Six-masted schooner Fort Laramie (1920s)
The six-masted schooner Fort Laramie, photographed by Alan C. Green in Australia (prob.) in the 1920s. The 266 ft schooner was built in 1919 by Kruse & Banks Shipbuilding C., North Bend, Oregon (USA) for the US Shipping Board as a steam ship with a Ferris-typehull. In 1920 she was converted to a six-masted schooner. Fort Laramie was scrapped in 1935.
It is interesting that the conversion was undertaken as late as 1920, when the golden age of the five- and six-masted (and one seven-masted) schooners was almost over.
"By 1910, 45 five-masted schooners and 10 six-masted schooners, each the length of a football field, had been built, mostly by Maine shipyards. Bath was their primary builder, but many were built in Rockland, Camden, Belfast, and other Penobscot Bay towns.
These Maine-built schooners, owned both locally and by out of state coal shippers, were more efficient in the domestic coal trade than square-rigged Down Easters would have been. They required a much smaller crew, could be built at lower cost, and sailed better in the prevailing winds along shore. While most schooners shipped coal along the eastern seaboard, some carried cargoes to Europe. Like the Down Easters, coal schooners eventually succumbed to competition from steam colliers, though not without a fight. Some continued to work, as the economy permitted, into the 1920s. In the end, they couldn’t compete with steamers, barges, and the railroads."
Penobscot Marine Museum
Six-masted schooner Fort Laramie (1920s)
The six-masted schooner Fort Laramie, photographed by Alan C. Green in Australia (prob.) in the 1920s. The 266 ft schooner was built in 1919 by Kruse & Banks Shipbuilding C., North Bend, Oregon (USA) for the US Shipping Board as a steam ship with a Ferris-typehull. In 1920 she was converted to a six-masted schooner. Fort Laramie was scrapped in 1935.
It is interesting that the conversion was undertaken as late as 1920, when the golden age of the five- and six-masted (and one seven-masted) schooners was almost over.
"By 1910, 45 five-masted schooners and 10 six-masted schooners, each the length of a football field, had been built, mostly by Maine shipyards. Bath was their primary builder, but many were built in Rockland, Camden, Belfast, and other Penobscot Bay towns.
These Maine-built schooners, owned both locally and by out of state coal shippers, were more efficient in the domestic coal trade than square-rigged Down Easters would have been. They required a much smaller crew, could be built at lower cost, and sailed better in the prevailing winds along shore. While most schooners shipped coal along the eastern seaboard, some carried cargoes to Europe. Like the Down Easters, coal schooners eventually succumbed to competition from steam colliers, though not without a fight. Some continued to work, as the economy permitted, into the 1920s. In the end, they couldn’t compete with steamers, barges, and the railroads."
Penobscot Marine Museum