantities of coal for its shipowner for the Bay State Gas Co., whose president gave the ship its name. Because of the unusable full load of 11,000 tn.l. it was chartered out in 1903 as a barge with emergency sails for crate oil after dismantling the stern . After the conversion to a sailing tanker in 1906, she was also supposed to undertake transatlantic voyages, but failed before the end of her first Atlantic voyage with a cargo of light oil in the early morning hours of December 14, 1907 off the Scilly Isles in a storm that caused 17 of the 19 men on board Cost life. The oil spill that resulted from this disaster is one of the first, if not the first, in maritime history. The traces disappeared within a few years.
Historical environment
The "big schooner" era began on August 14, 1900, when the first six-masted wooden gaff schooner, the George W. Wells , was launched at Holly M. Bean in Camden , Maine . Eight six-masters made of wood and one made of steel were to follow, the last of which was Wyoming , launched in 1909 at Percy & Small in Bath , Maine, the longest wooden ship ever built at 137 m Lüa (108 m hull length). On the west coast, too, six masters came into the water, which were mainly used for timber transport, such as the Oregon Fir and the Oregon Pine .
description
The Thomas W. Lawson was one of only three large schooners made of steel in the United States . She and her sister ship, the six-masted schooner William L. Douglas ( berth no . 113; launched: August 25, maiden voyage: November 11, 1903, 3,708 GRT), were on the Helligen of the Fore River Ship & Engine Building Co. in Quincy (Massachusetts ) built for Coastwise Transportation Co. (John G. Crowley) based in Boston, Massachusetts. The designer was the shipbuilder Bowdoin Bradlee Crowninshield (1867–1948), known for his fast yachts . Namesake Thomas William Lawson had visited the ship, but was not present when it was launched for unknown reasons. Helen Watson, daughter of the shipyard founder Thomas A. Watson , christened the ship in front of over twenty thousand spectators. - The third steel schooner was the five-masted schooner Kineo , launched in 1903, 2,128 GRT, built and operated by Arthur Sewall & Co., Bath , Maine .
The schooner was a well ship (full deck ship with poop and forecastle deck but without a central island) with a second continuous deck under the very high freeboard deck . On the poop deck there was a separate wheelhouse behind a large deckhouse with a captain's accommodation (three rooms with the highest level of comfort - fine wood furniture, leather seating, electric light, telephone, etc.), a house of cards and an officers' mess . Two more deckhouses were on the aft part of the main deck around the 5th and behind the 6th mast. On the forecastle, where the sailors lived, stood a large capstan and storm-proof position lights. All inhabited and important rooms, even the simple accommodations for max. 12 sailors strong crew in front of the mast, had steam heating.
The seven lower masts of the same height were made of steel (43.8 m (keel-top donkey head ), ø = 97 cm, mass: ~ 20 t), 58.8 m with the mast stiffeners (17 m, because of doubling 15 m), the seven gaff trees, gaffs and all other spars made of wood ( silk pine ). All seven steel lower masts were supported by five (foremast: six) guys on each side, the wooden mast stems with four guys on each side to the spreaders . Each of the two stockless patent anchors weighed five tons. She drove seven main gaff sails (schooner sails), the last significantly larger, seven topsails, six staysails and five headsails. 14 mast winches were stationed on deck - two on each mast - plus two heavy steam winches under the forecastle and behind mast no. 6. The mast winches were electrically operated and were supplied by generators , which also provided power for the electric light and the wireless telegraph generated and operated by a central steam engine in the aft ship (deckhouse on mast No. 6 with horizontal steam discharge on the roof), as well as the steam rudder.
The top decks were covered with teak , the lower decks with pine. Six large hatches were let into the main deck , through which a maximum of 11,000 tn.l. could be loaded. Since the draft of more than ten meters planned by the designer exceeded the water depths of the East Coast ports at that time, with the exception of Newport News ( Virginia ), the originally planned loading capacity had to be reduced by about a third to about 7,400 tons, which was a considerable cut in the hoped for profitability. It had a double, 1.3 m deep double cell floor to accommodate 1,000 tons of water ballast in the individual tank cells, plus a trim tank at each end of the ship.
The initially brightly painted hull (initially with a green, then with a red underwater hull (without water pass )) was later painted black, like others of the time. At the stern , the Kapitäns gig hung on two davits , another typical design feature of American sailors of the time. There was also another lifeboat and a life raft on deck.
Like many others, the ship was named after a famous person of the time, namely after the millionaire, stockbroker, textbook author and then President of the Bay State Gas Co. in Delaware , Thomas William Lawson (1857-1925).
