Lawhill (courtesy of Clydeships)
Whilst her South African and Finnish trading days are well documented the records of her beginning and end remains slightly vague so I have compiled what I could find online some news paper clippings and articles below as well as copied her voyages as documented on Auke Visser's and Jukka Mikkola's website.
Lawhill fully loaded 7th March 1936 (courtesy S. Australian Maritime Museum)
"Off Corny pt with 5300 bags of wheat from Port Victoria and Hardwicke Bay"
Fortunately I found a write up, which I've copied down below, how the final years happened from a South African yachting magazine from 1978! I also found a draft document about her with old logs and characterizations of the Captains and a stability booklet made by Captain Kenneth Edwards and Roderick Anderson based on material received from Richard Cookson. Then I found out some old Swedish, Polish and Afrikaans articles that touches her most notable incidents, few deaths, a collision, near grounding and the verdict for becoming a prize of war and her sale when the end approached.
Lawhill in port (courtesy of J A Mikkola)
Lawhill in the media, below are articles from USA, South Africa, Australia, UK, Finland and Poland about Lawhill and incidents that took place in her lifespan. There is probably more in other archives of Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, etc, but alas, they're not freely open to the public or not available online. After reading a lot of material online I think that either reporters or the people telling the stories to the reporters did so tongue in cheek to see with how much they got away with.
Sometimes - quite a bit - I think!
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Official Journal of Indochina 22 June1893 listing Lawhill on the roads
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London Gazette 13 July 1900
This was most likely the notice due to the sale to W.B. Thompson, C. Barrie must have disbanded the owning company of Lawhill.
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Evening Express 08 August 1901
Steamer Glenogle, at Moji, reports that on the 5th of August, in lat 31deg N, long 126deg E, the British ship Lawhill, from Shanghai, spoken, with cargo shifted with list to starboard 30deg; refused assistance.
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San Francisco Call 30 August 1901
TACOMA. Aug. 23.— The steamship Glenogle, arriving to-day, reports having spoken the four-masted British bark Lawhill, Captain J.C.B. Jarvis, in distress August S, between Hong Kong and Moji. The Lawhill lay on her beam ends in a trough of the sea with a list of thirty to thirty-five degrees to starboard," heading westward. Her spars aloft were apparently intact, but were stripped of sail, those on the foremast hanging in rags.
After some difficulty and at great risk, owing to the heavy sea running, the Glenogle's port lifeboat was lowered and sent alongside the distressed vessel in charge of the first officer. Captain Jarvis reported his ship safe and declined an offer to tow him to Nagasaki, 210 miles distant, but asked that the Glenogle's surgeon be put on board, as the ship's carpenter had fallen from aloft and was seriously injured. Dr. Seeley responded and spent several hours with the injured man, rendering all possible aid. The Glenogle then proceeded on her way.
The Lawhill, a vessel of 2749 tons left New York February 27 with case oil for Shanghai and when sighted in distress vas bound from Shanghai to Kobe with part of the cargo of oil. Her crew reported that her cargo had shifted during a typhoon, which tore every sail to shreds, listing the vessel so that on August 7 her yardarms touched the water. She was drifting at the rate of two miles an hour and appeared to be in such serious straits that passengers on the Glenogle wagered she would never again be heard from.
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New York Tribune 03 January 1904
Standard Oil Company's ship Lawhill discharging oil at the bamboo wharf at the Celebes Islands
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Yakima Herald 22 September 1909
TURTLE RACES BIG VESSEL.
For 20 Days It Follows Vessel, Then Beat it Into Port only to Make Soup.
NEW YORK. Sept. 18.—With Capt. William Jarvis and the crew of the British ship Law-hill the old saying "as slow as a turtle" does not hold good, for the fine vessel that is in port today from the far east with a varied cargo of Oriental trappings brought also a turtle that followed the ship for a good part of 3,000 miles.
The fact that the turtle was able to keep up with the Lawhill does not in any way imply that the Lawhill was making poor headway toward the American shores across the Atlantic, for it kept up an average clip of nine knots through most of the way across the ocean. It was the turtle's speed and not the Lawhill's slowness that makes the feature of the story told on board the vessel. Affidavits are ready for the doubting Thomases who are on the Job with incredulity.
It was on Aug. 1 that Barney Trevor, the Lawhill's bos'un, discovered a turtle astern so close to the ship that all hands made ready for a try with harpoons and lines, duly baited, beast that seemed to cut through the water after the Lawhill without the slightest trouble.
Swims Like a Motor Boat.
All that day and all the next day and the day after that the members of the crew fished for the turtle, which kept up Its pace with the ship and never seemed to tire. The officers of the bark watched the proceedings with amusement. There was talk of lowering a boat and catching the turtle that way, only that it was believed that the boat might scare the turtle and end the fishing that was fine sport for the Lawhill's crew.
When days passed and the turtle remained in about the same position astern swimming like a young motor boat and keeping one eye on the ship, all hands on the Lawhill became somewhat nervous. There was an uncanny something about that turtle that neither Capt. Jarvis nor his officers and men could understand. The pursuing turtle "got on the nerves" of all on board the ship.
Barney Trevor was the first on deck every morning to wish his friend good-day.
"I never seen a turtle or any other beast," said Trevor, "that could go without breakfast or dinner so long
as did this thing astern of the Lawhill. I was tempted to drop some dessert over the stern, but sort of fear
ed that there would be no more turtle after he got a bite of cook's pie or crullers."
Ends a Twenty Day Race.
For twenty days that turtle remained in pursuit of the Lawhill. Then the vessel anchored off the Delaware breakwater to await orders, and the turtle took a much needed rest of half a day. When the Lawhill continued to this port the turtle took up the chase again. As the Lawhill came up the narrows, however, old Mr. Turtle quit his post astern, and swimming off the ship's port bow, waved his starboard flipper triumphantly at the crew.
As the Lawhill came up to the East river berth the turtle still preceded it, but a current carried it between
several canal boats tied up there. A dozen eager hands from among the Lawhill's crew dragged for the turtle as they leaped to the canal boat decks and leaned over the side. With a large hook the luckless turtle was caught astern of his starboard after flipper and brought to the Lawhill's deck. There will be genuine turtle soup on board the Lawhill for some days to come.
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Cochin-China is the old name for Vietnam. Island of Unida I am assuming is in Indonesia or close to Philippines/ Borneo that was on his way from Cape of Good hope to Vietnam. I was not able to find any reference and have never heard of it myself, the word unida in itself means united in Spanish...
Topeka State Journal 18 February 1911
Blond Malay Tribe.
After covering 24,433 miles in a voyage around the globe the four-masted bark Lawhill was made fast in the Bush docks, South Brooklyn. It was her last voyage, for the Standard Oil company, finding winged freighters no longer profitable, is selling its fine sailing fleet. The Lawhill, still in her prime, may be cut down into a lowly barge.
There was a joyful reunion of Capt. James C. Jarvis and his wife and nine children, who live in Brooklyn.
The Lawhill left here October 10, 1909, for Cochin China, and at Christmas of that year was between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia. Capt. Jarvis stopped off at the Island of Unida. Primitive natives wearing no clothing came out in dugout canoes and swarmed over the ship. The men had large holes in their ears and noses, through which were thrust fresh flowers.
One savage tried to stow away on the ship. He kept hiding himself and had to be hunted out and dragged forth by his fellows. One had a clay pipe stuck in his ear. The nearest they came to speaking English was when they kept calling for "toboc." Capt. Jarvis gave them tobacco, trinkets, and clothing.
One of the most peculiar things about the natives was that their long hair had been bleached with lime until it had turned as nearly yellow as it could. The mate called them strawberry blonds.
When it was time to go they all dived overboard with a discordant chorus. One big fellow jumped over- wearing a pair of pajamas.
The ship then went to Manila and thence to Samoa. Off the coast Manua, Pastor Timoteo Mamoi clad in a little short coat and with a shawl around his legs, came off with some of his people to the ship.
"I am very pleased to be an American." said the native missionary in broken English, "and I am pleased to meet other Americans." The Lawhill had about every nationality on board. Some of the missionary's flock wore trousers that had been painted in imitation of tattooing.
Off Cape Horn Second Mate Fred Wilson, of the Lawhill, hooked an albatross with a wing-spread of 14 feet. On the bird's breast was the inscription in red ink. "I'm Oueen of the Air." It had been put there by a. sailor of the Lawhill herself when the ship was returning from Hongkong in the winter of 1905. New York World.
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New York Tribune May 11, 1908
CAN'T GET WORD OF $75,000.
German Sailor Misdirected Letters Regarding Western Fortune.
Because Walter Hintz, a German sailor, twenty-four years old, who arrived here several days ago on the Standard Oil ship Lawhill with 29 cents, misdirected several letters and a telegram to his aunt, he has been unable to get word regarding a farm worth about $75,000 that was willed to him by his uncle six months ago.
While the Lawhill was in Hong Kong, Hintz received a letter from his brother Gustav, in Germany, saying that his uncle, Christian Albers, of Holstein, Ida County, lowa, had left his entire estate to him. Hintz says he was shanghaied and shipped on the Lawhilll to Hong Kong.
He said yesterday that he directed his letters and telegram to "Mrs. Christian Albers, Holstein, Ida County, Iowa, Texas." The farm is to be used by his aunt as long as she lives.
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Sydney shipping list 20 July 1911
THE LAWHILL.
The barque Lawhill, which arrived at Brisbane a few days ago from New York, has commenced discharging the 120,020 cases of kerosene she carried as cargo. The vessel is attracting considerable attention, as she is the largest barque and is the first square rigged vessel of any consequence to arrive there since the Ayrshire Kirk put in an appearance on the 19th March, 1907. She was built by W. B. Thompson and Company, at Dundee,, for the jute trade between Calcutta and England, and was employed on the present occasion to bring a large cargo of oil to Queensland. She is a. four masted steel barque of 2942 tons, being 317 feet long, 45 ft. broad, and 25 ft. deep. She has a poop deck 42 ft. long, and a forecastle 33 ft., and a bridge of 48 ft. Captain Saunders, who has charge of the Lawhill, was formerly in command of the ship Ditton, at present loading nitrate at South America, and during an interview stated that the vessel's long passage was due to some very bad weather. It seems a departure from New York was taken on March 28, and she had a good run to the line, crossing it when 19 days out. She was in the latitude of Rio 30 days out, and on reaching the latitude of Tristan da Cunha, in the stormy regions, bad weather was experienced. The usual westerly winds were not encountered, but in their stead the wind came from north to south-east, being attended by very heavy gales. The ship was continually full of water, but she' weathered the gales splendidly. The Lawhill had to go south of Tasmania, on account of strong north-east winds, but after rounding the island the weather for a time became favorable. The Lawhill took 15 days to come up the coast, adverse winds being experienced after Sydney was passed. Heavy squalls, accompanied by thunder and lightning, came from the south-east and north-east, and in consequence the progress of the ship was slow.
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Ballarat Star 28 December 1912
A DISASTROUS VOYAGE.
COUPLE OF COLLISIONS.
LOSS OF LIVES CAUSED.
MELBOURNE, Friday.
A week ago the ship Saros and the barque Lawhill came into collision as the Saros was leaving Victoria Dock. The Lawhill's equipment was slightly damaged. The matter came before the Marine board this afternoon, and enquiry was postponed pending the return of the Saros, which will be in about 3 months. The British Board of Trade had in the meantime cabled the Marine Board to take evidence from the Master of the Lawhill, a vessel of 2749 tons net, in connection with the loss of the fishing smack Naomi and Lizzie on September 25, about five miles from Dungeness. The statement of James Anthony Sanders, master of the Lawhill, was that on August 12 she left Sweden with timber. When Dungeness was about 5 miles distant, he gave the vessel into charge of the first mate, and went into the chart room. Twenty minutes later he heard the order "put the helm hard up," and ran on deck. He saw the ship strike a fishing smack amidships. The smack sank at once. There were about forty smacks in the neighborhood. He lowered the and with a crew of four rowed towards a man floating in the water. Another smack, however, reached him first, and picked him up unconscious, and after an hours work he came to. Two men disappeared and appeared to be lost. He rowed over the site of the collision again and again, but could see nothing of them. It seemed that the smack hauled close to the wind and attempted to cross the bow of the Lawhill. The steersman had deserted so that his evidence could not be obtained.
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The Herald 21 January 1913
FLOATING VERDICT
LAWHILL COLLISION
LAW IN SUSPENSE
It is one thing for an English Jury to return a verdict of manslaughter against the person responsible for the collision between - the four-masted barque Lawhill, of Liverpool, and the fishing trawler Naomi and Lizzie. But it is quite another thing to find the culprit.
No one has, so far, been found responsible. The Marine Board inquiry in Melbourne resulted in nothing definite. It was merely a registration of evidence, and us such was forwarded to the British Board of Trade. Even if, in the ordinary course, the English police should feel inclined to take up the case, they have nothing to work on. The initiative must he taken by the Board of Trade, because that body Is the only competent authority to institute inquiry now that the coroner's jury has delivered its verdict, and nothing further can be done until the arrival of the Lawhill in British waters.
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Åland 24 June 1914
Two large steel ships purchased for Åland.
"Lawhill" and "Lynton".
Captain Aug. Troberg in Mariehamn has, as previously briefly mentioned, purchased an English four-masted steel ship "Lawhill" of 2,749 tons net reg. loading 4,500 tons deadweight. The ship was built in Dundee in 1892, dimensions 317.4x45x25.1 (ft), underwent Lloyd's special survey last year and is now in Havre, where it has already taken on some cargo and will complete her loading in Rotterdam for Wallaroo in South Australia. The ship was chartered a long time ago and has a comparatively good freight rate.
This is the largest sailing ship in the Nordics, the largest in Norway is about 100t less and currently the largest one in Finland is 700 tons less. The purchase price is not known. Captain A. E. Jansson, from Mariehamn, who previously captained "Professor Koch".
The price is believed to be £8,500.
