Lives Under Sail: A.M. Foley

Lives Under Sail

by A.M. Foley

Fifty years ago, Captain William T. Hooper of Hoopersville, Maryland, was working on his memoir. Captain Hooper had begun his offshore career at seventeen, coastal freighting as cook aboard the schooner Annie Hodges. At eightyfive years of age, he looked back on a lifetime “following the water,” with many sights and experiences to recall. One sight etched in his memory was Thomas W. Lawson, the largest-ever schooner, passing Hoopers Island. Perhaps sighting the seven-masted Lawson helped lure the youngster to leave Honga River waters and pursue coastal freighting.

To plan the Lawson, financier and yachtsman T. W. Lawson had commissioned B. B. Crowninshield, previously known for

Lives Under Sail week, Sunday through Saturday. Though totally wind dependent, designing small wooden racing Lawson pushed other technoloschooners. This schooner would gies in new directions. An elecbe 404 feet overall, constructed in tric plant provided incandescent 1902 of steel plate, built by Thomas lighting throughout. Crew’s quarWatson’s Fore River Shipyard in ters were heated by steam. UnQuincy, Massachusetts. surprisingly, though she predated

The Lawson’s concept was so radio communication, a telephone original, no designations even circuit connected the wheelhouse existed for seven masts. Crown- and engine rooms. Before foundinshield’s blueprints show them ing his shipyard, Thomas Watson as the Fore, Main, Mizzen, No. received what’s generally accepted 4, No. 5, No. 6 and Spanker. In as the first telephone call in his practice, this caused unworkable role as Alexander Graham Bell’s confusion between the Fore and assistant (“Mr. Watson, come No. 4 masts. Some used numerals here...” 1 through 7, but the masts became Realities of steel construction known popularly as days of the and costs gradually forced the

yachtsmen to strip eye-pleasing aspects from their plans, but apparently Captain Hooper and his island neighbors didn’t notice the fine points missing from Lawson. He writes, “We saw the Lawson once from here on the island. As she sailed up the Bay, word spread around the community of her presence, and many came out to look and admire this beautiful ship . . . People stood on their steps or lined the shore to watch. The ship was a magnificent sight to behold . . . ”

When he wrote those lines around 1970, engines had largely replaced the sails that had lured him from his Hoopers Island home. Looking westward, no doubt his mind’s eye still visualized grace- T. W. Lawson

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