The ship's crew was at most 18 men ( captain , two mates (1st & 2nd Mate (officer)), a machinist for the steam plant for rowing , generator and steam winches for hot sails and loads Steward with cabin boy and never more than 12 sailors ago the mast).
In contrast to the European five-masted sailors of comparable size, the Thomas W. Lawson was, according to the judgment of some seafarers and naval authors, a very difficult to navigate and not very beautiful ship due to the high volume of the hull and the insufficient sail area (there were comparisons with a "bathtub "And a" stranded whale ", on paintings it often looks sleeker). She is said to have made around 13 knots in an aft storm “before the top and rigging” (without set sails) , which was also necessary in order not to get out of hand. Sailing maneuvers were often postponed to the changing of the guard , as the huge sail area, especially the seven main sails, was extremely demanding on the small crew. The ship did not achieve the economic profit it had hoped for, as it was rarely used to capacity. As the only and impressive ship of its kind, it nevertheless made history.
history
The large schooner was originally intended for use in the Pacific (North American west coast), but initially only sailed the east coast of the USA and as far as the Texan ports on the Gulf of Mexico and up to near the Canadian border. Just one year after it was launched, Crowley pulled the ship out of the coal trade due to falling freight rates, had the rigging and chartered it out as a barge (barge) for the transport of crate oil from the Texas ports along the American east coast. She was also towed up navigable rivers ( Sabine , Delaware ). Because of its enormous draft for the American ports of the time, she ran aground more often, but always came free again with tug assistance. She also found herself in the threatening situation of capsizing twice when unloading the cargo at the pier in two ports (Sabine (Texas) and Newport News), which could be remedied through the skillful use of flight engineer Rowe.
In 1906, the ship in Newport News , Virginia, was converted to a sail tanker by Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. and re-rigged. It then ran with a five-year charter contract for the Sun Oil Co. also along the east coast between Texas and New England.
Captain Arthur L. Crowley, the brother of the general manager of the shipping company, John G. Crowley, led the big ship until the fall of 1907, with interruptions by voyages under three other captains. For reasons that are not clear today, one suspects the difficult handling of the large schooner to keep it on a clear course, and its frequent bottoming (without leakage), he was not available as a captain for this first oceanic voyage, so another captain was hired has been. George Washington Dow (1847–1919) from Hancock (Maine) had at this point in time more than 37 years of experience as a skipper of yard ships and schooners and was considered a "happy" captain.
The voyage was overshadowed even before the start of the voyage when six hired seafarers quit their duties due to wage problems and had to be replaced. Some of the substitutes, hired from the pier, were not trained seafarers and not all of them had sufficient command of the English language, which made the situation of the 18-strong crew more difficult. To do this, the large schooner had to be towed free again after it hit the ground. Captain George W. Dow was able to fall back on experienced men such as his former officer Bent P. Libby (1st Offz.) And the machinist Edward L. Rowe, who was the only one who has been on this ship since 1902 and was able to rescue it several times from awkward situations .
On the morning of November 19, 1907, the Thomas W. Lawson lifted anchor at the pier of the Marcus Hook refinery (34 km south of Philadelphia ) and, with the assistance of a tow, sailed down the Delaware into the Atlantic for her first transatlantic voyage to London (3,077 nautical miles) . This time she was chartered for the Anglo-American Oil Co. Light Oil . The New York Times reported 2,003,063 gallons of oil as cargo in its December 15, 1907 article on the sinking of the schooner. The team was composed as follows:
George Washington Dow (59), 1st Officer Bent P. Libby (34) from Marlborough, Mass. , 2nd Officer O. Crocker, 40, from New York ; Purser (Steward) George Miller (37) Boston, cabin boy Mark Sanson (17) from Brooklyn, New York (according to other sources Mark Stenson), engineer Edward L. Rowe (35) of Wiscasset , Maine , the heater for the steam engine John Krase (38) and Z. Olanssen (36) from Sweden, the seamen Gustav England (28) and John Lunde (25) from Norway, Ole Olsen (21) and A. Petersen (26) from Denmark, PA Burke (25) from Tonawanda , NY , L. Garridon (22) from Caracas , Venezuela , N. Peterson (24) from Riga , then Russia, George W. Allen (27) from Battersea (according to the New York Times of December 15, 1907 from Bradford ), England, as well as Gustav Böhnke (27) from Berlin and Anton Andrade (24) from Austria, a total of seven Americans, one British, one South American, six Scandinavians, one Russian, one German and one Austrian.