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Finland was not yet independent so all vessels still flew the Russian ensign.
Pensacola Journal 25 March 1916
LARGHEST OF SHIPS ARRIVES HERE WITH CARGO AND TO LOAD
THE LAWHILL LOADED WITH CRUDE CHALK, REACHES PENSACOLA - WILL LOAD OUT FOR ENGLAND.
With a cargo of 2500 tons of crude chalk, and coming here to load with cross ties, the Russian bark Lawhill, a vessel of 2765 tons, reached Pensacola yesterday, and was towed into port by the tug Wm. M. Flanders, Capt. Ben Rocheblave. Thus is the largest sailing ship to have been reported at Pensacola, and shipping men yesterday stated that it was the largest vessel of her type to have entered at this port. The Lawhill was at anchor in the stream last evening, but a berth has been assigned on the west side of
Commandancia wharf, and the big vessel will probably be berthed there some time today. Her cargo of chalk will be discharged for interior transportation, after which the Lawhill will fill out with about two million superficial feet of railroad sleepers for the west coast of Britain.
The Lawhill, drawing about nineteen feet, came over from London, and until her arrival the Marlborough Hill, lately reported in distress, held the record for the largest ship to have visited Pensacola. The latest arrival will probably attract considerable attention because of her enormous size.
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Åland 10 December 1919
The crew of the ship "Lawhill",
provided with a sheriff's certificate, 6 photographs and a medical certificate, will be signed on at Mariehamn's sailor's house on Monday the 15th at 11 a.m. and will depart on the 16th or 17th of December. At the same time, crews will be hired for the ships "Tjerimai" and "Grace Harwar".
Gustaf Erikson.
3983 Telephone 1 80.
Åland 26 January 1924
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Sydney shipping list 20 October 1921
LAWHILL AGROUND
A message received yesterday from Adelaide states that the four-masted barque Lawhill, bound from Bordeaux to Port Lincoln, ran aground in Boston Bay.
During this incident the famous writer and photographer Alan Villiers fell from the the fore lower topyard to the deck and injured himself badly, he had forgotten the old adage to keep one hand for himself and another for the ship.
Alan had signed on Lawhill in France as Able Seaman on 12th July 1921 writes Kate Lance in her biographical book 'Alan Villiers, Voyager of the wind'. She quotes his diary of the accident ‘One moment I was working away, full of pleasurable thoughts. Next moment the rigging was flying past me, and a tar-covered wire hit me a grazing clout. I felt myself striking other rigging. Then the deck. It seemed to me, in a last instant of consciousness, that the deck was surprisingly soft. It was not the deck that was soft. It was I'.....'a wrenched pelvis, some internal injuries, and a nasty jab in the left thigh where I had fallen on a ringbolt.’ (An X-ray fifty years later showed he had actually broken his pelvis at this time.)
It was a few weeks before he could even walk again. In the meantime the ship was sailed to Port Adelaide to load wheat for the return journey to Falmouth; there was no possibility Villiers would be going with it. He was paid off on 15 November 1921 and took an agonizing train ride back to his family in Melbourne.
This accident led Alan Villiers on the path to become a reporter, writer and photographer. In 1923 he eventually got employed in the role after many of his articles had been syndicated. Then he combined tall ships with his writings and later sailed on many Erikson's tall ships and eventually at one point ended partnering up with Captain de Cloux on barque Parma for some voyages.
Alan Villiers on Grace Harwar
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Åland 30 August 1922
The accident on the ship "Lawhill". Regarding the accident on the four-masted "Lawhill" briefly mentioned in the last issue of "Åland", which cost the life of the sailor Anton Karlman from Kökar, we have obtained the following letter from the ship's first mate:
On 24 August a sad accident occurred on board, which cost the life of one of the crew. A new wire hanger in the rigging broke and came crashing down straight on the head of the winchman, with the result that he died within a few minutes. The plank sling got caught in the barge, and the steam winch is so strong that it breaks almost anything. I stood watching, says the mate, when the sling got caught and shouted to the winchman to stop, but he did not do this, which cost him his life.
From the mate's letter it is further gathered that a group of Swedish workers had gathered at the port (in Harg) at the time of the accident to beat up a German crew because they were loading despite a strike in the mines. When the men learned what had happened on board the "Lawhill", they abandoned their intention and quickly disappeared.
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Sad accident on Åland ship. According to a telegram received by the ship's owner, ship carpenter Valdemar Sjöström on the ship "Lawhill", lying in Bordeaux, has drowned by accident. How the accident occurred, the telegram does not state.
Carpenter Sjöström, known as very skilled in his profession, had during his long seafaring career earned the best recommendations and the most generous praise from his superiors. He was 40 years old and from Borgå (Porvoo), where he leaves behind a wife and children.
Sjöström enlisted on the ship "Carradale" here in September last year, from which ship he transferred to the ship "Lawhill" following its sale shortly before the accident.
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Captain Gustafsson died from a serious ailment at sea enroute to Tocopilla, Chile and buried at sea. I don't have any further information on this but I can only guess that perhaps some aggressive tropical disease. Penicillin was only invented some years later in the 1940's:
Åland 30 July 1924
It is with deepest sadness that I announce that my beloved husband,
Captain
Julius Herman Gustafsson
from Mariehamn, passed away on board the ship "Lawhill" on July 30, 1924 in his 35th year of life, mourned most by his wife, daughter, parents and in-laws as well as close relatives and friends.
Nanny.
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Åland 27 August 1924
Message of sorrow from an Åland ship. According to a telegram received by the ship's owner on Saturday, the master of the 4-masted ship "Lawhill", Captain Julius Gustafsson from Mariehamn, died on July 30 during the ship's voyage from Newcastle in Australia to Tocopilla in Chile, where "Lawhill" arrived on August 22.
Captain Gustafsson, who had previously served as the ship's first mate, was promoted at the beginning of this year to master of "Lawhill" but as such only had time to begin his second voyage before he was struck by death on board, which cut short his promising career. Captain Gustafsson was born on July 12, 1890 and was therefore 34 years old at the time of his death. He attended the present lyceum and became a student on November 4, 1909. During the academic year 1910 — 1911, the deceased visited Chalmers Technical University in Gothenburg. In October In 1911, Capt. G. enlisted as an able seaman on the "Lucipara" and served on board for three years. In the academic year 1914-15, he attended the navigation school in Mariehamn and took his mate's exam on April 21, 1915. Then Capt. Gustafsson sailed as mate on the "Lucipara" and "Albion", after which he again attended the navigation school here in the academic year 1920-21. Capt. G. took his captain's exam on May 28, 1921.
The young, quick and promising commander fell at his post in the flower of his age. He leaves behind in Mariehamn a young wife and a daughter as well as a father, many relatives and a circle of friends, who will long remember the faithful and honest sailor.
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Åland 12 November 1927
Fatal accident on the "Lawhill". According to a telegram from Taltal in Chile, an accident occurred on the training ship "Lawhill", owned by the shipowner Gustaf Erikson here, out in the open sea on the 20th of last September, which claimed the life of a young man, T. B. Ljungqvist from Åbo (Turku).
After completing five classes in Turku Swedish Lyceum, the young man Tor Bernhardt Ljungqvist transferred to a seafaring career. In order to get the necessary practice, before the actual studies could begin, he first enlisted on the bark ship "Loch Linnhe" and most recently as an ordinary seaman on "Lawhill", which departed from London for Chile on 19th July this year. Happy and hopeful, he embarked on the journey that was to be his last. It was his fate to die at his post. The brief telegraphic message about his sudden death has plunged his parents and a brother, relatives and friends into deep sorrow, writes ÅU.
*****
The race was always in the news and closely followed on both sides of the globe:
Sydney morning Herald 16 05 1929
WHEAT SHIPS.
BEATRICE BEATS LAWHILL.
LONDON, May 14.
Conceding the Finnish barque Lawhlll a start of five days in a race from Australia, the Swedish four-masted barque Beatrice was first to arrive at Falmouth. The Beatrice left Adelaide, and the Lawhill sailed from Port Lincoln. Both are laden with wheat.
The Beatrice made a passage of 104 days. The Finnish barque, Herzogin Cecilie, which arrived at Falmouth on May 4, took 123 days. Captain Tholson, master of the Beatrice, said that a great race took place after the Lawhlll was overtaken. The vessels passed and repassed. Nothing was seen of the Herzogin Cecilie.
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The Telegraph 15 January 1930
YOUTH AT THE HELM
THE FINNISH BARQUE LAWHILL
Youth is literally at the helm and on the yards of the Finnish four-masted barque Lawhill, now the biggest sailing ship in the world as the Köbenhavn was lost. Her captain, Captain F. Grönlund, is only 37; and her crew is very young, although one, little more than a boy, wears a beard.
The Lawhill arrived here recently, 110 days out from Hudiksvall, Sweden, with a cargo of timber, after a voyage which the captain described as "too fine altogether" (says the Melbourne "Herald"). She is now in the bay, and is expected to come alongside tomorrow to unload.
Of 2,816 tons, the Lawhill is a steel four-masted barque, 317 feet long. She was built at Dundee in 1892, and came under the Finnish flag In 1914.
Captain Grönlund and the chief officer (Mr. J.A. Söderlund) have been together for the past five years, three on the Lawhill and two in the Herzogin Cecilie. It is a coincidence that they were both on Swedish sailing ships that were sunk by German sub marines during the war. Neither got any warning of the attack and they had to take to the lifeboats.
Captain Grönlund's ship, the Marguerite, was sunk on May 18, 1917, and Mr. Söderlund's, the Valaura, on Christmas Eve, in the same year. The Marguerite's crew spent 52 hours in the lifeboats before being picked up by a British destroyer and landed at Castletown, on the Irish coast. Mr. Söderlund was in a lifeboat for 42 hours, and was picked up by a British coastguard ship. Before his ship sank the Germans took all provisions off her.
The youngest of the Lawhill's crew is 17, and the second and third officers are in their early twenties. Captain Grönlund said that older men would not take to sailing vessels in these days, because the work was too hard. "We had a strenuous Christmas Day," he said. "We struck a head Wind 800 miles from Melbourne, nndthe crew was called out twice in the night to take In the sails, and turn the ship about. The cook did his best to give a Christmas dinner with plum pudding and preserved meat."
The Lawhill did not sight land between Hudiksvall and Melbourne. Captain Grönlund has been at his
home for only three months in eight years. The ship's mascot is a Danish blood hound, named Dollar, who acts as watchman for the vessel. She has made four or five trips on the Lawhill.
The Lawhill Is a sister ship to the British barque Garthpool, which was recently lost.
*****
Adelaide news 05 Feb 1931
Adelaide Man on Lawhill
TRIP FOR EXPERIENCE
Working a passage between various parts of the world is no novelty to Mr. F. F. Bristowe, of College Park, who was signed on today and began work as an ordinary seaman on the Finnish barque Lawhill, now loading wheat at Port Adelaide, Mr. Bristowe, who is 26 years of age, has travelled to many countries on steamers during the past five years, but this will be his first experience of sailing ships.
'Ever since I began wandering round the world at the age of 17 I have wanted a job on a windjammer," said Mr. Bristowe. "I am making this trip mainly for experience, but also to enable me to reach Burma and the Malay States, where I am hopeful of securing work an overseer on a timber plantation.
"Mr. Bristowe began his travels through being employed in the shipping office of Elder, Smith & Co., Limited, Port Adelaide. There he came in contact with many seafaring people, and was inspired by their tales of different parts of the globe.
Securing a job as second cook on the Dutch steamer Aagtekerk in 1923, he voyaged to Rotterdam, from where he went to London for a few months.
He then joined the crew of a vessel trading to Buenos Aires, and on arrival at the South American city left the boat and worked for a firm of merchants for four months. After returning to England he worked his way to Australia on the liner Ballarat. After a year in Adelaide he decided to try his luck in Fiji, where he stayed for two years before returning to South Australia. His wages on the trip to Europe will be £3 a month.
*****
Daily Mercury 23 June 1931
ACROBATIC SEAMAN,
—
While working on a topsail yard. 100ft. above the deck of the Finnish sailing ship Lawhill, a Russian sea man, named Saharoff, fell into the sea, missing the bulwark by inches. He immediately swam after the ship and as it was doing only two knots caught it and was hauled aboard. His only complaint was, "I have lost my cap,'' says a cable message From London. An Australian who was a shipmate says Saharoff is a human monkey: The Russian used to stand on his head on the masthead when the weather was calm, and sometimes turn somersaults on the yardarms.
Nikolai Saharoff in Rotterdam 1930 standing on top of the mast of Lawhill, he later migrated oved to Australia and started a fruit shop. Courtesy of "Lokikirja" (The logbook) by Osmo I. Lehmuskallio.
*****
Queenslander Illustrated Weekly 03 December 1931
ON A WINDJAMMER.
A Trip from Adelaide to Liverpool.
THE four-masted barque Lawhill was built in 1892 by W.B. Thompson and Co., of Dundee, so now is in her fortieth year. She is a steel ship of 2816 tons, and owned by Captain Gustav Erikson, of Mariehamn, in the Baltic (writes R. F. Bristowe, in "United Empire").
There were 23 all told on the vessel, and the average age of the crew was 22. There were only 16 in the fo'c'sle, eight in each watch; with one man at the wheel and one on lookout it left only six to do the necessary work about the ship during the watch. In bad weather the watch below often had to be called, making a broken rest. Any one who has been in sail will understand what this meant, and realise the very heavy work we had to do at times. Under the British flag there were 14 in each watch, nearly as many as our entire crew in the fo'c'sle.
We got away from the Semaphore Anchorage, South Australia, on February 11, and had a slow run down St. Vincent's Gulf. Very hot work it proved to be hauling the yards about from time to time, the temperature that day being 103deg (39.5deg C).
I had my first wheel of the voyage in the afternoon watch. We wero steering "full and by." I thought it a wonderful sensation steering one of the largest windjammers afloat to-day. She was a good ship to steer, and I always liked my wheel turns, though it was hard work sometimes.
