The Wreck of the Schooner "WYOMING", the Largest Wooden Ship in History

the largest wooden ship in all of history is often seen in size comparisons to the titanic and measured the same length as noah's ark but as far as i'm aware her story has never been told in a video and hers is the story of a nation coming together a fantastic architectural triumph and finally a mysterious and stormy disappearance now what better to name the largest wooden ship in history after than america's 10th largest state wyoming the shipyard of percy and small in bath maine was anything but small in the early 1900s they were turning out some of the largest wooden schooners in the world and to finance this venture percy and small conducted a nationwide campaign to raise capital but they had a unique approach they wanted to appeal to investors in the western united states and branded the investment in eastern ships as a handshake across the country this caught the attention of wyoming governor bryant butler brooks who felt that one of his state's weaknesses was a lack of understanding of american industries that their landlocked state had no part in i.e shipping and ship building and so with persian small governor brooks backed the largest and finest wooden schooner in the country up to that time and persian small named it in his honor the governor brooks the governor brooks a five-masted wooden schooner was launched on october 22nd 1907 from persian small shipyard in maine and the wyoming governor was in attendance with his family to solidify this cross-country handshake the governor of maine was also present at the launch as a guest governor chamberlain who many of you may recognize as the man who led the 20th maine famously at little round top in the battle of gettysburg in pennsylvania during the american civil war the governor brooks was a success but an even greater colossus was to rise up from one of the slipways at percy and small and also financially backed by governor brian brooks this ship was to be called the wyoming and two years later governor brooks was back for her launch his wife and his third daughter lena were there for the launch with him and it was laina who was actually to christen the wyoming as she coasted down the slipway into the kennebec river but there was a bit of an accident with the launch the ship let loose early and went soaring down the slipway and nearly crushed several men down there who didn't expect her to go so quickly fortunately nobody was killed a funny little tidbit governor brooks owned a ranch back in wyoming and his symbol and his brand for cattle was the v bar v percy and small put that symbol on a flag and flew it from the governor brooks and the wyoming as they were launched as a salute to bryant brooks now none of the locals actually had any clue what that symbol really meant and they thought it was something masonic construction was wrapped up swiftly after launch and in less than a week under the command of captain angus macleod the company's unofficial commodore she embarked on her maiden voyage to newport news virginia this historic photo shows the vessel as she departed on that voyage she was built to carry coal and coal accessories and her enormous size was the ship's business strategy see at the time it was still common for steam ships to need to stop and resupply their coal bunkers particularly when crossing the pacific and cargo schooners were needed to haul that coal out to these resupply outposts the wyoming was capable of carrying several loads of a smaller schooner all in one go the wyoming was a massive wooden beast of 450 feet in length and registered 3730 gross tons her six masts towered 126 feet above the deck where they flew 12 000 yards of sail the ship was a floating forest having been made of over one and a half million feet of pine in the hull alone to load the six thousand tons of coal that she'd carry the deck had five massive cargo hatches she was described as luxurious by cargo ship standards even if she'd never carry passengers her after deck house contained two saloons cabins for the captain and mates a pantry a bathroom a chart room and an infirmary in the middle deck house just after the main mast was the ship's galley mess room steward's cabin second mate's cabin and the carpenter's shop the forward house contained the ship's engine room now even though she was a sailing vessel she carried a small steam engine up forward to assist with the operation of her deck machinery it also contained bunks for the ship's complement of sailors eight total in some of the finest merchant quarters on the sea a veteran sea captain after touring the wyoming's accommodations proclaimed that the quarters of the lowly sailors were actually just as fine as his own quarters when he had been sailing as a captain on other vessels the helm was on the stern with the wheel towering high above the helmsman not surprisingly the wyoming was quite difficult to steer as said before the wyoming was massive when she was full of cargo she had a tendency to sag when she was empty her holds were more buoyant than her bow and stern and she tended to hog which is the opposite of sagging to mitigate this she was built with diagonal iron cross bracing on her hull which did help a bit now quite fittingly the ship's sagging is very much like the state of wyoming itself on her maiden voyage the wyoming disappeared but then she arrived in port three weeks late undamaged after having weathered a fierce gale and from then on the wyoming served several more years with an uneventful career in 1916 she entered into a year-long charter with the international paper company for a measly 70 cents per ton and then suddenly the rates of shipping cargo skyrocketed with the outbreak of the first world war now many other shipping companies which were also in low rates actually decided to break their contract and pay a little bit of a penalty and then cash in on the rising shipping rates and this usually left their former clients high and dry but that is not what brooks percy and small did in fact they decided to honor their agreement even at a cost to themselves which i think speaks volumes to their character despite the tough international paper contract the rest of the wyoming's career was quite fruitful like the schooner brooks before her the wyoming was a massive financial success brooks got