FOSTERING INNOVATION

摘要

Toward dawn on Friday 13 December 1907, the sailing ship Thomas W Lawson sank off the Scilly Isles in the English Channel. All but the Captain and one crewmember were lost. This would have been just another Friday 13th shipwreck but the Thomas Lawson was special. It was a large sailing ship with seven masts. It had been designed to compete against the new steam powered vessels that had increasingly taken cargo business away from sailing ships. The designers had conceived a ship that could travel at 22 knots, but to gain swiftness, had had to sacrifice manoeuvrability. She was unwieldy and difficult to handle. In fact, she was so unstable that she capsized while at anchor during a severe gale. Sail technology that night gave way to steam technology, no attempt has ever been made since to design a faster cargo carrying sailing ship. This nautical event highlights the main theme of this paper, which is the consequence of innovation and disruptive technology.