The following evening, when passing through Investigator Strait between the mainland and Kangaroo Island on our way to the Southern Ocean, we were suddenly taken, all aback by a strong southerly, which came up without the slightest warning, though not altogether unexpected in these parts.
It was "All hands on deck," and we put the ship about as quickly as possible, but not before the new foresail and some of the other bails got badly torn. There is no room for a big ship to tack in the strait, and the only thing to do was to go back over the water we had so recently sailed.
As soon as we got the ship round the order came to take in sail. I know, of course, I would nave to go up and help make fast. I looked up at the masts and thought what big sweeps they were taking across the sky, and wondered how any one could possibly hang on up there. Soon the order came "up and make fast" and there was no time to have any misgivings. By the time I reached the fore upper gallant yard the others had nearly finished.
However, I was able co help a bit with the other sails, but not forgetting the rule of the tall ships, one hand or yourself and one for the ship. Later on I became quite used to the work aloft, and preferred it to the work on deck; one was away from the mate's beck and call and could at least keep dry—when it was not raining.
The following morning, when I was at the wheel, the skipper told me at one time he expected the rigging to go overboard any minute until we got, the ship round; so the voyage might have come to a very premature end.
It was bad luck that we had to turn round when we did, as at the time there were only ten miles left to the open sea. It was three days later that we actually got outside and started on the long run to Cape Horn.
When south of New Zealand we had some very heavy weather, which lasted about ten days. At one time we were hove to for about 50 hours, and some damage was done about deck by the heavy seas which were constantly coming on board. Worst of all, as far as the crew were concerned the scuttle over the companion stairs leading down to the fo'c'sle got smashed to pieces and the fo'c'sle was flooded out. The scuttle was not rebuilt until we had passed the Cape and were on our way north. Probably the skipper thought if it was mended too soon it might get broken again so left it until fairer latitudes were reached.
WHENEVER there were any seas coming on board, and there frequently were, they found a ready outlet straight into our living and sleeping quarters; everything got wet and remained wet. When getting dressed for the watch on deck we simply used to pick out the dryest things we could find and try to dry them with bodv heat. When I say we got dressed, it was just a matter of pulling on some old trousers and a coat. We all slept in our underclothes, and some of the lads used to sleep in full marching order, except for their rubber sea boots.
We rounded Cape Horn when 40 days out. Here, again, we had some very heavy weather. The glass dropped to 28.39, followed by a fearful wind. The sea was heavy, and a great deal of water was constantly coming on board, mostly amidships and on the main deck, frequently washing the ropes off the pin rails, making a wet job for some one to untangle them. One had to be careful, too, as many of the seas that came aboard were quite big enough to carry one over the side. If one did have the misfortune to go over there would be no hope, as the sea was too heavy for a boat to be put out. It would have been smashed against the ship's side while lowering it, and a sailing ship is not like a steamer; it cannot stop in a few minutes.
It is a dreary, inhospitable part of the world in the vicinity of Cape Horn. A dangerous place for ships, particularly ships that depend on the wind. It was a relief to be past and heading north.
AS we got further north steamers used to pass us, though most of them took no notice, and we only saw
them in the distance. They all must have seen our great tower of snow white canvas, but the only vessels which came off their course were several German steamers. They came so close that we could call out and send our love to the girls in Hamburg. It makes a break in the life on a windjammer to see fresh faces, and there is always great excitement when a steamer changes her course to pass alongside.
When south of the Azores we were in company with the Favell, a smart Finnish barque, for a few days; as the sea was calm we put out boats and ex changed visits. We on the Lawhill must have looked a pretty rough crowd as none of us had shaved since leaving South Australia 96 days before. The boys on the Favell shaved once a week, and were quite respectable, but the captain had his wife on board perhaps that was the reason.
The food throughout the voyage was quite good, though at times unpalatable; there was early plenty to eat, though sometimes if one was hungry one had to fill up on plain bread. We had no jam or butter, though about 7 lbs of margarine was issued every week to each watch. We had plenty of drinking water, about four pints a day to each man, but it left very little over for washing. Whenever it rained we always caught what we could from the drain-pipes from the poop deck and deck-houses and put it into barrels for future use. We were lucky in the way of rain and nearly always had enough water for washing.
We dropped anchor in Queenstown Harbour on May 27, 106 days out from Port Adelaide, and next day we received orders to discharge in Liverpool. It is usually about a day's sail from Queenstown to Liverpool, but it took us six days. The tug had hardly cast off outside the leads when the wind changed, making it impossible to beat u St. George's Channel, and as the wind was strong we finished up three days later 150 miles south of Queenstown and well out in the north Atlantic. However, when the wind did change it could not have been better and we sailed right up to the bar lightship outside Liverpool before taking a tug.
As we were towed up the Mersey and most of us were up aloft making last the sails the people on the ferry boats waved and cheered and the steamers and tug boats hooted a welcome. Not many windjammers go to Liverpool now, and a great deal of interest is taken in those that do, particularly the Lawhill, as she used once to sail from Liverpool.
Although next day I was not sorry to pay off, I have no regrets about working my way before the mast. After all it was a great experience and something worth while to look back on. As for the crew, one could not have wished to live and work amongst a better crowd, even though five nations were represented—Finland, Sweden. Denmark, Russia, and Great Britain. To-day, notwithstanding all the great sailing ships that England built and owned, there is not one deep-sea windjammcr flying the red ensign.
*****
Åland 17 August 1932
Returning long-sailing vessels, the steel barque "Penang", captain F. Grönlund, and the four-masted "Lawhill", captain A. Söderlund, arrived in Mariehamn on Sunday. "Penang" arrived in the morning and anchored at Granö, while "Lawhill" arrived at noon and went south of Granö to Styrsöskatan. The four-masted "Pamir", captain K. G. Sjögren, is expected any day now.
*****
Gazeta Gdanska 04 October 1932
Ship "Niemen" sank after collision with Finnish ship
All crew saved
On the night of 30 to 1 this month in the Kattegat Strait near Anholt, the Polish cargo ship "Niemen" sank as a result of a collision with the Finnish four-masted "Lawhill".
The sinking of the "Niemen" took place within 8 minutes. The entire crew of the ship consisting of captain Rusiecki, 3 deck officers, 3 mechanics and 25 sailors were saved by the Swedish ship "Kronprinsessan Margarete" passing by the terrible accident and put ashore in Gothenburg.
The loss, suffered by our young merchant shipping, is very painful. "Niemen" was one of the largest Polish cargo ships, as it weighed 5146 tons. In addition, it had great navigational advantages and had already made a number of long voyages under the Polish flag.
The steamship "Niemen" was built in the English shipyards on the Tyne in 1927. It had the latest, excellent technical equipment.
The crew of "Niemen" consisted of 28 crew members and 7 officers.
Since leaving the shipyard, "Niemen" sailed under the Polish flag between Gdynia and French ports, as well as Italy and North Africa. Designed specifically for coal cargo, it exported mainly coal to overseas countries.
Recently, "Niemen" sailed from Gdynia to England with a cargo of colliers, from where it then set off on its - unfortunately tragic - journey to Sweden with a cargo of coal.
"Niemen" set off from the English port of Leith on September 29 at 1 a.m.
The ship was insured in Polish insurance companies. 40% of the damage was taken over by the owner of the ship "Zegluga Polska".
The ship that the "Niemen" collided with, the Finnish four-masted sailing ship "Lawhill", is owned by the shipowner Erikson from Mariehamn on the Åland Islands. "Lawhill" was on a voyage to Australia.
According to reports from the captain of the "Niemen" Rusiecki, the collision was the fault of the Finnish ship, which was sailing at night without lanterns on.
At the time of the collision, visibility was only 300 meters and the sea was very rough.
At the request of "Zegluga Polskieij", the Finnish sailing ship "Lawhill" was placed under arrest in Gothenburg.
*****
Åland 05 10 1932
Note: "Sjöfartsråd" - Finnish honorary title in the field of maritime matters, not translatable
"Lawhill" collides with Polish steamer at Skagen.
Polish steamer. 'Njemen' sank within a few minutes, the crew was rescued.
The steamer was observed for 20 minutes from the sailing ship, but did not change course.
Last Saturday, a rumor spread in the city that the four-masted "Lawhill", owned by the 'Sjöfartsrådet' Gustaf Erikson, which had been at the Styrsö skerries for part of the summer and was now on a voyage south, had collided with a steamer the previous night. The report was more than correct, but this time it was not the sailing ship that went down, but the steamer, whose crew was saved. "Lawhill", captain J.A. Söderlund, departed on September 21 from Mariehamn for Copenhagen and left the latter city on Friday the 30th, or the last day of the same month. The very next night the accident occurred at Skagen. The ship collided with the Polish steamer "Njemen", which went down, while its crew was rescued by the Swedish steamer "Kronprinsessan Margaretha". "Lawhill" managed under their own power to enter Gothenburg's outer roads.
"Kronprinsessan Margaretha", which is one of the Johnson Line's motor ships and was on a voyage from Gothenburg to South America, rescued the crew of the sunken steamer during the prevailing heavy seas, after which the master, Captain Salomonsson, telegraphed to the shipping company about what had happened, requisitioned a tugboat from Gothenburg and sent the crew with it to the city, after which the steamer continued its interrupted voyage.
The first message about the accident was received by the office of the Sjöfartsrådet Erikson from Götaverken in Gothenburg, who, through one of his engineers, wished to inquire about the possibilities of taking over the ship's repair. Later in the day, a similar inquiry was received from Eriksberg's mechanical workshop and representatives of other workshops also got in touch.
Towards the morning, the office was called by "Lawhill's" master, Captain Söderlund, who told about the course of the accident. The steamer's lanterns had been observed on board the ship for nearly half an hour, but the steamer maintained its course unchanged and thus the collision occurred. "Lawhill" received a large puncture in the bow at the time of the accident and had its forepeak filled with water. Sjöfartsrådet Erikson, who was currently in London, telegraphed an order to his office manager, Captain K. A. Fredriksson, to leave for Gothenburg by the first available transport to take the necessary measures, and he left on Sunday night.
"Lawhill's" master tells of the accident.
Göteborgs Handelstidning has had a conversation with the master of the bark "Lawhill", Captain Söderlund, regarding the collision with the Polish steamer "Njemen". "Lawhill", which was on its way to Australia, was lying to the port tack, the captain said, when at a distance of about 10 nautical miles northwest to west of the Skagen lighthouse, a steamer's green lantern was observed ahead on starboard. For about 20 minutes, the steamer was observed and it didn't change course to go astern of the sailing ship. Finally, the ships collided, whereupon "Lawhill" had its bow and a couple of plates on its sides buckled. They reefed sails on "Lawhill" and waited for the steamer, which had disappeared in the darkness, to approach again to inquire about the other ship's damage. Although the sailing ship was adrift for half an hour, nothing further was heard from the steamer, so "Lawhill" set course for Gothenburg to have its damage repaired. However, fortunately a motor ship, "Kronprinsessan Margaretha", passed by, which saved the entire crew of "Njemen".
The master of "Njemen" has the floor.
The captain of "Njemen" explains that at 3 o'clock he suddenly observed in the darkness a ship, which was only about 20 to 25 meters from "Njemen". In the next moment the violent collision occurred. The barque hit "Njemen" amidships and tore open a large hole, through which water immediately rushed in. To top off the misfortune, one mast of "Njemen" was broken during the collision and the radio system on board was thereby put out of operation. The captain was thrown from the bridge into a corner at the time of the accident and received some injuries. He sounded the alarm and called the crew on deck. They managed to put out the boats and get into them, most of the crew practically naked. Seven minutes later the ship sank and the crew had to row around in the rough weather for nearly seven hours before being rescued by the "Crown Princess Margaretha".
*****
Gazeta Gdanska 07 October 1932
After the sinking of the "Niemen"
Description of the accident in the Swedish press - The misfortune of the Finnish shipowner
In connection with the sinking of the Polish steamer "Niemen", the Swedish press provides the following further details. The crew of the Polish steamer managed to leave their own lifeboats to sea and stay on the rough waves for several hours. The motorboat "Kronprinsessin Margareta", which rescued the survivors, was on its way to South America. The officers and the crew of the "Niemen" were landed in the Gothenburg skerries, the "Kronprinsessan Margareta" also took the Finnish sailing ship "Lawhill" in tow, which caused the accident, and brought her to the Rivöfjorden in front of Gothenburg, where the "Lawhill" was anchored. - Swedish rescue ships went to the place of the disaster in order to precisely mark the place where the sunken "Niemen" lies.
The sailing ship "Lawhill" is a 4-masted barque. It belongs to the owner Gustav Erikson from Mariehamn in the Åland Isles. This owner has been haunted by particular misfortune in recent times. He is the owner of the largest fleet of sailing ships in the world, which he employs mainly in the transport of grain from Australia to England. One of his sailing ships "Melbourne" sank before the coast of Ireland recently, whereby 11 crew members, including the ship's captain, died at sea. The sailing ship "Hougomont" found itself in the midst of a cyclone in the Indian Ocean a few months ago. - I'll add, it has lost all its masts and rigging. It is currently in Adelaide (Australia). Since its repairs are no longer feasible, the hull of the ship, after removing all the parts of value, is to be unrigged for the open sea and sunk there. - The sailing ship "Archibald Russell", which is currently on the other side of the world, had an adventure two weeks ago that almost ended in disaster. The ship was in ballast near the high Deal (South Australia) waiting for freight. A violent storm carried the ship away and, despite both anchors being thrown into the water, it drifted onto to the rocks, where the ship was threatened with certain destruction. At the last moment, the captain managed to save the ship from destruction with a skillful maneuver. - The sailing ship "Olivebank" had a fortunate adventure on the Thames, when the current began to drift her away and only thanks to the help of a tugboat passing by, it escaped disaster.
