The T.W. Lawson: The Fate of the World's Only Seven-Masted Schooner

By Thomas Hall

Armed with curiosity and a desire to piece together the story of the world's only seven-masted schooner, Tom Hall spent several years researching on both sides of the Atlantic, diving on the Lawson wreck and interviewing the relatives of those involved in the rescue efforts. The result of his work is the most complete account of the T. W. Lawson's story, ranging from her building and launch to her fated wreck off the Scilly Isles.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Oct 16, 2006
• ISBN: 9781614236504

Thomas Hall

Thomas Hall is a former English teacher and middle school and high school principal. Two of the schools where he was the principal received national recognition for their academic excellence. He and his wife Marcia live in Central Massachusetts. They have three adult children.Mr. Hall was born on Long Island, New York and lived there for the first seventeen years of his life before his family moved to Massachusetts. After graduating from high school he received a full athletic scholarship to Northeastern University for track. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Northeastern.Although writing has always been a passion, he limited his efforts to short stories and non-fiction articles until after he retired and had sufficient time to tackle a novel.When Mr. Hall is not writing, he enjoys reading, going to the movies, jogging, and playing softball. Over the past several years he has participated in numerous Senior Softball tournaments throughout the United States and Canada.He is currently working on his next novel. You can contact him at [e-mail].

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Part One

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Thomas W. Lawson

Boston financier, self-made man and taker of risks. In 1901, he worked with his partners to build and run the world’s first and only seven-masted schooner, the T.W. Lawson, which wrecked on the night of December 13–14, 1907, off of the Isles of Scilly.

Captain George Dow

Captain of the T.W. Lawson on her first and final transatlantic voyage in 1907. Captain Dow, from a well-known seafaring family of Hancock, Maine, was an experienced commander of large sailing ships. Captain Dow was one of two survivors of the T.W. Lawson’s wreck.

Engineer Edward Rowe

Veteran engineer on the T.W. Lawson (he righted the Lawson when she almost capsized in Sabine, Texas, and again in Newport News, Virginia). Rowe was, with Captain Dow, one of the two survivors of the ship’s wreck.

Billy Cook (Hicks)

Trinity House–licensed pilot who boarded the T.W. Lawson on the night of December 13, 1907, to help steer the ship to safety. Cook was a crewmember on the lifeboat Charles Deere James when it sailed out to the rescue of the T.W. Lawson. He died in the shipwreck.

Freddie Cook (Hicks)

Son of Billy Cook, on the rescue lifeboat Charles Deere James the night of December 13, 1907, when his father boarded the T.W. Lawson. The next day, he pushed for a rescue crew to go out as quickly as possible. Though he was never able to find or rescue his father, Freddie Cook and the other rescuers found Captain Dow and engineer Rowe alive in a crevice in the rocks high above the water, and it was Freddie Cook who got them both to the rescue boat.

George Mortimer

Coxswain of the lifeboat Charles Deere James on December 13, 1907. Mortimer took the lifeboat out and offered to rescue the crew of the T.W. Lawson, dangerously anchored in a gale among the rocks off the island of St. Agnes, but Captain Dow declined the offer.

Bowdoin B. Bodie Crowninshield

Designer of the schooner T.W. Lawson and America’s Cup challenger Independence. A member of the foremost family of naval architects from Marblehead, Massachusetts, Bodie specialized in small racing schooners and fishing boats. He was in his mid-thirties when work began on the T.W. Lawson.

John and Arthur Crowley

Partners with Lawson and Crowninshield in the vision and building of the schooner T.W. Lawson. John Crowley ran the Coastwise Shipping Company; Arthur Crowley captained the company’s bigger ships, including the T.W. Lawson schooner (though he was not the skipper for its only transatlantic voyage in 1907).

George Allen

The only English sailor on the T.W. Lawson and the only person found alive on the shore of Annet Island, along with the mangled bodies and body parts. George Allen did not survive his wounds.

First Mate Bent P. Libby

Sailor called out of retirement by Captain Dow for the T.W. Lawson’s transatlantic voyage. Libby had retired from sea life to work in Boston and raise a family but sailed on this voyage as a favor to Captain Dow. He did not survive the wreck.

Mark Groves

Master diver and owner of Nowhere Dive Shop on the Isles of Scilly. It was Groves who discovered the Firebrand, one of Sir Cloudesley Shovel’s ships wrecked in 1707. Mark took me down to the wreck of the Lawson, off the uninhabited island of Annet.

Thomas Hall

Me. I grew up in Scituate, Massachusetts, where Thomas W. Lawson had his family estate, Dreamwold, and planned the building of his visionary but doomed seven-masted schooner. It’s been satisfying and thrilling for me to dive on the wreck and spend time in the Isles of Scilly, where I’ve become friends with many of the islanders.

Alec Collyer

Underwater photographer. Collyer put together the film that the BBC made about the wreck of the T.W. Lawson and our dives on the wreck itself. Alec has also come to the States and helped give lectures and slide shows about the Lawson and the disaster.

Osbert Hicks

Son of Jack Hicks and grandson of the Osbert Hicks who was part of the rescue mission on Saturday morning, December 14, 1907. Osbert Hicks the grandson lives in the old family house on St. Agnes and travels all around the Isles of Scilly by boat. He was very generous to me with his time and with information, stories and memories of the wreck of the Lawson and other island history.

TIMELINE

Friday, December 13