January 2015 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 25. HISTORY FROM THE PAST - Bangor Daily Commercial - Early 1900s


cases where sailing craft have been driven so far south of Cape Horn that they encountered ice and escaped by the merest chance. It is possible that some of the missing fl eet may have had a like experience, for it was mid-winter when they were trying to round the stormy cape. Perhaps they may have collided with icebergs and were destroyed, or perchance they are bucking head winds and seas, supplies dwindled and exhausted crews on short rations in an almost futile attempt to recover distance lost in encounters with fi erce winds in the midst of driving, blinding snowstorms. The ice peril south of Cape Horn is ever present and sometimes the great bergs find their way close to land. Shipping men recall the experience of the schooner WILLIAM NOTTINGHAM that brought a cargo of spars from the Pacifi c not long ago. The NOTTINGHAM drove into a monster berg, striking it squarely end on. KING PROVIDENCE saved the vessel from instant destruction. Her deck was almost stove by tons of ice dislodged from the berg, crushing down with terrifi c force. Temporary repairs enabled the NOTTINGHAM to reach port. Had coal freighter struck the berg the chances are she would have sunk immediately.


The vessel for which latest anxiety is felt is the wooden bark ADOLPH OBRIG, from Philadelphia April 10 for San Francisco and has now been out 225 days. The average time to her destination is 140 to 150 days. She carried in addition to offi cers 12 seamen and a boy. The bark was built at Rockport in 1881.


14 December 1907 Sch. T. W. LAWSON Lost in Gale Seven-Master Wrecked Near Scilly Ids. – All But One of Crew Perished. Disaster Came on Friday, the 13th Queer Coincidence in Title of Mr. Lawson’s Book – Vessel Turned Turtle in the Night.


Hugh Town, Scilly Islands, December


14. – The seven-masted schooner THOMAS W. LAWSON was wrecked in Broad sound, Scilly islands, during a fi erce gale Friday night, and so far as known, all of her crew, excepting one man, were lost.


The schooner turned turtle during the night and is now fl oating bottom up. Three dead bodies have been found off Annet island, and uninhabited islet of the Scilly group. The sole survivor, who has been landed at St. Agnes by the St. Agnes life boat, is only partly conscious at this writing. Signals of distress were heard at the Bishop Rock lighthouse at 4 o’clock Friday afternoon. Two lifeboats at once put out and found the THOMAS LAWSON anchored in a dangerous position just north of Gunner’s rock. Great seas were running and the lifeboats, although they stood by the LAWSON for several hours, were unable to render assistance on this account. At the request of the captain of the


LAWSON the St. Mary’s lifeboat, the masts of which had been broken off in attempting in rescue the crew of the schooner, put back with the purpose of telegraphing for a tug to come to the assistance of the LAWSON. The St. Agnes lifeboat was left standing by. A little later, however, this lifeboat had to leave as one of its crew was believed to be dying of exposure while the others were almost completely exhausted. At about ten minutes before 3 Saturday morning the lookouts at the St. Agnes and Bishops Rock lighthouses and the coast guards missed the lights of the LAWSON at the same time, and when a lifeboat returned to the scene, oil fl oating on the waves indicated the disaster. A few minutes later the lifeboat crew found


the LAWSON bottom up. Searching in the vicinity, the St. Agnes life boat picked up the solitary survivor, a man named George Allen of London and found three bodies off Anett island. The survivor and the dead were brought back to St. Agnes.


The gale is still blowing fi ercely and the seas are running mountain high. A doctor from St. Mary’s has gone out in a life boat to render assistance to any possible survivors. Among the drowned is W. C. Hicks, a Scilly pilot, who managed to scramble on board the LAWSON during one of the attempts of the St. Agnes life boats to help the ill fated ship. Eighteen Drowned.


The search up to noon failed to reveal any further survivors and it now seems to be established that Allen is the only member of the crew who did not lose his life. The number of drowned is said to be 18. Allen was very seriously injured and the doctor in attendance is doubtful if he will live out the day.