After a stormy crossing of 24 days (with an average etmal of 152 nautical miles) she had damage to the rig, the equipment on deck, loss of most of the sails, lost two of the three lifeboats , but above all blocked bilge pumps, after passing through hatch No. 6 penetrated seawater had mixed with the coal for the steam generators. Near the Isles of Scilly she encountered severe weather with poor visibility.
In the early afternoon of December 13, the schooner ran north-west of the archipelago 4 nautical miles north of the lighthouse Bishop Rock from the north-east coming too early on a south-easterly course into an extremely dangerous sea area, that is to the rocky sea west of St. Agnes, Annet and the Western Rocks . Captain Dow, closer to the islands than expected, anchored his ship west of Annet Island and 1.5 nautical miles north of Hellweather's Reef (south of Annet) . Captain Dow was practically on the "wrong" side of the islands, he had come too close to the islands due to poor visibility and the relocation of cutlery (incorrect position calculation ). He should have sailed further north on the original south-westerly course and only further west and then at a safe distance from the islands on a south-east course into the English Channel .
From the islands of St. Agnes and St. Mary's the great ship was observed and distress lifeboats were suspended. The Bishop Rock lighthouse keeper fired flares . The recommendation of the skipper George Mortimer from St. Agnes to abandon the ship, was rejected by Captain Dow with the remark that he only needed a pilot . While pilot William "Cook" Hicks with Trinity House patent (founded in 1514 under Henry VIII ; highest British pilotage license ) was taken on board, the storm increased. The pilot tried in vain to persuade the master, despite the few intact sails and the totally exhausted crew, to maneuver the schooner out of this area into safer water, which would have been an option and possibly a rescue. The boat of St. Agnes Charles Deere James had to turn and run back due to serious illness of a crew member. The other lifeboat, named Henry Dundas , which ran out of St. Mary's, collided with the stern of the schooner in the stormy seas, broke the mast, and turned around. Tugs requested from Falmouth could not reach the ship because of the storm, and there was also no prospect of a renewed departure of lifeboats.
The schooner remained at anchor until the storm force 9 hit it after 1 a.m. after midnight . After the port anchor chain broke, the ship began to drive away at the starboard anchor, and after a further 30 minutes the starboard chain also broke, leaving the ship at the mercy of the sea. Captain Dow gave orders to put on life jackets and get into the rigging. The ship headed northwest towards the rock island Shag Rock (a few 100 m southwest of Annet), ran aground, which instantly tore open the hull, and was thrown on the starboard side of the rock island by the huge swell. It swung back into the boiling sea and hit the rocks again, rolling violently. All masts buckled over port and fell into the sea, dragging many sailors with them, the ship broke apart behind the sixth mast, capsized and sank. The stern with the rearmost mast drifted away and then sank - with him the pilot Wm. Hicks and others who were in the rigging of the mizzen mast.
At dawn on December 14, only part of the keel of the schooner could be seen, which later also disappeared. The captain was able to escape to a larger reef almost 1.5 nautical miles to the southeast, from where the pilot's son, Fred Cook Hicks, was able to recover him injured and exhausted during the next sea rescue mission the following noon. The Boston machinist Edward Rowe also made solid ground and survived. A third seaman from England, George W. Allen, was found alive on an uninhabited island but died the next day on St. Mary's. All the rest, including the pilot, perished, a total of 17 men; only five bodies, of which only three could be identified (including the cabin boy Mark Stenson and the German seaman Gustav Böhnke), were later recovered. The six dead were buried in a communal grave in St. Mary's cemetery.
The shipwreck was one of the first, if not the first, oil spills at sea. Since the Thomas W. Lawson was loaded with light oil, nothing of the leaked oil could be seen as early as the summer of 1908, and a catastrophe comparable to that of the Torrey Canyon did not occur.
It was debated for a long time whether Captain George W. Dow had made the wrong decision to stay at anchor, especially in view of the pilot's suggestion, but this cannot be established with certainty. Captain Dow trusted his anchor chains more than his exhausted sailors and the battered rigging and the few sails that were left. With a bit of luck, less swell and a cheaper tide, he would have managed to survive the storm night with the Thomas W. Lawson .
Today the 17 m deep wreck is an attraction for scuba divers and can only be reached when the sea is calm (position 49 ° 53 ′ 38 ″ N , 6 ° 22 ′ 55 ″ W ).
