Lawhill SLV AllanGreen

''Lawhill'' was a steel-hulled four-masted barque rigged in "jubilee" or "baldheaded" fashion, i.e. without royal sails over the top-gallant sails, active in the early part of the 20th century. Although her career was not especially remarkable, save perhaps for being consistently profitable as a cargo carrier, in the 1930s Richard Cookson went on board and extensively documented ''Lawhill's'' internals and construction, which was later published in the Anatomy of the Ship series.

Between 1940-1944, the Donkeyman on the Lawnhill was B.V. Linderman of Finland. During his time aboad the Lawnhill under Captain Arthur. A. Söderlund, Lindeman rounded Cape Horn 3 times under sail.

Construction

''Lawhill'' was built at the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company yard of W. B. Thompson in Dundee, Scotland, and launched on 24 August 1892. And it was named after the Law, a hill in the middle of Dundee, ''Lawhill'' had been ordered by shipowner Charles Barrie for the jute trade, but only made two voyages carrying jute before the business became unprofitable, and shifted to other cargoes.

Service

During the 1890s, a demand was developing for kerosene in the Far East, which could be more efficiently carried by sail at the time (the '' Falls of Clyde'' would take up this unusual trade several years later), and on August 31. 1899 ''Lawhill'' was sold to the Lawhill Sailing Ship Co. Ltd. (F. E. Bliss, manager), London, together with her sistership ''Juteopolis''. Captain John C. B. Jarvis of Dundee, inventor of the eponymous brace winch, was given command of the ship (September 1, 1899 - January 21, 1911). In June 1900 the barque was transferred to the Anglo-American Oil Company. She made nine voyages carrying oil and other cargoes, then the development of storage tank capacity reduced demand, and ''Lawhill'' went, again together with her sistership ''Juteopolis'', to Geo. Windram & Co. of Liverpool in 1911. Captain J. A. Sanders became her new master.

In the year 1914, she was sold to Finnish owner August Troberg under the command of Captain Edward August Jansson, and ''Lawhill'' became Finland's largest sailing ship. Despite the hazards of World War I, ''Lawhill'' continued to sail, managing to elude U-boats and arrive unescorted into Brest in May 1917, carrying wheat from Australia. However, French authorities refused to let ''Lawhill'' leave, citing the risks, and used her as a store ship. While in port, ''Lawhill'' was purchased by another Finn, Gustaf Erikson, but before she could get to sea, Finland became an ally of Germany, and in June 1918, the French government officially requisitioned ''Lawhill''. The French started to convert ''Lawhill'' to a motor ship, but after much protest, Erikson finally got her back in January 1919, and, under the command of Captain Karl Reuben de Cloux, she resumed carrying wheat, first from Argentina, then from Australia again, as well as timber and other cargoes. The author Alan Villiers served on ''Lawhill'', until injured off Port Lincoln in a fall from the yardarm in 1922.

On 1 October 1932, she rammed and sank Polish steamer SS ''Niemen'' (3.107 BRT) in Kattegat. As for the trial of Captain Söderlund, the ''Lawhill'' master, he was found not guilty.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan graphically described his 10-months in the ship during her 1933-34 voyage to Australia, when he published his book ‘’Heavenly Hell: The Experiences of an Apprentice in a Four-Mast Barque’’Richard Brinsley Sheridan, ‘’Heavenly Hell: The Experiences of an Apprentice in a Four-Mast Barque’’ London: Putnam, 1935.

After twenty years of steady service as a grain carrier, ''Lawhill'' was arrested on August 21, 1941 while in East London after a return from Australia and officially confiscated finally by the South African government in April 1942 (or September 22, 1942) as a prize of war, Finland having sided with the Axis. The ship was used by the South African Railways & Harbour Administration for cargo during the war, then sold to private citizens of South Africa (in 1946 to Lawhill (Pty) Ltd., East London and in 1947 to Thomas Worker and Herman Olthaver, Johannesburg, for the sum of £9,000), who used ''Lawhill'' on several voyages to Argentina with coal and returning with a cargo of wheat. In November 1947 she sailed from Lourenço Marques under the command of Captain Madry A. Lindholm to Port Victoria in ballast and returned to Beira, Mozambique, with a cargo of wheat. This was in fact her last long voyage at sea. Showing signs of deterioration, she was sold to Marcio da Silva Jr of Lourenço Marques and arrived there, after a short voyage of from Beira, with great ceremony in September 1948. However, the necessary repairs were beyond the means of her new owners, and she was laid up in the Tembe River where she rotted at anchor for many years. After a last transfer to Joaquim Fernandes Coelho, the old ship was finally broken up for scrap sometime in the late 1950s.

See also

* Garthpool (barque)

Citations

References

*
* A 1:48 scale model made by Roderick Anderson as part of his research for the ''Anatomy of a Ship'' book is currently on display in the new Maritime and Western Australian Museum, Fremantle.

External links

Lawhill history
on Lars Bruzelius Website


Currently in the office of Erikson's Capital AB at Mariehamn, Åland

{{1932 shipwrecks

Barques
Four-masted ships
Individual sailing vessels
Tall ships of Finland
Tall ships of the United Kingdom
Ships built in Dundee
1892 ships
Maritime incidents in 1932
World War II merchant ships of Finland
Captured ships