a complete return on his investment in dividends alone and when persian small sold her in 1917 governor brooks made his investment back yet again the sale price was approximately 400 000 and she was bought by the france and canada steamship company while brooks percy and small all made out exceptionally well on the sale so did her buyers and within the next six months she made back twice the sale price running coal from italy and stopping occasionally in france and brazil she was sold again in 1921 to captain a.w frost who was running several antiquated schooners including one that we're going to see a little bit later the cora f cressie who was also built by persian small in early 1924 the wyoming found herself in boston under the command of a captain glazel awaiting her next charter while in boston captain glazel discharged one of his sailors after he came down with a bout of typhoid fever he was replaced and shortly after in january another strange incident occurred a man signed up with the crew went to his cabin and was never seen again all of his valuables were left behind as well as a note simply saying goodbye and for his belongings to be given to people in boston everything was turned over to the boston police and it was ruled a suicide in early february 1924 the ship's long-standing cook an african-american who was actually the second highest paid person on the crew aside from the captain departed the crew and was replaced by a danish man named sergeant peterson who apparently had very large shoes to fill as the ship's next contract came in the very same month st john new brunswick canada was another major shipbuilding city in north america very similar to bath maine where the wyoming was built having turned out some famous sailing vessels in the century prior including the early white star line flagship the white star now st john has a very rich maritime history which i have explored in another video on my channel but in 1924 the city was running out of coal after a long mining strike in canada the wyoming with her well-known hauling capabilities was chartered to bring a supply of coal up to the city on february 16th she departed boston and sailed south for norfolk virginia one of the only cities with a surplus enough of coal to send up to the canadians wyoming arrived there on february 20th after a speedy voyage as the ship was calling in norfolk captain glazel found out that this contract was likely to experience delays once it arrived in new brunswick he was also aware that the ship's new cook sword and paterson had a job waiting for him in boston within a few months and the ship wouldn't return to the city before then therefore captain glazel discharged paterson on february 23rd so that he could find another passage back to boston and make it for work another crewman was discharged along with him and this is why they survived interestingly paterson believed for the rest of his life that the anticipated delays with this contract were actually a lie so that he could be discharged and replaced by one of captain glazel's friends on march 3rd laden with roughly 5 000 tons of coal the wyoming departed norfolk with patterson watching her departure from dry land sailing alongside wyoming in this same contract was the schooner cora f kressy she traveled north along the east coast at about half the speed of her previous southern journey all the while the winter weather deteriorated into a nor'easter for those of you not familiar with the term a nor'easter is a hurricane-like storm that comes in the winter often a blizzard that is unique to the northeastern united states and canada as dusk fell on march 10 the cora f cressy's crew noted having seen the wyoming off of massachusetts and drop anchor near the pollock rip light ship near nantucket in an attempt to weather out the incoming storm rain and snow whipped across the seas at gale force for 36 hours the light ship that was by the side of the wyoming was said to have been picked up and thrown repeatedly onto her beam ends that is to say that she rocked so fiercely that the ship was often on her side the wyoming flexed and bent the ship hogged and sagged with every wave that rolled beneath her sometime on the 11th the wyoming buckled she snapped in the middle and went down with all hands now she was registered with a crew of 13 at the time but the wyoming's operators reported an unnamed 14th victim in the loss as well likely a cabin boy over the coming days life belts from the wyoming were washing up on shore a 72-foot section of mast was found on the beach of nantucket and the wyoming's name board along with it the coast guard cutter akushnet came across the location of the wreck with some of her six masts still protruding above the water she was deemed a navigational hazard and her wreck was destroyed over the years the location was forgotten until found once more in 2003 the story of the wyoming ends here but the schooner cora f cressie survived the storm that sank the wyoming and she went on to eventually rot away off of maine if you're interested check out my video exploring that wreck the main maritime museum built in the old shipyard of persian small in bath maine has an excellent exhibit on the wyoming including artifacts and models of her as well as a ghostly sculpture that gives a life-sized outline of the ship there are also exhibits and artifacts of several other bath ships including the bow of the cora f cressi i'd also like to recommend the book a shipyard in maine by douglas lee and ralph linwood snow which was an invaluable resource in the production of this video i'd also like to extend a thank you to my friend khan trumbull the one person i know who lives in the state of wyoming i decided to reach out to him and mention that i'm making this video and it turns out he is the great great grandson of governor brooks and the great grandson of lena who christened the wyoming i had no idea further solidifying my theory that there are no more than four people who live in wyoming i wanted to thank him for sending some excellent material and photographs the wyoming is still the biggest wooden ship built in history and yet her story is still so often overlooked [Music] you

Channel: Part-Time Explorer

Views: 1,149,313

Keywords:

Id: bKKkeMeGxmo

Length: 13min 43sec (823 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 22 2022