From the flotilla of 8 large sailing ships that recently sailed from Mariehamn on a journey to Australia, one of the sailors fell off the yard on the sailing ship "Herzogin Cecilie" at the height of the island of Gotland, dying on the spot, while the sailing ship "Lawhill" ran over the Polish steamer "Niemen" in Kattegat, which it sank, while itself sustained heavy damage.
The crew of the "Niemen" on its way to Gdynia
On Wednesday, part of the crew of the ship "Niemen" out of a total number of 25 people left Gothenburg for Gdynia. The rest of the crew remains in Gothenburg until the court hearing, which will take place in Gothenburg in the maritime chamber - it will determine the circumstances of the disaster and any possible issues of responsibility for the disaster. This hearing will take place on Saturday, the 8th of this month.
*****
Åland 12 October 1932
Collision with "Lawhill" and "Njemen"
Details from both Master's maritime declarations
Last Friday, maritime declarations were made in Gothenburg concerning the collision between the "Lawhill" and the "Njemen", in which the latter ship, as is well known, went down.
The declaration of the master of the Åland ship states, among other things, that a steamer was observed at 2.40 at about 3 points on the s. b. side. The lanterns on the "Lawhill" shined clear. When the steamer approached without changing its bearing, a flare was lit at about 2.55 and shortly afterwards the steamer's starboard lantern was sighted, but after a few moments the port lantern came into view again, and at 3 o'clock the collision occurred. The ships collided with the foreships, and the "Lawhill" was shot over the reach and had all sails set backwards, after which the ships were separated. The ship was allowed to lie adrift while lifebelts were distributed, the sails were raised and the damage was examined. Meanwhile, signals from the steamer were looked for, but none were observed. At 4.40 full sail was set and the course was set for Vinga lighthouse, although the rigging on the bowsprit had been damaged and the forepeak had become waterlogged. According to the captain, only the steamer's incorrect maneuvering was to blame for the accident.
In the "Njemen" ship's log for 1 October, which is quoted by the Polish captain, it is stated, among other things: From the dark horizon the silhouette of a sailing ship without a light quickly appeared, which at 3.07 rammed the middle of the steamer's port side, sliding along it, destroying the bridge and all the deckhouses and disappearing into the darkness of the night. The collision was so severe that the commander was surrounded and wounded by the debris of the left wing of the bridge, as was the first mate, whose cabin was completely demolished and who, running out onto the deck, was the first to notice the huge hole in the lower main deck amidships. The commander sounded the alarm and immediately set a northwesterly course towards the nearest land at full speed and gave the order to set the pumps once. The radio sent an SOS and the watch officer launched rockets. The steamer listed to starboard and sank with the bow. The commander gave the order from the bridge to man and launch the lifeboat into the sea. The lifeboat moved away from the rapidly sinking ship, whose funnel tilted to starboard dipped into the water, which made it possible to determine that the ship was capsizing. Once again, the rudder and propeller of the capsized ship appeared so close to the lifeboat that the slow rotation of the propeller could be seen. The ship sank in full view of everyone. The lifeboat's journey is then described, emphasizing that the situation was difficult, as half of the people in the lifeboat were only wearing night clothes and were close to exhausted due to the storm and the pounding of the sea. It is also reported that the motor ship "Kronprinsessan Margareta" arrived and took the shipwrecked to Gothenburg, where "Lawhill" was already at anchor with a damaged bow. This barque was the one that caused the sinking of "Njemen", the explanation states.
The four-masted "Lawhill" is now being repaired at the Eriksbergs mekaniska verkstad shipyard after the collision with the Polish steamer "Njemen". In all, 28 new plates are expected to be installed and the repair is expected to take about three weeks.
*****
Gazeta Gdanska 14 Oct 1932
The conclusion of the "Niemen" case in the maritime court in Gothenburg
The hearing of the crew of the Finnish sailing ship "Lawhill" was concluded before the maritime court in Gothenburg, the captain of which, like the captain of the "Niemen", filed a so-called maritime protest. Currently, according to the procedure adopted in Sweden, shipowners can, on the basis of established material, apply for a court decision on the case. Whether such a complaint will be made from one side or another is not yet known.
The navigation inspector of "Zegluga Polska", p. kdr. Braminski, who left for Gothenburg in connection with the disaster of the "Nieman", has recently returned to Gdynia.
In Gdynia, the hearing before the maritime chamber will take place immediately after the potential trial in Gothenburg. The date has not been set yet.
*****
Lawhill in drydock in Gothenburg after the collision
Courtesy of Museiverket collection
*****
The news even reached all the way to Australia albeit but the story slightly altered with a port of call to Danzig that didn't take place.
Daily commercial news and shipping list 29 November 1932
Lawhill in collision.
News received by mail states that the Finnish four-masted barque Lawhill, bound from Mariehamn to South Australia to load wheat, has been in collision with the Polish steamer Niemen, which had sunk; the Lawhill had put into Danzig leaking and her bows damaged. Two aircraft were sent to mark the wreck of the steamer, but the wreck was not visible and it was concluded that it forms no danger to navigation. The Lawhill was docked at Gothenburg and on examination it was found that 28 plates must be renewed and repairs would take about 2 weeks.
[The Niemen was a modern steamer of 3350 tons gross, and was built at Stockton in 1928 and classed 100 Al. She was registered at Gdynia.]
[The Lawhill, which is a well-known barque of 2540 tons, was built 40 years ago, and is owned by G. Erikson.]
*****
Modern times coming up, I would imagine perhaps also a sandblaster was involved in the process among all the tools listed.
Kalgoorlie Miner 04 December 1933
OVERHAULING A WINDJAMMER
MODERN METHODS.
London, Dec. 2.
It is years since a windjammer was cleaned up in the port of London, but the Lawhill has quitted the dry dock and will be sailing on Tuesday after an overhaul. Whereas 40 years ago there would have been a gang of men chipping the sides with hammers and chisels, the work is now done by men with goggles and blowlamps, acetylene welders and paint- spraying machines.
*****
More news about repairs completed reached Australia, still a bit off with Copenhagen...
Daily commercial news and shipping list 06 Dec 1932
THE LAWHILL.
RESUMES HER VOYAGE.
News received by the mail states that the Finnish four-masted barque Lawhill, which left Mariehamn on
September 19 for Port Lincoln, and put into Copenhagen for repairs after sinking a steamer, resumed her voyage again on October 21 and should arrive at her loading port about the end of January.
*****
Sometimes there was sporty weather...
The Daily telegraph 14 December 1933
LAWHILL ALMOST ASHORE
(SPECIAL BEAM SERVICE)
LONDON, Wednesday.
Caught in a fierce easterly gale in the Downs, where she was fogbound overnight, the four-masted barque Lawhill weighed anchor, but the seas rapidly drove her inshore till she was only a . quarter of a mile from Walmer Castle.
Then the anchors held till the barque was towed clear and resumed her voyage to Australia.
*****
Herald of Melbourne 05 January 1934
"KISSING THE LADY"
DARING FEAT! New members of the crew of the Finnish windjammer, Lawhill, kiss the figurehead as a sort of initiation. It is 50ft. above the waterline. The picture was taken when the vessel lay off the London Graving Docks after having been cleaned and painted in preparation for her voyage to Australia to take part in the grain race.
*****
The Advertiser 18 Mar 1934
Adelaide Boy On Lawhill
When the Finnish four-masted barque Lawhill sails for Falmouth for orders at the end of the week she will carry as an apprentice Max Young, a 17-year-old Glenelg boy. He has signed on for 12 months and will make the return trip in the sailing vessel.
Max, who has always cherished such an ambition, has made several trips in the fishing vessels Zephyr and Renown in the last two years. He lives at 17 Paltridge street, Glenelg, and is a nephew of the late Admiral Oliver Young. R.N. He will be one of six apprentices on the Lawhill. which is commanded by Captain Söderlund. Max will join the ship on Friday, and the Lawhill will probably sail for the English Channel via Cape Horn the same day.
*****
Adelaide News 12 April 1934
HAS NEVER BEEN TO SEA BEFORE
A I7-YEAR-OLD Adelaide boy who has never been to sea before "will leave as an apprentice in the four masted barque Lawhill when it sets sail from Port Adelaide next week for the freezing run round Cape Horn to England.
The young sea-dog is Philip R. Buring, son of Mr. Emil Buring, proprietor of a Rundle street tobacconist firm.
Philip has been working in his father's shop for the past four months, waiting for a chance to go to sea. In preparation for his great adventure he has read numerous books about wind jammers and steamers, and he especially enjoyed "Rolling Round the Horn."
Now he is to roll round the formidable Horn himseIf. But he is prepared for all of the perils and discomforts, and is excited about the long trip to Falmouth.
Philip went on board the Lawhill at Port Adelaide on Monday and met Mr. R. B.. Sheridan, the young Englishman who is odne of the, three apprentices in the vessel.
On Tuesday he arranged with the skipper, Capt. Söderlund, to make the trip, and yesterday he climbed the foremast to get a taste of barque life.
He will be the youngest member of the Lawhill's crew.
"I will be going away for the first time, and naturally I feel it a bit," he said today in his father's shop. "But I am looking forward immensely to the trip. My main luggage will be plenty of warm clothes. but I will take some records for the ship's gramophone, too"
*****
Åland 21 April 1934
"Lawhill" and "Köbenhavn" (Copenhagen). In the last issue a telegraphic message was reproduced that the Åland long sailer "Lawhill" had found wreckage off the Australian coast, which originated from the Danish training ship "Köbenhavn", whose mysterious disappearance constitutes one of the many mysteries of shipping. The telegram was reproduced by us with all reservations, but we emphasized at the same time that before such a message was released into the news market, the authenticity of the find should really have been established. It looks even worse, as if the entire described find is a myth. The telegram about the found wreckage has now made a thorough round through the world press, the telegrams are many and long, but in reality they contain absolutely nothing. Strictly speaking, the whole thing is about mere conjecture and imagination. We have invited you to plow through all the telegrams, both from here and from there, but not a single one of them provides evidence for believing the find.
When the last issue of our newspaper went to press, the sjöfartsråd Gustaf Erikson had not yet received any written communication from Captain A. Söderlund on the "Lawhill". But on Thursday a letter arrived from the master. In this letter, however, not a single word is said about any discovery of wreckage from the "Köbenhavn". It goes without saying that if Captain Söderlund had made such a historic discovery, he would have mentioned it in the letter to his boss. Since this has not happened, the whole matter should probably be shelved.
Since the above was written, the following telegram has been included, the content of which, in our opinion, does not alter the view that the “find” should be received with a certain skepticism; Captain Söderlund on the Lawhill reports: on the way to Port Adelaide I observed wreckage of a sailing ship at a distance of 350 quarter miles from the southwestern tip of Australia to the south. The weather was bad and the sea was rough, so it was impossible to salvage the drifting wreckage. However, I clearly saw the deckhouse and parts of the bulwark, which in all probability came from the Danish training ship "Köbenhavn". For my part, I have no doubt that they were parts of the wreck of the "Köbenhavn", although under the circumstances prevailing at the time it was not possible to ascertain with certainty the origin of the wreckage. I believe that the wreck of the Danish training ship is to be found somewhere in the southern part of the great Australian Bay.
So Captain Söderlund would have reported. But, and one asks this question with every reason, why did he not report such an interesting find to his own shipping company? There is, it cannot be helped, a mystery here.
*****
Advocate 27 August 1934
Lawhill at Falmouth.
LONDON, Saturday. - The Lawhill arrived at Falmouth today after a voyage of 122 days from South Australia. It had a good passage, except that it struck the tail-end of a hurricane off Durban. Mr. Winston Churchill's nephew, R. B. Sheridan, was a member of the crew.
*****
The evening news 19 October 1934
MANY THRILLS ON VOYAGE
EXPERIENCE OF FINNISH BARQUE.
"Lucky" Lawhill.
The "Lucky" Lawhill, famous Finnish barque, arrived off Gravesend recently after a voyage of 170 days from Adelaide.
Captain Söderlund described the voyage as "one of the finest and most thrilling of my long career afloat."
The Lawhill is the last of the great sailing ships to arrive from Australia, writes the London "Evening Standard."
The story of her voyage was told by Mr. Richard Brinsley Sheridan, son of Mrs. Claire Sheridan, the sculptress and authoress.
Mr. Sheridan is a cadet in the vessel. He was met by his mother.
STORM AFTER STORM.
"After we left Wallaroo we ran into, storm after storm," said Mr. Sheridan.
"Off East London we met with one of the fiercest cyclones that has been experienced in that region for years. It was touch and go.
"At one time we thought all our masts would be carried away.
"The ship creaked and groaned and was buffeted about like a cork.
"On the lower deck we were waist deep in water. We had no sleep for 48 hours."
"My narrowest escape was when I was aloft during a typhoon off Sierra Leone. A foot rope on which I was standing snapped, and left me swinging.
"Luckily, I was able to get a foot on a wire rope and managed to climb down."
"Captain Söderlund said that this was the first foot rope to break in 18 yeas. He immediately had all ropes overhauled."
HIS AMBITION.
"I think I shall make one or two more trips on the Lawhill, and then write a book on my experiences in a windjammer. I think an appropriate title would be 'A Heavenly Hell.' "
Mrs. Claire Sheridan said that it is her son's 'ambition to buy a windjammer next year, when he will be 21.
"I hope to sail all over the world in my own ship," he said, "and especially to make a voyage round Cape Horn."
"My sister, who is wandering somewhere in Arabia, may accompany me, and possibly my mother."
*****
Adelaide news 08 January 1935
ADELAIDE YOUTH SAYS THERE IS LITTLE ROMANCE IN WINDJAMMERS
Spent Nine Months as Apprentice Aboard the Lawhill
NO AMBITION FOR CAREER AT SEA
AFTER nine months as an apprentice on the Finnish four-masted barque Lawhill, Mr. Philip S. Buring,. the 18-year-old son of Mr. Emil Buring. of Kenilworth road. Parkside, has decided that there is no need for sentimentalists to regret the passing of the "romantic days of sail."