Name of the masts
There were more than ten different systems for naming the seven masts, including one after the seven days of the week (Sunday-Saturday), which was used more for storytelling than at sea, but was used by a journalist for the "Boston Post" as a naming according to Thomas W. Lawson, the namesake. Originally they were numbered during construction according to the original sail plan (no. 1, no. 2, no. 3, no. 4, no. 5, no. 6, no. 7 or "spanker" instead of "no. 7") according to Axel Larson, a rigging foreman) and later named as follows:
- fore, main, mizzen, spanker, jigger, driver, pusher; (when launching)
- forecastle, fore, main, mizzen, jigger, spanker, after; (after launch)
- fore, main, mizzen, after mizzen, jigger, driver, spanker; (after Captain Arthur L. Crowley, first master of the Lawson , according to Captain Frank H. Peterson)
- fore, main, mizzen, no. 4, no. 5, no. 6, spanker; (also after Captain Arthur L. Crowley from a letter)
- fore, main, mizzen, no. 4, no. 5, no. 6, no. 7; (preferred name by the team)
- fore, main, mizzen, jigger, spanker, driver, rudder mast; (after Captain Wm. Holland, the former quartermaster of Thomas W. Lawson )
- fore, main, mizzen, spanker, rider, driver, jigger; (after Douglas Lawson, the son of the namesake)
- fore, main, mizzen, middle, spanker, driver, pusher; (According to another skipper, Captain Ernest D. Sproul)
- fore, main, mizzen, rusher, driver, jigger, spanker; (Manuscript in Bethlehem Steel Corporation shipyard, formerly Fore River Ship & Engine Building Co.)
- fore, main, mizzen, jigger, driver, pusher, spanker; in German: forward, large, cross, dance, driver, slider, mizzen mast; (American standard name, see gaff schooner )
According to naval author Hans-Joachim Greiffenhagen, it was also used after information from Captain PRJ Reynolds from Cold Spring Harbor ( New York ) (see Sea Breezes 6, 1971, p. 482). The last and largest sail on American three-masted and multi-masted schooners was usually referred to as “spanker”.
A designation according to the German system would be "front, main, main, middle, aft, cross, mizzen mast."
literature
- Jochen Brennecke: Windjammer . The great report on the development, travels and fate of the "Queens of the Seven Seas". 3. Edition. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1984; Cape. XXII - The largest of the sailing ships in the world, ISBN 3-7822-0009-8 , pp. 300–301.
- WP Coughlin: The Last Voyage of the Thomas W. Lawson . 1964.
- Peter Rodd: Wreck of Thomas W. Lawson . In: The American Neptune. Vol. 29, Salem (USA), 1969, pp. 133-138.
- Thomas Hall: The TW Lawson - The Fate of the World's Only Seven-Masted Schooner. Scituate , 2005.
- Thomas Hornsby: The Last Voyage of the Thomas W. Lawson . In: Nautical Research Journal. Vol. 5, 1959, pp. 53-59, 61.
- Disaster at Scilly - American Sailing Ship Lost. In: The Western Weekly News. Hugh Town , Isles of Scilly (Great Britain), December 21, 1907.
Web links
- More photos by Thomas W. Lawson
- ... before the maiden voyage ( memento from April 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- ... in ballast in the roadstead, 1902
- ... at the equipment quay for rigging, July 1902
- ... at the Curtis Bay shipyard in the Port of Baltimore, 1903 ( Memento from November 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ... unloaded, in the roadstead in Boston harbor
- Contemporary press reports about the disaster (English)
- Ship model
- Thomas W. Lawson at www.bruzelius.info
Footnotes
- ↑ Photo source - The masts were shortened in 1903 by the stanchions, which were not put back in place until 1906. The fuselage was initially painted light - black indicates the later time.
- ↑ fleetsheet.com
- ^ Thomas Hall: The TW Lawson - The Fate of the World's Only Seven-Masted Schooner. Scituate, 2005.
- ↑ According to some sources (such as Bruzelius) the lower masts were also used for tank ventilation . The Navahoe built by Harland & Wolff in 1908 , a 7,718 GRT tanker - barge towed by the tanker Iroquois , had such a six-mast schooner rigging, which in any case was intended to be used for ventilation, but also as an emergency rig if the tow rope broke.
- ^ Thomas Hall: The TW Lawson - The Fate of the World's Only Seven-Masted Schooner. Scituate, 2006.
- ↑ Depending on the source, between 2.25 million and 2.45 million gallons (53,571 to 58,300 barrels ).
- ↑ Vessel was not injured. In: The New York Times. December 15, 1907.
- ↑ The anchors weighed 5 t each, the chain length was 150 fathoms (274 m) on port and 90 fathoms (165 m) for the starboard anchor.