Wyoming (schooner)

Career
Launched	December 15, 1909[1]
Fate	Foundered on March 24, 1924
General characteristics
Tonnage:	GRT of 3730.54 - NRT of 3036.21
Displacement:	~10.000 tons
Length (LOA):	450 feet (137.16 m)
Length (LbP):	329.5 feet (100.4 m)
Beam:	50.1 feet (15.3 m)
Draught:	30.4 feet (9.3 m)
Depth of hold:	33 feet (10 m)
Class:	Schooner (six-masted)
Speed:
Complement:	13-14
Armament:	none

The Wyoming was the largest six-masted schooner built of wood and one of the largest wooden schooners ever built. She was built and completed in 1909 by the firm of Percy & Small in Bath, Maine.^[1] The Wyoming was also one of the largest wooden ships ever built, the longest wooden ship ever built (450 ft from jibboom tip to spanker boom tip), and the last six-mast schooner built on the east coast of the US. Because of the extreme length of the Wyoming and its wood construction, it tended to flex in heavy seas, which would cause the long planks to twist and buckle, thereby allowing sea water to intrude into the hold (see Hogging and sagging). The Wyoming had to use pumps to keep its hold relatively free of water. In 1924, it foundered in heavy seas and sank with the loss of all hands.

Description

It was 329.5 feet long and 50'1" wide, with a draft of 30'5". The Wyoming had a volume of 373,054 cubic feet; that is, a gross register tonnage (GRT) of 3730.54. After subtracting the volume consumed by the helm and crew quarters and other areas not suitable for cargo, it had a cargo capacity of 303,621 cubic feet, or a net register tonnage of 3036.21. Its deadweight was 6004 long tons, that is, the weight of the ship fully loaded, including the crew, cargo (6000 tons), fuel, water and stores, less the weight of the ship when totally empty (4000 tons), was 6004 long tons. She could carry 6000 long tons of coal. The Wyoming was built of yellow pine with 6" planking and there were 90 diagonal iron cross-bracings on each side.^[2] The Wyoming was equipped with a Hyde windlass and a donkey steam engine to raise and lower sails, haul lines and perform other tasks. The steam engine was not used to power the ship, but permitted it to be sailed with a smaller crew of only 11 hands. The ship was named for the state of Wyoming because Wyoming Governor Bryant Butler Brooks was one of the ship's investors, which cost $175,000 in 1909 dollars.

Ship's History

1909 December 15. Launched at the Shipyard of Percy & Small under Captain Angus McLeod of Somerville, Massachusetts.^[1]

1917 Sold to France & Canada Steamship Co. for about $350,000. By October 1, 1919, she had earned more than twice that amount, and her owners chartered her to load coal at Norfolk for Genoa at $23.50 per ton.

1921 Sold to Captain A.W. Frost & Co., Portland, Maine.

1924 Left Norfolk, Virginia, under command of Captain Charles Glaesel, for St John, New Brunswick, with a cargo of coal.

1924 March 24. In order to ride out a Nor'easter, she anchored off Chatham MA, in the Nantucket Sound, together with the five-masted schooner Cora F. Cressey which had left Norfolk at the same time as the Wyoming. Captain H. Publicover in the Cora F. Cressey weighed anchor at dusk and stood out to sea. The Wyoming is believed to have foundered east of the Pollock Rip Lightship and the entire crew of 14 was lost.^[3][4]

Historical Importance

This ship was one of the largest wood sailing vessels ever built. Despite utilizing some of the best engineering and technology available at the time, the ship was generally unstable at sea, and never sailed far from land. The Wyoming is used often as an example of how difficult it is to build a seaworthy wood vessel of such a size. Noah's Ark, which is estimated to be approximately 400-450' in length, would have been built without the engineering knowledge of the 19th Century, and it is unlikely that it would have been any more seaworthy than the Wyoming.^[5]

References