From scraps of information that have been obtained from the semi-conscious man, it seems that the THOMAS W. LAWSON encountered prolonged bad weather and lost all her boats on the trip out from Philadelphia. She sighted the Scilly Islands Friday afternoon and fi nding herself in a dangerous position, dropped both anchors, the captain hoping that the weather would moderate.


The captain though it wise to send back one of the lifeboats that came out to secure the assistance of a steam tug. The St. Agnes lifeboat continued to stand by the straining schooner until the exhausted condition of its crew made it absolutely necessary to seek the shelter of a harbor.


At midnight the wind rose to hurricane force and the vessel battered by the waves fi nally turned over.


Allen says that he last saw the captain and mate of the LAWSON and the pilot lashed to the rigging. The LAWSON’s Crew


Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December


14. – The news of the wreck of the big seven masted schooner THOMAS W. LAWSON at the Scilly islands was received here Saturday with much sorrow. The LAWSON cleared from this port November 19 for London with a cargo of 2,003,063 gallons of gas oil in bulk valued at $71,205. She was commanded by Capt. Dow and carried a crew of 18 men.


The names of the crew as furnished by the United States shipping commissioner at this port are as follows: Master, G. W. Down, Melrose, Massachusetts; first mate, B. P. Libby, aged 34, Marlboro, Massachusetts; second mate, O. Crocker, 40, New York; steward, George Miller, 37, Boston; cabin boy, Mark Sanson, 17, Brooklyn, New York; engineer, E. L. Rowe, 35, Wiscasset, Maine; fi remen, John Krase, 68, Sweden, and Z. Olanssen, 36, Sweden; seamen, Gust Englund, 28, Norway; Oie Olesen, 21, Denmark; P. A. Burke, 25, Tonawanda, New York; G. A. Garridon, 22, Caracas, Venezuela; N. Peterson, 24, Riga, Russia; G. W. Allen, 37, Bradford, England; A. Peterson, 26, Demark; Gustay Bohnke, 27, Berlin, Germany; Anton Audrade, 24, Austria. Carried Oil Cargo.


Boston, Massachusetts, December 14.


– The seven-masted schooner THOMAS W. LAWSON, the only vessel of her rig ever constructed was owned by the Coastwise Transportation Co. of this city. She was designed by Bowdoin B. Crowninshield of Boston, and built at the yards of the Fore River Shipbuilding Co. at Quincy, being


launched in 1902. THOMAS W. LAWSON, the well-known fi nancier, was a part owner in the boat. Mr. Crowninshield having designed his yacht INDEPENDENCE the year before.


, the title of Mr. Lawson’s book, which recounts days of the disaster.


For three years after the LAWSON was put into commission she was used steadily in the coastwise coal trade between southern ports and this city and carried cargoes which averaged over 7500 tons. She met with a number of minor accidents, and although it was claimed that she paid over 22 per cent on her investment, the Coastwise company chartered her two years ago to the Sun Oil Co. of Philadelphia. The LAWSON, shorn of her top-masts, was used as a barge for carrying oil between Port Arthur, Texas and northern ports. Recently her topmasts were set up again and the Sun Co. started her across the Atlantic under sail with a cargo of oil from Philadelphia. It is a singular coincidence that the THOMAS W. LAWSON was wrecked on “Friday the 13th”


The vessel registered 5,218 gross and 4,914 tons net burden. She was 375 feet over all, 50 feet beam and 23 feet draught and usually carried a crew of 18 men. The vessel was valued at about $300,000, and was not insured. She was commanded by Capt. George W. Dow, of Melrose, Massachusetts, who has a wife in that city.


First mate, James Libbey of Everett, Massachusetts; engineer, Edward Rowe of East Boston; steward, Edward Miller of Gloucester.


The balance of the crew, so far as known was obtained in New York or Philadelphia. The officials of the Coastwise


Transportation Co., stated Saturday that the LAWSON carried, in addition to Capt. Dow, two mates, three engineers, two cooks, and ten men before the masts. The company only knew the names of four of those on board, being those already given.


