The Thomas W. Lawson was an extraordinary ship. It was the world’s largest pure sailing ship, the only seven-master ever built, and garnered notoriety by creating the world’s first major oil spill.
In 1901, a group of Boston investors decided to build the world’s largest sailing ship and rig it as a schooner, without even having an auxiliary engine. The ship was to be based in San Francisco and employed in the Pacific. However, during its construction, the economics of the U.S. East Coast...