Fore, Main, Mizzen, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6 and Spanker. The Lawson was highly mechanized; she had seven deck engines for handling sails, cargo and for pumping the ship. To provide steam for these engines there were two separate boiler rooms with horizontal stacks. The boilers not only heated the crew's living quarters but also ran a generator for electric light, which at the time was a luxury known only to steamers. The ship was also equipped with a 60-hp steam steering engine as well as a powerful windlass, also run by steam. Unlike the average sailing vessel whose donkey engine was only for occasional use, the Lawson's steam plant was as essential as a steamer's engine. It was only by means of this auxiliary power that the enormous vessel could be steered and her heavy gear and sails handled. The company claimed that these contrivances saved them the wages of twenty seamen. The Lawson sailed with a crew of only sixteen, one of whom was a deck engineer. The crew were paid about $35 a month which apparently was not enough to attract and keep experienced sailors. New hands were carried on nearly every trip, many of whom were not even qualified able seamen. In spite of the power of her two boilers, the Lawson depended completely on her sails for propulsion. She was difficult to handle under canvas, being sluggish and unwieldy. Her high bow would sometimes catch the wind and prevent her coming about. When this happened she would be forced to wear around or, if there was not sea-room enough, to anchor. Intended for the coal trade between Virginia and New England ports, it was soon found that the Lawson was too large and awkward for coastal work, her deep draft preventing her from using the smaller harbors. It was also realized too late that her schooner rig with its excessive chafe and liability to jibe made her unsuited for long passages over the world's great trade routes. One wonders, with the wisdom of hindsight, how these obvious facts had escaped her owners as well as her designer, Mr. Crowninshield.
* * **
After a few years as a coal carrier the Lawson was fitted with wooden bulkheads and converted to carry oil in bulk. She made regular runs between the Delaware River and Sabine Pass, Texas, often being towed by the powerful tug Paul Jones. The Lawson carried a huge amount of water ballast in her double bottoms and once turned over when being loaded and was only righted with great difficulty. Previously she had nearly rolled over at SEA HISTORY, WINTER 1980
Newport News but was held up by her wire spring lines. In 1907 the Coastwise Transportation Company, which by then had built another ship, the six-masted William L. Douglas, turned the Lawson over to the Sun Oil Company on a 5-year charter. On November 19 of that year she left Philadelphia for London with a cargo of over two million gallons of engine oil. The captain, George Dow, was from Hancock, Maine and the crew included men from Scandinavia, Russia, Germany, Austria and an Englishman, Edward Rowe, also from Maine, ran the deck machinery. The ship encountered a gale off Newfoundland, closely followed by another storm worse than the first. Fully loaded the Lawson had been described ''as a half tide rock never clear of the sweeping seas" and before long she had lost both her lifeboats together with her one liferaft. Even under bare poles the ship still made over 12 knots as the wind got behind her huge spars and hull pushing her eastward. Unable to get a sight, Captain Dow had no clear idea of his position and it was not until the afternoon of December 13, after 25 days at sea, that land was finally sighted. By this time, although the weather moderated, the Lawson was reduced to only six usable sails and could not be maneuvered so as to clear the land. By letting go both anchors and 250 tons of chain the crew managed to stop their ship only half a mile from the outlying reefs of the Scilly Isles, a group of low-lying islands some 40 miles off the coast of Cornwall. Often shrouded in fog, their position athwart the main shipping lanes had made them a source of anxiety to the masters of passing vessels since Phoenician times. Even in clear weather strong currents make the approaches dangerous and for centuries the inhabitants have made a precarious living by piloting and smuggling, and plundering the unnumbered wrecks for which a pilot came too late. When a large American vessel with seven masts was seen anchored in an exposed place off Annet Island, the two local lifeboats were immediately dispatched, although no dfstress signals had been seen. A lifeboat reached the Lawson about 5 PM, but the coxwain could get no answer so he approached the ship under oars with the intention of persuading the captain to slip his cables and run his ship to a place of safety. Captain Dow, however, secure in the knowledge of his huge anchors, only asked that tugs be summoned from Falmouth 90 miles away, meanwhile accepting the services of Trinity House pilot William Hicks. One lifeboat stood by, but as the weather worsened it could not risk
staying out longer and returned to the harbor promising to keep a good lookout for a signal of distress. From then on events moved to their inevitable conclusion and even years later the engineer, Rowe, was reluctant to speak about what happened. The gale continued to increase and as the seas began sweeping over the ship the crew climbed into the rigging. The port anchor chain parted about 1: 15 AM and the ship began dragging slowly towards the rocks. After the other chain broke an hour later it was only a matter of minutes before the ship struck the Hellweather's Reef broadside on. She broke in two almost immediately, both halves turning over and sinking. The pilot and officers had lashed themselves to the mizzen rigging and when the masts went over the side Rowe managed to jump clear. He was immediately swept overboard and found himself in the water holding on to a piece of bulkhead timber, buffeted by the waves and completely covered in heavy oil. The captain also managed to get clear and both men were eventually flung onto Hellweather's Rock some distance away. From the shore a watch had been kept all night. When the lights were seen to go out about 3 AM it was at first thought that the ship had slipped her cables and cleared the island, but dawn showed the Lawson on her side, fast being broken up by the huge seas. The inquest, held three days later at the principal town of St. Mary's, was fully reported by the London Times. Only Edward Rowe was able to testify, the other survivor, Captain Dow, being too badly injured to appear. The Coroner's report concluded, in the stilted language of the courtroom, that everything possibe had been done to save the ship and no blame could be attached to anyone. If it had really been a question of blame those responsible for sending the Lawson off on her final voyage should certainly have been called to testify.
****
The Lawson's deficiencies are so obvious and her ending so dramatic that it is easy to dismiss her as an outlandish freak and forget that in terms of human and mechanical energy she was extraordinarily efficient. To move over 8000 tons of cargo with no mechanical propulsion and only 17 men is still something of a feat. Nor was she a failure financially . She paid dividends of 66 per cent of her cost in her first three years of operation. Was the Lawson an anachronism-the last gasp of sail-or was she so far ahead of her time that it has taken us nearly 80 years to be again considering wind power to move the world's commerce? .t 25