Wyoming (ship)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wyoming
Schooner Wyoming, 1917.JPG
Ship data
flag United States 48United States United States
Ship type Freighter
Shipyard Percy & Small, Bath
building-costs $ 175,000
Launch December 15, 1909
Commissioning December 21, 1909
Whereabouts Sunk on March 11, 1924
Ship dimensions and crew
length
137.2 m ( Lüa )
102.5 m ( KWL )
100.4 m ( Lpp )
width 15.2 m
Draft Max. 9.3 m
displacement Maximum: 10,164 t
measurement 3,730 GRT
 
crew 13 to 14 men
Rigging and rigging
Rigging Gaff saver
Number of masts 6th
Number of sails 22nd
Sail area 3,700 m²
Speed
under sail
Max. 16 kn (30 km / h)
Transport capacities
Load capacity 6,100 dw

The Wyoming [ waɪˈoʊmɪŋ ] was an American six-masted gaff schooner from Bath , Maine . She was the largest wooden schooner, the largest six-masted schooner and also the longest wooden ship in the world ( overall length : 137.2 m / 450 ft).

description

The hull of Wyoming was in a composite structure made of pine wood built and reinforced with 90 iron diagonal strips per page, as the keel through sheet iron segments. Her jib boom measured approx. 30 m, her mizzen tree 27 m. The surrounding white railing was also made of wood. She was a real smooth-decker, that is, there was no back and no poop on her top deck . Three deckhouses were sunk into the upper deck fore, amidships and aft, plus five large hatches with their own loading gear. As with all American three- and multi-masted schooners, all gaff sails were the same size except for the last one. The spanker (amerik. Engl. Spanker sail) was significantly larger than the other gaffsail and the Besanbaum even surpassed the most rear transversely on davits hinged Kapitänsgig to 2 m. As modern equipment at the time, it was equipped with an on-board telephone system and radio, the antenna ran between the dance and mizzen mast. In a modification of the common practice of American naming after famous people, the great sailor was named after the US state of Wyoming , as the seventh Governor of Wyoming, Bryant B. Brooks , was an investor in the ship. The six-master could no longer be named after the governor himself, as there was already a five-mast gaff schooner called Governor Brooks (2,628 GRT), also built in 1907 by Percy & Small on their own account. The schooner could load a maximum of 6,100 t and ran for years on the Delaware and Chesapeake coal voyages (English: collier or "coal carrier") along the American east coast. The crew was only 13 to 14 men, including officers , as the ship had steam-powered auxiliary units. The Wyoming was considered a very beautiful and imposing ship with slender lines, and according to Captain McLeod, despite its size, it was a good sailor and easy to handle like a yacht. As with all large wooden schooners, their wooden hull suffered from the stress of cargo and swell : twisting, warping and bending of the hull ("hogging" - bending of the ship's center upwards and " sagging " - bending downwards). The ship had to be pumped constantly from the beginning and had considerable problems on the high seas due to its size and wooden construction, which is why it sailed close to the coast if possible.

The names of the masts on the large six-masted schooners were:

  • fore, main, mizzen, jigger, driver, spanker (mast) - fore, large, cross, dance, driver, mizzen mast (German designation)

history

The Wyoming , christened by the governor's wife Lena Brooks with a bouquet of roses, was the last of the nine wooden six-masted gaff schooners to sail on December 15, 1909 around 12:45 p.m. in Bath, Maine, on the banks of the Kennebec River at the shipyard of Percy & Small New England's completely rigged from the stack, marveled by a huge crowd, and set sail on December 21st after the completion of equipment and supplies under Captain Angus McLeod on her maiden voyage. The company Percy & Small (451 Washington St., Bath ME, founded in 1894 by Captain Samuel Rogers Percy (1856-1940) and Frank Albion Small (1865-1917)) was the largest schooner in New England and produced seven of the ten six-masted gaff schooners alone New England's by water, of which she managed two, plus fifteen five-masted schooners, nineteen four-masted schooners and several smaller ships.

Six-masted schooners were a relatively rare type of ship and always attracted spectators, especially when entering ports outside of New England. In addition to the nine wooden six-masters from New England, there was also the only steel six-masted schooner ( William L. Douglas , shipping sister of Thomas W. Lawson ) and some wooden six-masters from Oregon (US west coast) such as the Oregon Fir , Oregon Pine , Fort Laramie and Dorothy H Sterling . There were also four four-masted sailboats converted to six-masted schooners ( County of Linlithgow (1887), Kenilworth (1887), Daylight (1902), Hans (1904)) and the Navahoe (1908), a tow barge with six-masted schooner support rigging.

The Wyoming was with 7,718  GRT (9,250 tons charge) of the largest ever built sailors. In the course of her 14 years at sea, the Wyoming has changed hands three times. Until 1917 she drove for Percy & Small on a coal voyage close to the coast, the last year of which in charter for the International Paper Co. As soon as the charter expired, the large schooner was sold to the France & Canada Steamship Co., Montreal (~ 350,000 US- Dollars ) and registered in New York . Under this shipowner, she also made transatlantic trips to France and later to Genoa and Santos , Brazil . In 1921, the ship's captain Frost (A. W. Frost & Co.) bought the schooner, with Portland (Maine) as home port, and used it again on the east coast voyage to Canada.

On March 11, 1924, the large schooner , deeply dumped with coal , sank on the voyage from Norfolk , Virginia , to St. John , New Brunswick , when a northeast storm weathered in Nantucket Sound near Chatham, Massachusetts, south of Cape Cod . All thirteen sailors including Captain Charles Glaesel were killed. Coincidentally, the schooner's sponsor, ex-Governor Bryant B. Brooks and his wife from a trip to Europe via Halifax, were not far from the site of the sinking and learned of the disaster on arrival in New York. The wreck could not be found despite intensive search projects first. Meanwhile, it was at position 41 ° 32 '  N , 69 ° 54'  W coordinates: 41 ° 32 '0 "  N , 69 ° 54' 0"  W located. Today it is assumed that the keel of the deeply loaded sailor broke in a storm when it hit the shallow sea and the ship sank as a result. Another Percy & Small schooner, the five-master Cora F. Cressy (1902, 2,499 GRT), lay next to the Wyoming for two days , also waiting for better weather. When the storm got stronger, Captain Charles N. Publicover lifted the anchor and looked for the open sea with storm sails. The ship and crew survived the storm.

Ship data

See also

References

  1. Ralph Linwood Snow & Capt. Douglas K. Lee: A Shipyard in Maine. Percy & Small and the Great Schooners . Tilbury House, Gardiner (ME) 1999.
  2. Ship details on Wreckhunter.net
  3. ^ New York Times, December 16, 1909

literature

  • Ralph Linwood Snow & Capt. Douglas K. Lee (Ed.): A SHIPYARD IN MAINE, Percy & Small and the Great Schooners . Tilbury House, Gardiner (ME) 1999; ISBN 0-88448-193-X
  • CS Morgan: New England Coasting Schooners . The American Neptune Vol. 23, 1963.
  • WJ Lewis Parker: The Great Coal Schooners of New England 1870-1909 . Mystic, CT (USA), 1948.

Web links