The great white elephant

摘要

The world's only seven-masted schooner was bedevilled with problems throughout her short career, and her fate seemed destined to end in tragedy from the start. The story of the world's only steel seven-masted schooner begins and ends with the man for whom the ship was named, Thomas W. Lawson, of Charlestown, Massachusetts. It is a rags-to-riches tale that also begins and ends with tragedy. Thomas W. Lawson, the boy, lost his father at just eight years old, shortly after America's Civil War. At 12 years old, young Lawson left school and went out into the streets of Boston in search of work to support his mother, finding it in a brokerage firm. According to legend, most likely propagated by Lawson himself, his job was to shovel gold coins into sacks, although his documented role of office boy may or may not have included that task in his job description.