7 Masts - Blog Posts

Schooner THOMAS W. LAWSON, 1902. The only 7 masted schooner ever built. Could sail 16-18 nots, faster than steamships of the time at ~ 9 knots. She carried primarily coal and oil in barrels. She sank off the Isles of Scilly, in a storm on Friday, 13th of December, 1907, killing all but two of her crew of eighteen and a harbor pilot. Her cargo of 58,000 barrels of light paraffin oil caused one of the first large marine oil spills. Thomas William Lawson (February 26, 1857 – February 7, 1925)[1] was an American businessman and writer. Lawson, who was intensely superstitious, wrote the novel "Friday the Thirteenth".