The Wyoming, Largest Wooden Sailing Vessel in the World, Launched

December 15, 2009 · Filed Under History, Ships 

wyoming3On December 15th, 1909, the six masted schooner Wyoming was launched at the Percy & Small shipyard on the Kennebec River, in Bath, Maine.  She was the largest wooden or steel sailing vessel of her day. (She was smaller than the ill-fatted seven masted steel schooner Thomas Lawson, launched in 1902 but sold as barge a year later.)   The Wyoming had a cargo deadwight of approximately 6,000 tons, sailed with a crew of 11-14, and was built for the East Coast coal trade.  She was lost with all hands  in a north-easterly gale off Nantucket in 1924.

I am struck by the irony that the impetus behind the last great rush to build sailing ships in the US, in this case, large schooners, was the increased demand for the fossil fuels. Most were built to carry coal.   The Thomas Lawson spent the last year of her life, 1906, as an oil tanker owned by Standard Oil.     The only surviving sailing oil tanker is the Falls of Clyde, now being restored in Hawaii.

From the New York Times, December 16th 1909:

BIG SCHOONER IS LAUNCHED.; The Wyoming, Largest Wooden Sailing Vessel in the World, Takes First Dip.

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