"For an apprentice there is little romance aboard a sailer," Mr. Buring said, "unless you can call such jobs as cleaning out a pigsty, swabbing a deck, or chipping rust romantic. At the same time, I find it hard to believe those stories one sometimes hears about the terrible privations and hardships. The work is not particularly hard, and the tucker, although monotonous, is good. The worst one can say is that life aboard a windjammer is sometimes darned uncomfortable. "No. I have no ambition to make the sea my career. There are much better jobs ashore. But, all the same I would not have missed the experience for anything. It had been my ambition for years to make this trip, and I can scarcely realize that it is all over.
ENCOUNTERED STORM
The Lawhill had rough weather almost all the way from Semaphore anchorage to Falmouth. Off Leeuwin she struck a storm, during which 3 in of water poured into the fo'csle. On the South African coast during a calm she ran suddenly into a cyclonic storm in which she was almost dismasted. And after only two days in the doldrums in the Atlantic, she got the trade winds and ran before a half-gale almost all the way to Falmouth. On the way round to London, however, the vessel was becalmed for two days, and Mr. Buring had a swim when half-way across the English Channel. After six weeks in London and Gravesend the vessel left on the return trip. Just out of the Thames she met with head winds, and the crew sighted both the English and French coasts no fewer than 12 times during tacks before the Lawhill left the Channel. From then on, however, the trip was uneventful. The only land the crew sighted on the voyage to England was St. Helena, while on the way back the only land sighted was when off the Cape Verde Islands. Among the apprentices on the return trip were an English baronet, an
Oxford student, an office hand from a Lancashire cotton mill, and a Dover boy of 15 who intended going for a pilot's ticket .
PROFITABLE SYSTEM
Mr. Buring said that the apprenticeship system aboard Finnish sailers was developing into something profitable for the benefit of the owners. "Each apprentice has to pay £50 for this apprenticeship," he said. "On the Lawhill coming back to Australia there were eight apprentices and the total of their fees would just about pay the wages for the rest of the crew. "You get absolutely nothing for your £50. There is no training in seamanship, nor any special privileges aboard and it would be three years before you got your £50 back in wages. Of course, people are tumbling over themselves to get these jobs, and that is how the system is kept going."
*****
The Kadina and Wallaroo Times 16 February 1935
PLEASANT SHIPBOARD DANCE AT WALLAROO.
There was. a good gathering of dancers onboard the sailing vessel Lawhill on Wednesday evening last, February.13, when a most successful dance was held. The function was arranged by the .Wallaroo Hospital Auxiliary committee in aid of comforts for the institution, and the response was good, the takings coming to close on £14. Visitors came from Kadina, Moonta, Paskeville, Boor's Plains, Maitland, besides a good contingent of local folk.
The vessel had been generously placed at the disposal of the committee by Captain Soderlund, and he and the officers did their best to make the dance a success. The ship and the dancing space were decorated with flags and bunting, and the lighting arrangements were suitable to the occasion. The deck was enclosed with sails, much to the disappointment of the onlookers on the jetty, but this arrangement was doubtlessly appreciated by the dancers. Excellent dance music was supplied by Mrs Bowen, Misses Kyra Brown and Mabel Rowe, with Mr Cohen (who was relieved by Messrs Len Chambers, G. McDonald and Jack Lander) at the drums. Altogether the captain and officers are to be commended on what was a most enjoyable dance, the cool weather being auspicious for the occasion.
*****
The Advertiser 16 February 1935
NO APPRENTICES FOR WINDJAMMER
Youths Want To Work Passage On Lawhill
"There were numerous applications from young South Australians who wanted to work their passage to England on the sailing vessel Lawhill," said an official of Crosby, Mann and Co., the local agents, yesterday, "but none was desirous of signing on as an apprentice. However, the ship does not want passage-workers."
One Adelaide person has signed on as a passenger—an elderly retired man, who for some time has cherished an ambition to make the voyage to the United Kingdom in sail.
The Lawhill. which completed her wheat loading at Wallaroo yesterday, will leave for overseas during the week-end.
*****
I can think of many similar sentiments in those days for jaded, bored and young boy to run away or rebel. He had lived a secure and safe life of luxury riding on the coattails of his forefather's wealth. Today same boys exist and the entitlement that comes along with it. I'm sure young Richard got his fair share of culture clash and some discipline back in the day from the crew that actually had to be there to get somewhere in life.
The Herald 08 November 1935
WHY YOUNG MAN RAN AWAY TO SEA
Because a Policeman Booked Him
By Air Mail
LONDON.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan was only 18 when, in 1933, he suddenly decided to forsake modern life, with its cars and parking-place difficulties and interfering policemen and the like.
He simply drove away in his car from Paris and eventually made his way to London, where he joined the crew of the famous four-masted barque Lawhill. He sailed to Australia and back, and took part in the great grain ship race from "down under."
Here is his own story of how he came to go to sea, quoted from his book on the voyage, "Heavenly Hell," published by Putnam and Co.
"At 11.45 a.m. on October 20. 1933, I came out of a Parisian hairdresser's, glanced disgustedly at the autumn downpour, then leapt across the streaming pavement into my car. I was about to draw away rom the kerb, when a diminutive man in uniform gesticulated at the window.
"YOUR PAPERS. PLEASE"
"I wound it down wearily (the Parisian police are very wearying) and I asked him his business. 'Your car papers', he demanded.
'Why?'
'You know as well as I do—'
'Sir,' I replied, I have not that honor.'
'You are not allowed to park within! 10 metres of a T junction . . .'
'Am I not 10 metres?'
'No. You are 9.5 metres.'
"For five minutes he found interesting facts to copy into his notebook.
'Would Monsieur l'Agent have the good ness to hurry himself, for I have a luncheon,' I requested mildly."
'Sir, when I have accomplished my duty.'
"His duty took five more minutes, and then I was free. I record. this incident because, to my certain knowledge, it was the beginning of the whole adventure. Till nightfall the incident rankled; it became an obsession, .and suddenly aroused many hard suppressed feelings.
MIND MADE UP
"I was suddenly filled with a hatred for electric heaters, hot baths, and cocktail parties, but above all the police. I longed to dive into a sea man's sweater and suck a pipe. I went to sleep with my mind made up."
Sheridan was at that time living in Paris because his mother wanted him to go to a French university, but the incident with the policeman (combined with the university idea) made him dash off next day to find a ship.
There are many amusing and thrilling passages in his book. He made no effort to disguise the fact that he wanted to write about it all when he got home. A German member of the crew of the Lawhill cross-examined him on this.
They were in the Indian Ocean, and the weather threatened to be rough. "If only we could be caught in a cyclone," he would say. The rest of the crew disapproved strongly, particularly the German.
HE WANTED TO WRITE
"If only we could be caught in a cyclone," said our young man.
"Vot you do den?" challenged the German sailor.
"Write about it." "Suppose we lose the rig?"
"Write about it."
"Suppose some fellows get killed?"
"Write about it."
"Suppose you get killed." — "Shan't write about it."
So the German translated to his fellows that the 'Forbunden Englishman' hoped they would all get killed, so that he could write about it!
*****
Port Lincoln Times 07 February 1936
After a voyage of 83 days from Copenhagen, the Finnish four-masted barque Lawhill arrived at the anchor age at Port Lincoln on Thursday of last week, and received orders to go to Port Victoria to load wheat for Bunge (Aust ) Pty. Ltd.
Capt. A. Söderlund stated that fine weather was experienced during the voyage. "There were a few gales," he said. "but nothing worth talking about. We sailed in company with the Parma for six days at the Equator. It was one of the best voyages I have made. The distance from the Cape to Port Lincoln was covered in the smart time of 23 days." Capt. Söderlund added that his third officer was an Englishman, who was studying for his pilot's certificate. Several Englishmen were members of the crew last year, but they left to join the Discovery II when it sailed for the Ross Sea last October.
One member of the crew is a diminutive apprentice from Bunbury, Western Australia, who is making his second voyage in the ship. An inveterate smoker, he caused the Customs officer (Capt. J. M. Thomson) amusement when he 'declared' a huge package containing 6 lbs. of tobacco, intended for his own use in port and on his homeward voyage.
Known among seafarers as 'Lucky Lawhill' this vessel several years ago ran aground at Port Lincoln, and was refloated without damage.
*****
Sometimes sailors desert ships, even today it is a reality. In many cases they are quickly traced and apprehended by the local constabulary and then returned onboard with an escort and a persona non grata stamp in the passport. This was very popular in USA, as I heard from old timers when I was a young boy, some guys thought it was possible to chase the American dream.
Adelaide News 15 February 1936
Police Seeking Alleged Deserter
Jouko Turunen, a native of Finland, is being sought by the police following his alleged desertion from the sail ing ship Lawhill at Port Victoria, on February 10.
He is 26, 5 ft. 10 in. in height, of strong build, and has straight brown hair.
*****
As one can see the jolly didn't last long, probably out of money and hungry he was trying to get back to port until the police picked him up from the Ardrossan ferry.
Adelaide News 18 February 1936
ALLEGED DESERTION FROM SHIP
Sailor to be Tried
Alleged to have deserted from the sailing ship Lawhill at Port Victoria and stowed away at Ardrossan in the steamer Broadway, in which he went to Melbourne, Jouko Turunen, 26, a Finnish sailor, was returned to Port Victoria under police escort today.
At the outport the sailor will be charged with having deserted from the sailing ship Lawhill on February 10.
It is probable that the case will be dealt with at Port Victoria this after noon. Turunen is now in the custody of Constable H. Connor, of Port Adelaide.
According to the police Turunen stowed away in the Broadway at Ardrossan on February 10. He had left the Lawhill at Port Victoria, 25 miles away and on the other side of Yorke's Peninsula, the same day.
When the Broadway reached Melbourne he was arrested and put aboard the Momba, in which ship he was returned to Port Adelaide.
*****
Looks like young Richard didn't get to buy his windjammer and sail the world with his mother and sister onboard like he planned in 1934. He did however write the book that he said he would, it can still be found 2nd hand in various online outlets. Still his namesake forefather carries more fame than he managed to get, he passed away very young.
Newcastle Sun 20 January 1937
YOUNG SEAMAN AND AUTHOR DIES
CAREER FULL OF COLOR
LONDON. Tuesday
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (21), a great-great-grandson of the noted playwright: has died in Algeria after an operation for appendicitis.
He travelled to and from Australia in 1934 as an apprentice aboard the sailing ship Lawhill and nearly lost his life when aloft during a storm.
He described his adventures in a book entitled 'Heavenly Hell.'
He nearly lost his life again in February last off the coast of Algeria, when a yacht capsized and he had to swim three miles to the shore through rough seas.
His mother, who is a sculptress and authoress, is a cousin of Mr. Winston Churchill.
*****
Sometimes young boys do silly things, although I think this one was Danish judging of the name.
Adelaide news 06 April 1938
FINNISH SEAMAN ARRESTED
Left Sailing Vessel
PORT VICTORI:A. Wednesday. -
After having motored 'about 60 miles through the district in search of Robert Soren Olsen, a young Finnish sailor who disappeared from the sailing vessel Lawhill during the 'early hours' of Tuesday morning, Mounted Constable Kain found him last night in an unoccupied house about 18 miles from
Port Victoria.
Blueskin, .a native tracker from Point Pearce Mission Station, assisted in the search, and followed .the footprints through thick scrub, stubble paddocks, and stony country.
Olsen took over his watch as night watchman at midnight on Monday, and during the watch is said to have taken a boat from the ketch Waimanna. The ketch had been discharging wheat to the Lawhill during the day, and be cause of the particularly calm weather prevailing, remained alonside during
the night.
Olsen beached the boat about 1½ miles north of the jetty, from which ,point he was traced. He was very tired. and had eaten no food since leaving the ship. Tank water, however, was plentiful at the house where he was found.
*****
The Day, New London, Conn. 17 June 1938
New York Highlights by Dale Harrison
NEW YORK - We in New York live by the sea but are lubbers nonetheless. With water on every side of Manhattan, most New Yorkers know as little of the sea and its romance as a dust bowl farmer.
I'm as landlubberish as the rest, but sometimes I wander down to the water front, stare at the great liners and freighters, and travel around the world. It is only mental travel, but it has its advantages. It enables me to take journeys that one cannot take any other way, even if money were no object.
For instance. I went sailing today on the four-masted barque Lawhill down around Cape Horn where the winds screech unceasingly and the seas run mountain high. We lost a man, and saw the forbidding black albatross, and heard the whisper of death a hundred times, but it was great fun, great adventure, great sailing.
Captain Sidney Foster over on the United States lines' wharves was on the bridge, and as he told me of the bucking Lawhill fighting its way around the Cape a good quarter century since, I was there and it was today.
And with him I saw the albatross the solemn, frightful black albatross; and with him I knew that under the bird's black wings there rode the dirty, cursing, murdering soul of Kanaka Joe.
It was my second voyage on the Lawhill (Capt. Foster said) and we had a Kanaka bos'un We called land-him Kanaka Joe. He was a deep-water sailor, every inch of him; and he towered nearly seven feet. His great stature seemed to roar defiance at the howling winds, and his voice rose fiercely above the never-ending moaning of the sea.
He was a brute. He was happiest when he was torturing someone or something. He feared neither man nor beast, and least of all the sea,
But the sea laughs last at all men who sail her in four-masted barques. A roller swept mightily across us, and when it had gone it had taken Kanaka Joe with it. We caught just one quick glimpse of him astern. That was all.
"Watch now for the black albatross," we whispered. We knew. It is a superstition as old, perhaps, as sailing.
Most albatross are plumed with white, They soar, plane and circle the ship. with and against the wind, unceasingly. No one would think of killing one of them, for cach of these great birds is the soul of a sailor-a soul doomed to wheel through the gray, relentless skies as penance, yet marked for eventual salvation by the white plumage.
