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I hadn't heard Frank's interesting tale before, about the astronomer von
Zach and the negro cook.

Into that tale he wove some stuff about the "Thomas W Lawson", the immense
American 7-mast schooner, which he says was "converted into a bulk crude oil
carrier- an early oil tanker". I wonder about that, because in those days
oil cargoes usually went as case oil. According to Kemp's "Oxford companion
to ships and the sea", the bulk oil tanker, as such, wasn't developed until
the next decade. Previously, Lawson had been used as a barge, under tow
without rigging, rather ignominiously, carrying oil from Texas to
Philadelphia. According to David MacGregor's "The Schooner", her cargo was
case oil on her last voyage under sail, across the Atlantic, a hundred years
ago.

Indeed, when she (if one can call Thomas W Lawson a "she") was wrecked on
the Scillies, MacGregor says that she had anchored in the open sea to ride
out a gale, but her anchor chains parted and she was driven ashore, with
only two survivors. I wonder what brought that about. There would be no
reason to call at the Scillies, and no safe anchorage there for a merchant
vessel: perhaps a weather shift had turned what had been shelter into a lee
shore. Normally, mariners would do their damnedest to keep well clear of the
Scillies, especially in a gale, rather than seek shelter there. Did a
navigational error put here there?

Paradoxically, it was the growth of steam shipping that provided the
motivation for building those immense East-coast schooners. There were two
likely cargoes, lumber and coal. The coal was carried by sailing vessels to
the refuelling stops on the main ocean steamship routes, places such as
Gibraltar, Aden, Falkland. It was a profitable trade, and the Lawson could
carry 9200 tons of the stuff, with a crew of only 16, helped by a donkey
engine for handling the sails.

With seven masts, and seven enormous booms and gaff sails, I bet a gybe was
fun.

George.

contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.


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