LAWHILL

[shipstamps]

Built as a four masted steel barque under yard No. 112 by W. B. Thompson & Co., Dundee, Scotland for Charles Barrie at Dundee.
24 August 1892 launched under the name LAWHILL, named after the Law, a hill in the middle of Dundee.
Tonnage 2.942 gross, 2.749 net, dim. 101.81 x 13.64 x 7.44m.
She was a so-called three island ship.
1892 completed.

She was special built for the jute trade from India but was only used in two jute voyages before switching to other trades.
Her maiden voyage was under command of Captain Peter Singer, when she sailed in 1892 with a cargo of coal loaded at Cardiff bound for Colombo, returning with jute.
1893 She made a fast passage of 90 days from Penarth to Colombo.
21 April 1895 command was taken over by Capt. Thomas Coss.
1899 She made a voyage from Chittagong, and after a passage of 155 days she arrived at the Isle of Wight, for orders. At that time many crew-members were very sick with beriberi. Eight days later she arrived at Dundee, and discharged her cargo of jute.

21 August 1899 Sold to Lawhill Sailing Ship Co. Ltd., London (F.E.Bliss, manager), 05 September 1899 sailed under command of Capt. John C.B. Jarvis (the inventor of the labour saving brace winch.). Arrived Philadelphia 15 October.
03 November 1899 sailed from Philadelphia bound for Kobe where she arrived on 11 April 1900.

15 June 1900 transferred to the Anglo-American Oil Co., London.
Altogether she made nine voyages in this case oil trade, with on the return voyage all the cargo she could get. When the transports of case oil reduced, and most oil was transported by tankers, and pumped in storage tanks at shore, the LAWHILL was sold

13 February 1911 sold to G. Windram & Co., Liverpool, for £5.200, command was taken over by J.A.Sanders. he kept the command till she was sold.

14 June 1914 sold to August Troberg, Mariahamn for £8.500, command taken over by Capt. August Edward Jansson.
25 May 1917 she sailed from Wallaroo, Australia with a full cargo of wheat bound for Brest where she arrived 25 May. After discharging laid up there, and used as a storeship.
24 October 1917 sold to Gustav Erikson, Mariahamn for £77.000.
18 June 1918 after Finland became an ally of Germany the LAWHILL was seized by the French Government. The French rigged her off and were planning to convert her in a motor ship.

After much protest Gustav Erikson got her back on 08 January 1919, she was rerigged, and came under command of Capt. Karl Ruben de Cloux. (her former chief mate.)
Then used in the wheat trade from Australia, her outward voyage from Europe loaded with timber or in ballast.
1921 Command was taken over by Capt. E. Gustafsson.
1922 Command taken over by Capt. Erik Alfred Öfverström, sailed to Melbourne and then to Iquique, Chile for a cargo of nitrate for Europe.
1923 Command taken over by Capt. Julius Herman Gustafsson.
30 July 1924 command taken over by Carl Holmqvist, under his command she made a voyage from Iquique to Gent, Belgium, where she arrived on 03 March 1925.
March 1925 command taken over by Capt. Ferdinand Grönlund., and she stayed under his command till 1930 making voyages to Chile, Australia and Canada.
1930 Command was taken over by Capt. Johan Arthur Herman Söderlund.
02 July 1932 she grounded in the Mersey off Birkenhead, she was refloated without any damage.
01 October 1932 came in collision with the Polish steamer NIEMEN during poor weather in the Skagerrak; the NIEMEN sank, without loss of life. After the collision the LAWHILL lost the stricken vessel in the fog. The LAWHILL sailed to Gothenburg for repair on her damaged bow plates.
Captain Söderlund was found during the inquest not guilty on the collision
05 September 1933 command was taken over by Capt. Arthur Alexander Söderlund.
Still mostly used in the grain trade from Australia to Europe.
16 May 1941 sailed from Port Lincoln, Australia with a cargo of wheat, bound for Europe. Captain and crew decided to surrender, and under escort of the converted South African trawler HMS BABIANA was she escorted into East London.
Arrived in East London 23 July.
21 August 1941 seized at East London, when war was declared by the Allies against Finland as she had aligned with Germany against Russia.
April 1942 confiscated by the Union of South African Government, and placed under the management of the Railway & Harbour Administration.
22 September most of the Finish crew on board signed on again, and under command of Capt. Söderland, and South African flag she made regular voyages from South Africa to Australia to load grain, largo amounts of jarra wood railway sleepers were also brought back to Cape Town.
1945 Her crewlist gives 45 persons, Capt Söderland had his family on board, and there were also some South African cadets on board

After the war she was not given back to Erikson, but in 1946 sold to Lawhill (Pty) Ltd., and managed by Sturrdock, Cape Ltd., East London.
1946 Made a voyage from Durban to Porto Belgrano, Argentina, in 57 days, loaded with coal, thereafter returned to Cape Town with wheat.
1947 She was sold that year to Th. Worker and Herman Olthaver, Johannesburg (managed by Arden Hall Steamship Co.) for £9.000.
Made a voyage from Durban with coal to Buenos Aires and returned to Cape Town with a cargo of wheat.
November 1947 command was taken over by Capt. Madry Axel Lindholm, her former chief mate.
1947/48 Made a voyage from Lourenço Marques (Maputo) in ballast to Port Victoria, Australia.
27 February 1948 sailed from Port Victoria with a cargo of wheat and after a passage of 57 days arrived at Beira, Mozambique on 06 May.

She was then sold to a business man at Beira, Marcio da Silva Jr., but he could not get a crew or a charter for the ship, and she was laid up in a creek at Lourenço Marques, slowly deteriorating.

195? Sold to Joaquim Fernandes Coleho, and then broken up at Lourenço Marques, and the last of her scrap metal were shipped to Hiroshima by the SS DALIA, which was also sold for scrap to Japan.

Falkland Islands 1989 20p sg 577

Source: http://www.bruzelius.info/nautica/Ships ... 1892).html Square Riggers the Final Epoch by Hurst. The Liverpool Windjammers by John Richardson.

[aukepalmhof]

She is also on a miniature sheet from South Africa 1999 R5 sgMS 1116, she MS above.