But we knew there would be no white plumed bird to symbolize the soul of Kanaka Joe. Instead we watched for the black albatross. Two hours later we saw it. The mate spied it forsr. His face paled, even ;eathered ruddiness of it; and he muttered: "It's Kanaka Joe, come back! We're in for a blow."
And we were. The whining winds whipped themselves into a mad gale that tossed the barque about almost as though it were a cork. For a week the wind howled and the seas slapped at us savagely.
And through it all, wheeling, soaring, circling, was the Black Albatross that was Kanaka Joe.
Captain Foster told me how sometimes as they sailed around the Horn they would trail a stout line from the stern, and tie a piece of white rag at the end. Down would sweep an albatross and fasten the rag in his bill. The sailors then slowly drew in the line until the bird, still clinging to the rag, was aboard.
"It would waddle about the deck on its huge webbed feet," the captain said, "and not seem particularly afraid. But in a few minutes it would become deathly seasick. Then we would cast it back to join the other birds who, like winged guardians, had circled close to us while their brother was our guest."
I forgot to ask Capt. Foster why an albatross got seasick on a ship's deck if it really was the soul of a sailor. I guess I was too occupied with thinking about the soul of Kanaka Joe flying around down there in the snarling skies of the cape - in the body of a black albatross - flying, flying - never resting - flying-forever.
*****
Central Queensland Herald 08 December 1938
LONDON, November 20.
Clement John Barrey, of Adelaide, owing to there being 110 vacancy in the R.A.A.F., worked his passage to England aboard the Lawhill, and after a voyage of 130 days, landed at Falmouth penniless He started to walk the 300 miles to London, but a friendly motorist gave him a lift from Cornwall. He has now secured an observer's commission in the air force.
*****
West Coast recorder 12 January 1939
THREE SAILING VESSELS AT PORT LINCOLN.
Lawhill Brings Two Passengers.
Two four-masted barques—the Moshulu and the Lawhill—arrived at Port Lincoln for orders, on Sunday and Monday respectively. Both occupied 85 doys on the trip which in both instances was uneventful.
The Moshulu came from Belfast, under command of Capt. Sjögren, while the Lawhill is from Liverpool, with Capt. Söderlund in charge. Two passengers were carried by the Lawhill. They were Dennis H. Adams, 24, an artist student who has been studying abroad for four years. He brought a number of paintings back with him. The other passenger is well-known in Port Adelaide and Port Lincoln. He is Mr Leslie Robinson and was employed on the coastal motor vessel Minnipa. He joined the Lawhill at Port Victoria when the vessel was last in South Australian waters.
The Minnipa was in Port Lincoln when Mr Robinson arrived, and he was able to renew many acquaintances.
Both passengers left for Adelaide on Wednesday night.
The barque Passat, which arrived at Port Lincoln on December 24, is also lying at anchorage. These
three vessels are now awaiting charter.
The Archibald Russell, another sailing ship, is expected to report at Port Lincoln or one of the Gulf ports any day now.
*****
Åland 02 September 1941
4-mbk. “Lawhill” seized by British authorities in East London. According to a telegram received by the shipping company, the four-masted barque “Lawhill”, owned by the sjöfartsråd Gustaf Erikson in Mariehamn, was seized by the British authorities in East London, South Africa, on August 21. The ship, whose master is Captain Arthur Söderlund from Mariehamn, has a crew of 24 to 25 men and carries 4,000 tons d.w.
“Lawhill” is the second of the sjöfartsråd Erikson’s Atlantic sailing ships to be seized by the British in a short time. The first ship was, as is well known, the 4-mbk. “Pamir”, which was seized by the British authorities in New Zealand some time ago. The shipping company has taken steps to allow the crews of both ships to embark on their return journey to Finland.
Note: "Sjöfartsråd" - Finnish honorary title in the field of maritime matters, not translatable
*****
Die Transvaler 16 September 1941
Finnish Ship Not Declared Forfeited
CAPE TOWN. Monday. — A Court of Appeal, consisting of the Judge-President, Judge H. S. van Zyl, and Judges R. B. Howes and J. E. de Villiers, has heard an application by the Government for the command of a Finnish ship, the Lawhill, who is currently on trial in East London. The ship arrived with a cargo of coal from Australia.
Advocate N. Ogilvie Thompson appeared for the Government and Advocate Graeme Duncan for the captain and owners of the ship. Advocate Duncan stated that he would be present at the hearing where the ship would be seized.
Adv. Thompson stated that the ship was registered in a Finnish port and was therefore subject to commandeering in light of Finland's current war position.
The Judge President: What is the position? Is this country at war with Finland?
Adv Thompson: I can't really say that.
The Judge President: Is Finland an occupied territory?
Adv Thompson: No, the Finns are fighting alongside the Germans against our ally Russia.
The Judge President: This does not state that Russia is an ally of South Africa.
INVESTIGATION
Adv Thompson: I believe that Your Honor can accept the fact that Russia is considered an ally. Germany is the common enemy of South Africa and Russia, and Finland is a fellow belligerent on Germany's side.
The Judge-President stated that he was of the opinion that Adv. Thompson was seen his position to act as a negotiator. If he had applied for the forfeiture of the ship, the position would have been different.
The Judge President asked Adv Duncan whether he was satisfied with the method by which the ship was valued. Adv Duncan replied that either there should be a valuation or, if not, the value of the ship should be determined in terms of rule 4. He was convinced that, if a valuation did not take place, the owners would apply for a valuation.
The Judge President granted the order and stated that the court was asked to conclude from certain circumstances that Finland was to such an extent under the control of, and in collaboration, with Germany that it should be regarded as an enemy of that country.
The evidence adduced is sufficient to show that a condition exists which should be investigated and to provide a reason why the court should not release the ship. However, there is not sufficient evidence to declare the ship forfeited (SAPA).
*****
Daily commercial news and shipping list 28 April 1942
BARQUE LAWHILL
Joins Allies Fleet
The Department of Information has supplied the following paragraph for publication: — Before Finland actively joined the Axis the steel four-masted barque Lawhill left Australia and sailed into the Buffalo River, South Africa. When South Africa declared war on Finland the Law hill had of necessity to change her flag. When U-boat sinkings make every serviceable hull of value to the Allies it is of interest to learn the use to which this vessel is be ing put, in the following story from the South African Bureau
of Information: "It must be 25 years since a crew was recruited for a deep-sea windjammer in South African waters, but old timers who breatestd (braved?) the waves' in days when sailors were sailors have been turning out sea chests to find, amid bits and pieces from many lands, the old yellow documents which certify that their owners have served their time in sail. Old timers have been sought by the Union Government of South Africa, which advertised for them. South Africa, which has never before owned a really big windjammer, has acquired Gustav Erikson's Lawhill as a prize of war and a crew has been called to man her. She is a barque of 2816 tons, a sister ship of the Garthpool, and one of the largest sailing ships afloat. Soon she will carry the Union's colours at the masthead, manned by men who remember days when a mast held more than a brace of radio wires."
*****
Gustaf Erikson's wife was also from South Africa so I guess she got the "inside" news from time to time as reported here:
Åland 28 December 1944
Lawhill has travelled between South Africa and Australia
Captain Arthur Söderlund is in command on board, although the ship flies under the English flag.
Shortly before the Christmas holidays, Captain Pamela Eriksson in Lemland-Granboda received a letter from her mother in South Africa, telling her about sjöfartsråd Gustaf Erikson's tall sail ship Lawhill, which sails under the English flag. The ship is currently in a South African port after having made at least four trips between South Africa and Australia. The latest trip took 41 days. The journey to Sydney was stormy in the Indian Ocean and after arriving the ship was filmed. On board the ship is still her master from the time before the English seizure, namely Captain Arthur Söderlund from Mariehamn, who has his wife and daughter with him.
There are indications that Captain Söderlund is still on board, says Hilding Kåhre, the authorized representative at the Sjöfartsråd's office, and it is interesting that he was allowed to command his old ship even after it was captured by the English at the declaration of war between England and Finland. It is likely that Captain Söderlund has at least most of the crew left, and the first mate is Captain Madry Lindholm from Mariehamn. It is also stated in the letter to Mrs. Eriksson that the officers and crew have been well received by the English authorities, and this is something that there is no reason to doubt. Previously, there have been indications from other sources that Lawhill would have been laid up for some time.
*****
Daily commercial and shipping list 08 Oct 1945
PUBLIC INSPECTION.
Sailing Ship Lawhill.
On Sunday, 14th October, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the 2816-ton four-masted barque Lawhill will be open for public inspection at No.1 wharf, Walsh Bay (under Harbour bridge, Sydney side). An admission charge of 2/ per head will be made, and gross proceeds will be given to the Merchant Navy War Memorial Appeal, whose office is at 17 O'ConncIl St., Sydney. This is the last visit to Sydney of this famous old sailing ship, and the only time she has been open for inspection.
*****
Lloyds List 10 August 1946
*****
Die Transvaler 20 11 1946
Use of "Lawhill" by S.A.S. Discontinued
The Finnish sailing ship "Lawhill", which was retained in East London harbour by the Union Government in 1941 shortly after Finland attacked Russia and which has since served in the fleet of the South African Railways, will be returned to the Department of Trade and Industry tomorrow, according to the latest edition of the Railway Bulletin.
The decision to discontinue the use of the "Lawhill" was made for economic reasons. Difficulty was experienced in obtaining suitable shipping in both directions, firstly because of the time taken on a journey, and secondly because shippers are required to pay higher insurance premiums in respect of goods carried by sailing ships.
The Railways have also found that sailing ships do not meet the extraordinary requirements of the type of trade carried by the Railways. with the result that that the rent paid to the Department of Trade and Industry, to whom the ownership has passed, is considered uneconomic.
The ship was originally built in the year 1892 at Dundee, Scotland, with a gross tonnage of 2,818. During the beginning of the last war, the "Lawhill" sailed under the Finnish flag until it was commissioned on 18 September 1941 and registered under the Union flag in East London.
The first voyage under the Union flag was accepted on 22 September 1941 when the refurbished ship sailed with a partly South African crew to Western Australia to load cross-beams and timber.
During November, the sailing ship, after sailing around the globe, returned to the Union. Since then the "Lawhill" made five further voyages to Australia and called at various ports on the west coast of Australia. On these voyages, approximately 12,000 tons of grain were brought to the Union in addition to other cargoes consisting mainly of timber.
The "Lawhill" carried over 14,300 tons of cargo from the Union and 28,020 tons of import traffic on her homeward voyages in addition to 5,488 tons of coastal traffic between overseas ports. The Railways used the ship for the last time to pick up a cargo of grain in South America.
During the war, the sailing ship "Lawhill'' gained fame as the "luckiest ship at sea", as it never encountered any hostilities during many voyages to and from Australia. The "Lawhill's" voyages were also of great assistance to the Meteorological Department and logbooks were carefully checked because the ship sailed over sea routes that were little used and where weather conditions were directly related to latitudes further north.
Some of the achievements on the record of the "Lawhill" were a sea voyage from Bordeaux to Port Lincoln in Western Australia that lasted 70 days, while a distance of 11,500 nautical miles from Melbourne to Cape Town via Cape Horn was covered in 55 days at an average speed of 9.2 knots during August 1943.
*****
Die Transvaler 20 12 1946
DISPOSAL BOARD FOR WAR GOODS
SALE OF THE SAILING SHIP "LAWHILL"
The firm of Victor J. Jones, as duly instructed, will sell the undermentioned vessel on behalf of the War Goods Disposal Board.
The sale will take place on board the vessel at the Collier wharf in the Old Port, Cape Town, on Tuesday 7 January 1947 at 10 AM
"S.S. LAWHILL”
(Recently classed as 100-Al Lloyds)
A barque with a steel hull and four masts (topgallant, fore and mainmast) of 2816 gross tons and 2540 registered tons with a carrying capacity of 4600 tons at a draft of 22ft. 9in.
The "S.S. Lawhill", together with all loose gear and equipment on board, will be sold to the highest bidder, subject to the reserve price, and thereafter the loose gear on board will also be sold by auction.
The latter goods are sold on the condition that a buyer shall not use or dispose of any goods which are imported or excisable products or manufactures of the Union for which duties have not been paid without the consent of the Receiver of Customs and Excise, Cape Town, and payment to him of any import duties or excise duties due on such goods.
Only cash or cheques with a bank guarantee will be accepted as payment.
1. The Auctioneers
2. The Receiver of Customs and Excise, Cape Town
3. The undersigned
W.G. GEACH Secretary
Disposition Board of War Property
K Building, Central Street, PRETORIA E 3225
*****
Die Transvaler 03 January 1947
The same announcement of 20th December 1946 was repeated.
*****
Feature of Lawhill under arrest in France after breaking the blockade and a write up of her history until the day, bit like an eulogy as she made only one more transoceanic voyage after she was taken over by Portuguese interests in Mozambique. As we now know, Erikson did not buy her back, he was already much of age and would pass in 6 months time:
The Evening Telegraph 10 January 1947
WINDJAMMER LAWHILL HAD ALL THE LUCK
The Lawhill, last of the Dundee windjammers, has been offered for sale at Cape Town.
Opinion among ship lovers is that there is little chance of saving her form the scrappers. She is 56 years old, and her owners, the South African Government, cannot find profitable cargoes for her.
Her main hope of reprieve is repurchase by her former owner, Captain Gustav Erik Erikson, of Mariehamn, Finland. In 1939 he was the largest owner of sailing ships in the world.
The Lawhill was seized at East London in 1941 when Finland came in to the war. In the her five years of trading under the South African flag, she has covered 188,000miles, carried nearly 50,000 tons of cargo, mainly grain, sleepers, steel, lead and sawn timber,
Only about half a dozen "full ships" have survived the war, and Lawhill is the veteran of the party.
There as nothing in her early career to indicate that she would eventually become one of the most famous ships afloat.
A four-masted barque of 2816 tons gross, she was launched from the Caledon yard in 1892, by W.B. Thompson & Co., Ltd. She and the slightly smaller Juteopolis, built the previous year, were typical windjammers of the nineties-wall sided floating warehouses of large carrying capacity with no pretensions to speed.