Capt. Irow was 60 years old and a well-known mariner, having commanded the schooners EVERGLADES, ALBERT L. BUTLER, and the barks COLORADO and AUBURNDALE. He left the last named vessel several months ago to take command of the LAWSON. In addition to his widow, who resides in Melrose he leaves two sons in this city.


It is understood that the LAWSON was chartered to the Sun Oil Co., of Philadelphia, which is controlled by the Standard Oil Co., for a long term of years and upon exceedingly lucrative terms. British Gunboat Lost, Thames Valley Flooded


London, December 14. – The fi erce gales which have raged on the coasts of the United Kingdom for the past few days show little signs of abating and heavy rains have fl ooded almost all the interior lowlands. Communication generally is much hampered.


The harbors are crowded with vessels that have run in for shelter. There have been many small wrecks but outside of the loss of the THOMAS W. LAWSON, the fatalities thus far are not numerous.


One serious wreck happened near Sheerness Saturday morning. The cutter gunboat SPEAKWELL was struck by a heavy sea and went down. There were 13 liberty men on board at the time and only fi ve of them were rescued. The entire Thames valley is a huge


lake. The river is out of its banks and rising rapidly. The ground fl oors of scores of riverside residences are uninhabitable.


16 December 1907 7-Masters Fated


Shipping Men Say LAWSON is the Last of it Kind.


Are Too Unwieldy


H. M. Bean of Camden, Has Said That Steam Vessel Can Discount Large Schooners.


The chief topic of conversation among shipping men in this city is the wreck of the seven-masted schooner THOMAS W. LAWSON at the Scilly Islands off the coast of England Friday night. Although the LAWSON was never seen in Maine waters, shipping men felt more than an ordinary interest in it owing to its size and much regret is felt over is loss. The THOMAS W. LAWSON was the


world’s largest schooner and the only seven master in the world. She was built of steel and was in every way an experiment which as the steamship GREAT EASTERN was in her day. She was an enormous carrier, being able to take nearly 8,000 tons of coal, but she seldom carried this amount because it made her so deep in the water that she was unable to get up over the shoals off Cape Cod, or across other shoals along the coast in the regular traveled path of coastwise shipping. The LAWSON never came to Portland but she was well-known to Portland sailors, who have seen her in other ports. The fact that she should have turned turtle, loaded as she was with a big cargo of oil was a source of great surprise to local shipping men today. It was believed that so long as she remained off shoals and rocks that a person on her would be almost as safe as he would be on land.


Shipping men in this city are of the opinion that another seven masted schooner will never be built if the LAWSON proves a total loss as now seems probable. The LAWSON was built as a sort of experiment and its loss will probably decide ship builders in favor or smaller craft. According to ship builders the six master is about as large as can be handled with any degree of facility or profi t. Over that limit a schooner borders on the freak and its worth is questionable.


H. M. BEAN of Camden, a well-known ship builder of this section of the state, some time ago prophesized that the seven master would prove a failure and that another one would never be built. Mr. Bean said that a schooner of the size of the LAWSON was unwieldly and that diffi culty would be experienced in fi nding harbors and decks large enough to accommodate it. He further stated that steam vessels were rapidly discounting the large sized schooners, owing to their speed in getting from port to port and other advantages which rendered them much to be preferred to the sailing craft.


24 December 1907 Failed to Float Wrecked Calais Vessel The E. Waterman Still Ashore on Rocks at Gloucester – May Lighten Cargo. Gloucester, Massachusetts, December


24. – Two tugs and the life saving crew from the Dolliver’s Neck station made an ineffectual attempt Tuesday to fl oat the Calais schooner E. WATERMAN, which went Monday. The tugs sent heavy hawsers aboard the schooner at high water and tugged for nearly two hours but without budging the stranded craft. The attempt was fi nally abandoned.


Capt. Frank Blake, commander of the


schooner, said Tuesday that if he could get permission from the owners of the vessel he would lighter the cargo of coal and make an attempt to have the schooner fl oated then. It was believed by the life savers and tugboat crews that the only prospect of saving the schooner would be to have her cargo


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