Subscribe to the 
Thomas W. Lawson - Poem
By Todd Stephens Todd Stevens on 26 September 2008
On the 14th December 1907 the Thomas W Lawson, the largest sailing Schooner ever built, got into trouble in a gale in amongst the Islands. Her Master, Captain Dow, anchored her a very precarious position out in Broad Sound. Dow was advised by local Pilots and the lifeboat crew to move his ship to a more sheltered position, but all that day he refused any help or advice offered. Even when told it was time to abandon his ship he did not listen.
That night the ship was lost to the Rocks just West of Annet Island taking all but two of her crewmen with her; one of which was Dow.
Although the TW Lawson was a massive vessel, basically an oil tanker of her day, she only needed about sixteen men to crew her. This was because her sails could be set and taken in automatically, by way of the revolutionary donkey steam engines at the base of each mast.
The ship was nicknamed the “Picket Fence” by those who knew her well, as that is what her seven masts resembled from a distance.
The wreck of the T W Lawson was the first ever oil pollution disaster at sea; inhabitants of the isles of Scilly suffered the stench for months afterwards.
This ship was an attempt by the USA to reinvigorate the golden age of sail; the attempt ended here; steam was the future.
The Picket Fence
An Original Poem By
Todd Stevens
Built in Quincy Massachusetts
by Crowley; Crowninshield
The Thomas W Lawson was
the biggest Schooner in her field.
A ship four hundred feet in length
and fifty broad all told.
Two and a half million gallons
was the storage capacity in her hold.
Seven masts that pierced the sky
were named of days of all the week,
carrying canvas weighing twenty tons
and forty thousand full square feet.
Eleven thousand tons displaced
her hull was tall and sound.
But five thousand tons of rivet steel
was soon to go aground.
Anchors weighing five tons each
for the biggest schooner off the blocks.
Tho’ eighty five pounds per link
her chains couldn’t keep her from the rocks.
Anchored among the Scilly Isles
her cable breaks amidst a gale,
With only one great anchor still attached
and this was also soon to fail.
Dragging through an angry sea
the ship moves from the west.
and a hundred thousand rivets
are soon put through a greater test.
An over confident Captain Dow
had turned the rescue gigs away.
But now heading towards the Ranney Rocks
he wished he’d bid them stay.
Much to big to manoeuvre in time
Dow knew his ship was lost,
even if the donkey steam engines
had set her sails aloft.
In dark of night the Lawson struck
the rocks off Annet Isle.
She split and sank and went to pieces
and the wreckage stretched for miles.
Morning brought a woeful sight
Charles dear James first to the scene.
Only Captain Dow and one other saved
amidst a sea thick with kerosene.
Contact
Author: Todd Stephens
Todd Stevens
Email: info@travel-dive.com
Article Comments