Feared lost
Both were owned by Captain Charles Barrie, who later became Lord Provost of Dundee, and was knighted.
The Juteopolis became the Garthpool, of Montreal. When she was wrecked on the African coast in November 1929, the shipping world mourned the loss of the last deep-sea square rigged ship to fly the "Red Duster" of the British merchant navy.
The recent mourning proved it was premature. In addition to the Lawhill, the Finnish barque, Pamir fell into British hands as a prize, and is still being operated by the New Zealand Government.
The Lawhill was overdue in 1898 on a passage from Nagasaki to Chittagong, and there were fears she had been lost in a typhoon. She turned up undamaged after a long passage. Her trip home to Dundee with jute - 165 days - was equally tedious. Incidentally, this was the only time she visited her homeport with jute. The Juteopolis, despite her name, never came back to Dundee after her launch.
Both ships were sold to the Anglo-American oil company in 1899, and spent many years as case oil carriers between America and the Far East.
The Lawhill's career did not get really interesting until she passed under the Finnish flag just before the first world war.
The spring of 1917 saw the climax of the U-boat campaign, and most windjammer owners kept their ships well clear of the danger zones.
The Lawhill's owner was an exception. She cause quite the stir by getting into Brest with Australian grain when steamers were being sunk on all sides.
Re-Hoisted Finnish Flag
This escapade earned her the nickname "Lucky Lawhill" which has stuck ever since. It was certainly lucky for her owner. She had cost him £8500 in 1914 and she sold for £77,000 in December 1917.
At the end of the war she was till at Brest, rigged down for conversion into a motor vessel. This project was abandoned, and in 1919 she re-hoisted the Finnish flag under the ownership of Captain Erikson, then a comparative newcomer to ship owning.
Dundee ships played a big part in the career of this world-renowned windjammer man. His last command before investing in a ship of his own was the old Lochec, of the Dundee Clipper Line, built by Stephens at Marine Parade in 1874.
"Lucky Lawhill" founded his fortunes as a shipowner. Of scores of windjammers seeking cargoes on river Plate, she alone got a freight. She developed passage making propensities rarely shown in her early years. In 1924 she went out to Australia in 70 days, which would have been reckoned a good performance for a clipper.
She survived two serious accidents in 1932 - stranding in the Mersey, and colliding with the Polish steamer Njemen off the Swedish coast. The steamer was sunk. The following year she dragged her anchors during a gale in the Downs, and thousands of people in Deal watched the struggle to save her. She was brought up a quarter of a mile from the beach.
When war broke out in 1939, she was in the Clyde. She was sent down to Rothesay Bay to lie up while her crew went to fight in the war between Finland and Russia.
Record Trip
Since hoisting the South African flag she has maintained her reputation for good luck. In her trips between South Africa, Australia and South America she has kept clear of raiders and U-Boats. In 1943 she the 11,500mile run from Melbourne to Cape Town in 5 5 days at an average speed of 9.2 knots.
She has remained in of her Finnish master, captain A. Söderlund, who joined her as a seaman many years ago and worked his way up. His wife and daughter travel with him.
In Australia, a land of ship lovers, the Lawhill attracted a lot of attention. She was the first windjammer seen in Sydney for 21 years, and thousands of sightseers swarmed to view her, she has been laid up at Cape Town since October.
*****
Åland 22 04 1947
LAWHILL becomes South African training ship.
Captain Arthur Söderlund, from Åland, as Master.
"Svensk Sjöfartstidning" in Gothenburg summarizes in an article the training ship plans that are currently being held in a number of countries. Both France, South Africa and New Zealand are considering implementing such plans for the acquisition of large grain-race ships as training ships for the merchant navy's officer trainees. In France these plans are concentrated around the former German training ship Grossherzogin Elisabeth, which is among those taken over by France after the war. Grossherzogin Elisabeth is a full-rigged ship of 1,260 gross tons, built in Wesermünde in 1901. The Sjöfartsråd Gustaf Erikson's 4-masted bark Lawhill of 4,660 tons dw. has recently been sold by the South African government (which during the war sailed and operated the ship) to a company in Cape Town for 9,000 pounds. It is now stated that the ship will be used as a training ship and will be employed in the trade between South America and South Africa. The company has a capital of 20,000 pounds and is registered in Pretoria although the office is in Cape Town. The crew will be 45 men. all Europeans, and the commander will be, as before, Captain Arthur Söderlund. As far as New Zealand is concerned, it also applies to one of the former 4-masted ships of the Sjöfartsråd Erikson, namely the steel ship Pamir of 4,350 tons dwt., built in Hamburg in 1904 for the large Laeisz firm, where Pamir belonged to the famous fleet of 'flying P-ships'. The ship was seized in 1941 and has since sailed under the New Zealand flag. Recently, widespread opinion has been expressed that the government should buy Pamir and use the ship as a school ship for 50-60 students. No decision has yet been made, partly because the government is said to fear that the operating costs for the ship will be very high.
*****
15 August 1947, Gustaf Eriksson passes away at 74 years of age.
*****
Åland 17 August 1948
Lawhill sold to Portugal. The four-masted steel barque Lawhill of 4,660 tons d.w. has been sold by the South African Railways to a Portuguese group, which will dispatch the ship from Lorenzo Marques, reports Svensk Sjöfartstidning. She was built in Dundee in 1892 and before the last world war belonged to the sjöfartsråd Gustaf Erikson in Mariehamn and was taken over by South Africa when Finland entered the war.
*****
It is interesting to see that the S.A. gov't would be paying back the proceeds of the sale to Erikson. It was the honorable thing to do after the confiscation of the vessel as a war prize and then using it for their own ends. To me what is confusing is that the next post says the money "will be spent in South Africa" so I can only think that perhaps Erikson had some business interests for that or perhaps it was given to the wife's side of the family left in SA.
Die Transvaaler 04 February 1950
GOVERNMENT PAYS MONIES TO HEIRS
The sum of £8775 received for the sale of the sailing ship Lawhill will be paid by the Union Government to the heirs of the former Finnish owner, the late Mr. Gustaf Erikson, of Mariehamn, Finland.
The Union Government took this decision after taking into account the heavy losses suffered by the population and government of Finland during the war and their admirable efforts to rebuild.
It is hoped that this action will assist Mr Erikson Jr. in his efforts to continue the shipping activities of his late father.
WAR SPOILS
During the war, the Lawhill was seized in the port of East London. The four-masted ship was later declared war spoils and sold at public auction to a private company.
The amount paid to Mr. Erikson by the Union Government will be spent in the Union.
The Lawhill is considered by many sailors to be the finest sailing ship in the world. While the Lawhill was in South Africa's service, several sailors who today hold high positions in the South African merchant navy and elsewhere had served as cadets on the ship.
The ship undertook various voyages around the world from Cape Town to Australia and across the Pacific Ocean to Argentina and back to Cape Town.
The Lawhill lay in Durban harbour for about five months during 1948 and the ship was declared unseaworthy there as the ropes and sails were no longer reliable. A Portuguese businessman, Heinrich da Silva of Lourenco Marques, bought the ship at an auction in Durban towards the end of 1948. The ship was then taken to Lourenco Marques where it still lies today.
*****
Die Transvaler 04 February 1950
The Lawhill, a famous four-masted ship which belonged to the Union Government for a time, photographed while in dry dock at Cape Town some time ago. During the war the Lawhill was seized in East London, and after the ship was declared a prize of war, she was sold to a private company for £8775. The sum of £8775 will now be paid by the Union Government to the heirs of the former Finnish owner. The money will be spent in South Africa.
*****
Epilogue from Iraq giving evidence on her bad condition and whereabouts, I guess money and interest in her had run out, can't imagine there was a lot of ship yard facilities around in those days:
The Iraq Times 27 September 1954
Lourenco Marques, Portuguese East Africa, Sunday
The veteran four-masted schooner Lawhill after lying six years a the head of the harbour of Lourenco Marques, has been towed to the bank of the Matola River outside the bay - and left to rot.
Six years ago the maritime authorities refused her a seaworthy certificate as her steel hull had rotted and she was slowly taking water. The owners found that repairs would be too costly.
Lawhill made her last voyage to Lourenco Marques from Durban, South Africa, in 1948 after registering under Portuguese flag. She had been at sea for 50 years, her 28 great sails having carried her to most parts of the world.
*****
William Damerell 1944 Sydney
Tribute from 2017 by Brian Ingpen for Capt Bill Damerell on Lawhill training centre
Although life was tough aboard Lawhill – Damerell lost a finger to a slamming door as the ship rolled in heavy weather off the Cape – her cadets had a superb grounding as they learnt the ways of the sea, in fair weather and foul.
As tough and romantic as his time aboard Lawhill had been, the future lay in motor ships...
“Your most memorable experience at sea, Captain?” I probed. He needed no prompting. “Standing on the truck (top) of the main mast when Lawhill passed under Sydney Harbour Bridge.”
*****
Archives of Richard Crockett and sailing publications (SA Sailing Aug 1978)
(I'm omitting the technical characteristics and her sailing history as I have documented those elsewhere already)
SA yachting page 22
In South Africa one can still find comparatively young mariners with a background of squaresail - and one of the main reasons was our involvement with the Lawhill during the war years. Among many who served in her was yachtsman Arthur Holgate of schooner Antares fame and, of course, the Captain-superintendent of the SA Nautical Academy General Botha, Captain Phillip Nankin. Here C.F. SPENCE, who was a prominent businessman in Lourenco Marques, describes how she finally met her end after nearly 60 years of service
the last of the LAWHILL
The Beginning:
Charles Barrie worked Lawhill for seven years, then in 1899 she was sold to the Anglo-American Oil Company who, in turn, in 1911, sold her to G. Windram & Company of Liverpool for £5,500. Later, in 1914. A.M. Troberg of Mariehamn purchased her for £8,500, and finally in 1917 she joined the fleet of sailing ships owned by Gustaf Erikson, the famous Finn whose ships were all registered in Finland. However, from 19l7 till 1919 she remained in Brest, France, when she entered the Australian run, usually outward bound to Australia in ballast, or with a cargo of Baltic timber , and home with wheat by way of Cape Horn.
While operating for the Anglo-American Oil Company in 1904, and on passage from Japan to New York with a cargo of matting and copper ore (the former presumably from the Far East and the latter from Southern Africa), she was damaged in a gale off Mossel Bay, losing her mizzen mast. Arrangements were made with Thesen & Company to tow her to Cape Town with one of their coasters loading timber at Knysna. However, the towing cable parted and she was seen by a Union-Castle mail ship heading eastwards, presumably driven in that direction by the westerly gale. The Thesen ship followed her and took her in tow again, this time succeeding in getting her to Cape Town, where she was patched up and later sailed to New York as a three-masted barque.
In New York she received a new mizzen, though the quality of the steel did not match up to that of the old Scottish-made masts.
Alan Villiers in his classic exposition of the age of sail, The Way of a Ship, made reference to Lawhill, in a chapter about Captain Jarvis, generally known as Bracewinch Jarvis, one of Britain's most resourceful and humane wind-ship skippers. The following extract from pages 163 and 164 of his book gives some indication of Lawhill's qualities as a carrier and good sailer:
SA yachting page 23
He wrote:
ln the big Lawhill Jarvis had a ship after his own heart, for she was full of "gadgets". She was a clumsy looking ship with a very square rig, without royals, and her steel topmasts were built in one piece with the lower masts. Her topgallant-masts were stepped abaft the topmast head s, instead of on the fore part of them, and this, coupled with her rather squat rig, gave her an ungainly appearance. Her wall sides and not-too-fine end s made her look a poor sailer, too, and her big midships superstructure (which was the same sort of thing the "P" ships had) further spoiled her appearance in the estimation of sailing-ship sailors.
Yet s he was in fact an excellent ship, a good carrier and a good sailer, and most economical of crew and gear.
Those queerly-placed topgallant masts were an American invention which had been developed by a Bostonian named Forbes to give Mac Kay's Great Republic double topsails. The idea was that the lower yard was supported from very near the topmast head and the upper yard , which was supported by a long truss mounted on a strong parrel, was hoisted on the topgallant mast. This kept the two yards well apart, which was an advantage. It meant , too , that there was only one yard on the topgallant mast, and so it could be sent up and down very easily without sending any yards down at all.
The Lawhill traded a lot to New York, and this handiness was of great value when she was called on to pass under the East River bridges. Much later, I was in Lawhill myself (it was there I first heard of Captain Jarvis), and I can give my personal testimony that the queer rig, with all the innovations the redoubtable Jarvis introduced, made her the handiest big ship I was ever in or heard of. We sailed her to Australia with a crew of 17 boys. At seventeen, I was one of her few able seamen.
Jarvis made bad passages as well as good. In the ancient Cicero he was once 168 days from San Francisco to the Channel, and he once had to wander three times across the greater part of the Pacific trying to induce the Lawhill to sail from Hong Kong in ballast to New York, and took l76 days to make the passage.
First he ran towards Hawaii, and, after that some time after - Lawhill was among the Solomons. Then the south-east trade forced her on the Australian coast. Out of that, she crossed the Tasman Sea and, at last, was able to run for the Horn. That passage she logged 26 000 miles, but there was no scurvy. Jarvis looked after his crew, who consisted on that run of nine young Japanese cadets, nine British boys, and three Japanese shoemakers going to America for experience. All the Japanese were excellent sailors, said Jarvis. He put them in three watches, keeping two watches on deck by day and one by night , in the Scots fashion. The Lawhill took so long because her rigging had been weakened when she was on her beam ends in a typhoon before reaching Hong Kong, and Jarvis was determined to put things to rights himself.
He did, but it took some time, and the weakened ship could not be sailed properly. By the time she was on her third crossing of the Pacific, however, she was in first-class order.
