This unusual relief mural features the 1902 American schooner, the Thomas W. Lawson, named for a Boston millionaire, copper baron, stock-broker and President of the Boston “Bay State Gas Co.  The schooner was based out of Boston, intended initially for trading across the Pacific but used, in the end, primarily to haul coal and oil along the east coast of the United States.

Its fame, though, stems from the fact that it was the largest schooner and the largest pure sailing vessel (without an auxiliary engine) ever built.  At a length of 120.4 metres, it boasted seven masts of equal length (58.8 metres) from which hung 25 sails.  Clearly, whoever made this mural either didn’t know about the equal length masts, or else disregarded fact for artistic effect.

In November 1907, the schooner did make a transatlantic journey; it set sail for London with 58,000 barrels of light paraffin oil.  Sadly, it was caught in a storm in the Scilly Isles and sunk with much loss of life.  The wreck was located in 1969 and its auxiliary anchor now features as part of this mural.

The mural is in the rear of a side wall of Bleak House in Broadstairs.

Linked to Blue Monday and Monday Mural.