From 1920 till 1942 she traded profitably for Gustaf Erikson on the Australian run, with only a few incidents to mar her good record, becoming known in the company as "Lucky Lawhill''. In 1927, for instance, while on passage from Melbourne to Queenstown, Ireland, she lost two boats and the charthouse off Cape Horn; on July 2, 1932, she grounded at New Brighton on the run from Port Lincoln to Falmouth, but was later floated off; and on October 1 the same year she was in collision in the Skagerrak with a Polish steamer, sustaining some damage to her bows. Details of her voyages for Gustaf Erikson a as as under:
(List of voyages, pls refer to separate table or click on the picture to enlarge.)
The last stage of her active career was under the South African flag . In 1942 she was in East London with a cargo of jarrah railway sleepers from Australia, when Finland was invaded by Russia and consequently found herself automatically on the side of Germany against the Allies. Being now a vessel belonging to an enemy country, the Lawhill was taken over by the South African Government as a prize-of-war and put to work earning her keep under the South African flag. Her master , Captain Arthur Söderlund, remained on the vessel, with most of the crew, these being supplemented by South...
SA yachting page 24
...Africans and Australians. Her last trip for the South African Government was from Argentina to Cape Town with wheat in in 1946. Then in Durban Lawhill was put up for sale by the Custodian of Enemy Property and purchased by a syndicate composed of Mr. Hermann Olthaver of Johannesburg and Mr . Th . Waker, for the sum of £9,000.
Under her new South African owners, she sailed from Durban for Argentina aga in with a cargo of coal for Buenos Aires but, not having sufficient of her original crew, the South African Government gave permission to engage German sailors from the internment camp. On this run Captain Söderlund was still master , with Lindholm as 1st mate, Bruno Ericsson as 2nd mate, and Philip Nankin as 3rd mate. She returned to Cape Town with a cargo of wheat, then back up the coast to Durban.
On her next trip she sailed with Captain Lindholm as master, Bruno Ericsson lst mate, and Philip Nankin as 2nd mate. She had a contract to take coal to Australia and return with wheat, but owing to a strike in Sydney, the coal order was cancelled and she sailed from Durban to Lourenco Marques with coastal cargo (a trip that took only 45 hours), then from Lourenco Marques to Port Victoria in ballast. There she loaded wheat and sailed for Beira, which she reached in 57 days. From Beira back to Durban took 12 days, by which time her masts and rigging were showing signs of deterioration.
In Durban she was laid up for two months, and the owners - who had lost the profits of the first trip by having to sail in ballast to Australia on the second trip due to the strike in Sydney - decided to sell her. They found a buyer in a Portuguese named Da Silva, acting on behalf of an Indian merchant of Lourenço Marques, Mozambique, Gulumhussen Gina. An Ismailian Moslem, he was also the Mozambique, Gulamhussen Gina. An Khan and was generally considered to be a man of some substance.
Phase Three
Her Final Port - Lourenço Marques:
For her new owners she had to be delivered to Lourenço Marques, which was carried out under Captain Lindholm as master. Her arrival in her new port of registration was accompanied by considerable fanfare: Gulamhussen, as representative of the Aga Khan, was hardly likely to let such an event as the start of his maritime activities go unheralded! And indeed he gave it full publicity, with a grand cocktail party on board to which all those of any importance were invited. My wife and I were there in our best bib and tucker, as was my sales manager, Francisco da Silva and Costa and his wife, since we were valuable customers of his. She looked magnificent alongside the wharf, all decked out in bunting and looking as gay as a garden party. I was personally delighted to have the opportunity to examine such a large windjammer at close quarters and to discuss her activities with her master, Captain Lindholm.
This gay party was unfortunately her last sign of life. After that she went into a decline and never again saw the open sea. She was examined by Captain R.M. de Greyter, Lloyds' Surveyor, on her arrival with a view to putting her back into class, but he found...
SA yachting page 25
...her to be in such a badly run-down state that in his opinion it would not have been an economical proposition to bring her back to top class standard.
He suggested, therefore to Gulamhussen that, as she was then under the Portuguese flag, application should be made to the Portuguese Maritime Department for them to grant her a certificate of seaworthiness, so that the vessel could trade. Their requirements, however , also made it an uneconomical proposition and, consequently, nothing further was done, though attempts were made to recruit a Portuguese crew.
Soon after the party, officers and crew departed, and Lawhill was taken from the wharf to an anchorage off the timber yards, and left there pending a decision on her future.
She was still there in 1951 when 1 boarded her on Sunday afternoon while sailing, to have a look at her at closer quarters. I was unwise enough to accept a drink of water from the native watchman on board, and ten days later I found myself in bed with typhoid, presumably from contaminated water.
Lawhill remained at this anchorage for a few years, and was then towed by the port authorities up the river to the confluence of the Tembe, Umbeluzi, and Matola rivers, where she remained a derelict, only her tall masts visible from Lourenço Marques across the Mangrove swamps.
Phase Four:
Game till the End. As scrap on the Catembe Beach:
That was the last that I saw of the ship, apart from the occasional sailing trips up the river to look at her, till a man named Coelho called on me in my office on business. He told me he had bought the hulk - presumably for a song - to break up for scrap, and so far had removed only one steel mast. He had decided to give it up, as she was so far from the wharf that the costs of transporting the iron scrap such a long distance by barge using tug towage was so high that it made the whole operation uneconomic.
Nothing more was heard of her, till one morning the Lawhill hulk appeared on the Catembe shore at the point opposite the wharf, near what used to be a naval arsenal.
That area was generally known as 'the graveyard ', where ships in the early days were dumped when their useful days were over. After the war, with a heavy demand for scrap iron and other metals, those ships at that point were all cut up for scrap, so the beach, when the Lawhill hulk appeared on it, was free of other impediments. It was a natural spot for dumping hulks, as it was right at the narrowest part where the channel was at its deepest, against a bank where, at high springs, vessels could float from the channel onto this flat bank and be abandoned without affecting ships' movements in the channel.
This did not apply, however, to a hulk the size of the Lawhill which was too large to be ignored. In due course, however, it was cut up and the beach cleared once again, but I often wondered how it had made the journey from the Tembe river to the Catembe beach without anyone apparently having seen it happen. I discovered the answer one day when chatting to Werner van Alvensleben (Baron to give him his full title) as he had recently been engaged in ship-breaking and used to export his scrap through one of our companies, Spence & Faure, specialists in exports of all types.
Apart from ship-breaking Werner van Alvensleben was also a professional hunter and known to the Africans throughout southern Mozambique as Mujonjonjo (the Tall One). During the off season, when hunting was not permitted, he used to occupy himself breaking up ships and dismantling abandoned factories with a view to exporting the scrap. He also traded in colonial products.
From him I got the full story, which I give below in his own words.
(The following part appears to be a verbatim copy from the book "Baron in Africa: The Remarkable Adventures of Werner Von Alvensleben")
"As Coelho didn't know what to do with the ship, I said I would cut it up and sell the...
SA yachting page 54
...scrap for him in Japan. I had obtained prices from Japan and reckoned I could make sufficient on it to pay Coelho what he had outlaid plus a small profit, and still leave me with an adequate profit as well.
First of all, however, I had to go to see the Port Captain, but I was not received at all well when I broached the subject of the Lawhill, as he had had so much trouble over her with both Gulamhussen and Coelho. He didn't even ask me to sit down, so I just sat down without being invited. I said I had bought the vessel from Coelho and proposed to beach her at Catembe for cutting up, so could he let me have two tugs to tow her into position and beach her at the top of the tide? Naturally I would pay for their hire, I said.
"Definitely not," he replied. "If you want to cut her up you can do it where she lies up the river above Matola."
This, I said was quite impossible, so he suggested, somewhat cynically, that if I wanted to move her I might try the system used by the sailing pioneers of old - the crab system.
Naturally, as a landlubber, I could not be expected to know this, so he took out a piece of paper and drew on it a ship with six points round it. Each point represented an anchor, and each one required a crab winch, so six crab winches would be needed . The idea was to pick up one anchor, drop it farther on, then winch up to it, followed in turn by all the others, one by one.
Anyway I took the paper with its drawing, put it in my pocket and left.
At least it had given me an idea, so I contacted an African called Sullivan whom I had known for many years, and who had worked in the port of Lourenço Marques and on ships, so was quite knowledgeable about the handling of boats. Between us we worked out a plan, collected a gang of Africans, a rowing boat, and oxy-acetylene cutting gear.
I knew the highest tide of the year was due in a week's time, which gave us ample time to make our preparations.
We put up a winch on the Catembe shore, at the narrowest point of the channel opposite the wharf, and organized a supply of thick sisal rope. We divided ourselves into two parties, one with the rowing boat based on Catembe under Sullivan, the others under me on board the Lawhill, and equipped with ropes, another winch, and the oxy-acetylene cutting equipment.
She was riding to two anchors in the channel when we boarded her at the top of the tide. We cut the anchor chains as the tide changed - and started off on our voyage down the channel towards the wharf and the Catembe bottle-neck , where Sullivan and his crew awaited us. We had no means of steerage, and the only propulsion came from the fast-flowing tide. We were in the hands of fate, and could only wait and watch, hoping that the channel was clear and that we would hit no obstructions. On the Catembe side, my wife Bibla - so she told me later - was kneeling on the shore praying that everything would go right. If it didn't, she knew her husband would be offered free board and lodging by the government - in gaol - and she didn't fancy him as a gaolbird!
As Catembe point came into view, I strained my eyes looking for Sullivan with his boat and eight men and for a signal from his torch. There were only two torches, he had one and I the other but we could use them only circumspectly, so it was with a great sense of relief that I saw the outlines of his boat as they rowed out of the darkness and cam e alongside. In the light of the torches we threw down two sisal ropes, each with one end secured to a bollard in the bow of the Lawhill.
With the free ends in the hands of Sullivan they rowed flat out towards the shore - accompanied by my prayers that they would reach it and secure the ropes before we drifted too far.
As the ropes tautened and the bows swung into the outgoing current, I breathed a sigh of relief; Sullivan had made it in time. He had managed to secure one rope round a huge bluegum tree we had selected for this purpose and the other to a crab winch I had mounted on the beach.
Had he not reached the gum tree in time, and the rope not been long enough, then Lawhill, the eight Africans and I would have been on our way to the Indian Ocean - and then there would have been lots of trouble! But our luck held - and so did the ropes!
Using the two winches, one on the shore and one on board, we gradually brought Lawhill alongside and on to the beach. There was still enough depth of water to get her close against the shore, so that, as the tide receded farther, Lawhill lay clear on the beach, parallel to the shore and ready for the last phase of her adventurous life - cutting up and removal as scrap. We had succeeded in what we had set out to accomplish!
It was still early in the morning when we started back, walking along the beach as far as the Catembe jetty, where we boarded the next ferry to take us across to Lourenço Marques. Being still early Bibla went home, while I took all my men to the marketplace, where there is an all-night cafe serving meals, wine and coffee. We were seated there celebrating our success, when a man from the Capitania came up to me in a great state of agitation to say that the Port Captain wanted to see me immediately in his office.
I was expecting to be called, of course, though perhaps not quite so soon.
Anyway, I went along with him and learnt, as we went, that the messenger apparently disliked the Port Captain, and was rather enjoying the whole thing. He told me the Port Captain had arrived early at his office, when someone called in to say that the Lawhill was on the Catembe beach and could be seen clearly from his office. As she had been anchored up the river above Matola when he had retired to bed the previous evening, someone must have shifted her - and to his mind no one but I could have played such a dirty trick on him.
As I walked into his office, he sat there, to all appearances having an apoplectic fit.
He seemed to have lost his voice. He didn't offer me a seat, so I sat down uninvited and waited for him to recover his voice. When he eventually did find it, he shouted at me, "What have you done?"
I replied that I had done nothing but what he had suggested I should do. I pulled out the piece of paper, which I had kept on me for just this purpose, and said , "Look, you drew this yourself, so I worked on it, but this crab business misfired, and your system doesn't work, I pulled up one of the anchors, then I let it down again and pulled up another, only to find that all the ropes snapped and she moved off with the tide down the channel."
I see she's on the Catembe beach now, so presumably the wind must have pushed her there, but I can't be sure as I' m not a sailor, I'm a hunter."
Of course he didn't believe a word of what I said. He was absolutely furious and told me that the only thing to be done now was to put me in prison unless I could arrange a bank guarantee of £2000, certifying that I would cut up the vessel and not leave a trace of her on the - beach, not even one kilo of steel visible.
I asked him to put this in writing to enable me to approach the bank. This he did, so from there I went to Barclays Bank, whose manager, Harley Blair, was a fine type and well known to me. He thought it a hell of a fine joke, and said I needn't worry, they would fix it, provided I could assure him that I could recover at least that sum (£2 000) from the sale of the scrap.
The guarantee was duly given, and the vessel cut up by me and sold as scrap to Japan.
However, there remained one more problem. The Port Captain had stipulated that I should leave nothing on the beach, but I found the Lawhill's keel was ballasted with concrete, and the only way to remove that was by blasting - an operation absolutely prohibited within the port area. Still, I did have the written instructions to leave nothing, so I obtained the necessary explosives, drilled holes in the concrete bottom, plugged them, and at midnight one night, I blew up the lot.
Nothing was said officially, so there the matter died.
There was, however, a reaction in another direction that was entirely unexpected. Anchored in the stream nearby was a Greek cargo steamer awaiting an empty berth. The captain of this vessel had been in Crete at the time of the German invasion, and ha d been nervously affected by the bombardment, so, when the Lawhill keel exploded and rained bits of concrete on his deck, he was convinced another similar attack had taken place. He fainted and had to be taken ashore to hospital with nervous prostration! Apart from that, there was no further comment and the incident was finally closed. So ended the saga of Lawhill - an exciting climax to an adventurous life.
Footnote:
Lawhill's remains were loaded as scrap into the holds of an elderly South African Railway steamer called Dahlia, herself to be cut into scrap on arrival at the breakers yard in Kobe, Japan.
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