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[ship in bottle net]

 

 



 

The most famous of the civilian ships named Wyoming was the six-masted schooner Wyoming constructed  at the Percy & Small boatyard, Bath, Maine, in 1909. The ship was the longest wooden ship ever constructed, 329 feet long.

  The Six-Masted Wyoming under construction, Bath,  Maine, 1909. 

At the ship's christening, she was sponsored by Lena Natrona Brooks (McCleary), the daughter of Wyoming Governor Bryant Butler Brooks. The schooner represented the highest development in the construction of wooden sailing vessels. She cost $175,000 (in 1909 dollars) to construct and measured 3,730 tons. "Tons" when used with regard to a vessel refers to the volume of the ship not its weight. One ton equals 100 cubic feet of volume using a formula originally created in 1773. The total internal volume of a ship is its gross tonnage. Subtraction of that portion of the ship not used for cargo will produce the net tonnage. The total weight of the vessel laden is the displacement measured in long tons of 2240 lbs. The weight of the vessel is determined by subtracting from the displacement the difference in displacement when the ship is fully unloaded. The Wyoming had 3730 gross tons, 3036 net tons, and 6004 tons deadweight. The purpose of  the measurement of tonnage was to determine port dues.    

The Schooner Wyoming 

With the ship's great length, a problem developed.  In heavy seas, the ship's frame tended to twist or  buckle, loosening the planking. Thus, the ship generally required the use of pumps. In March, 1924,  the Wyoming was bound from Norfolk, Virginia for St. John, New Brunswick under the command of Captain Charles Gaesel of Boston and  a crew of 13. On March 10, a nor'easter hit the coast of New England. The Wyoming was seen at dusk that day by the Cora F. Cressey  off the Pollock Rip Lightship. The Wyoming was apparently anchored in an effort to ride out the  storm. The area was the same in which the fishing schooner Washakie  had been lost eleven years before. The Wyoming was never seen again. The lightship, itself, in 36 hours of gale force winds  was thrown on its beam ends  and shipped heavy seas notwithstanding that it was running its engine. The lightship was lost with all hands on  September 14, 1944.     

The Schooner Wyoming    Additionally, on the Great Lakes were a number of vessels named Wyoming, There was a steam barge constructed in East Saginaw in 1871. She was, however, short lived, sinking in July 1871. Another was a steam paddle wheeler whose home port was Detroit. Others included a sail schooner constructed in 1870 and converted to steam in 1891 and another owned by the Port Huron & Duluth Steamship Co. A propeller steamer constructed in 1887 and sailing between Port Huron and the head of Lake Superior was owned by the Lake Michigan & Lake Superior Transportation Co. of Chicago. A 241 foot long wooden hulled bulk grain steamer was owned by P & H. Ltd. of Mississaugua, Ontario. Its name was changed to the Mapleglen and was ultimately scuttled near Kingston, Ont., in 1925. One of those Great Lake steamers is remembered in a snippet of a Great Lakes song, in apparent structure a capstan or heaving shanty, the melody of which has been lost in time. Thus, the background music for the page is another heaving shanty, "Blow the Man Down."  

 THE STEAMER WYOMING  Come all ye jolly seamen,      Now as it's getting late And I'll sing you my experience    On a bad package freight.  It was on the steamer Wyoming,      And it almost proved my ruin; I cursed the day I saled away    From the city of Port Huron.  The captain was the meanest man    That ever trod a plank;  The first mate was a son-of-a-gun,    And the second mate a crank.  The wheelsmen, they were jolly,      And the watchman ful of fun;  The deckhands, they were hoboes,      And the firemen, they were bums.    Great Lakes Steamer Wyoming

On the Upper Missouri River, Coulson & Company of Yankton, Dakota Territory, operated a stern wheeler Wyoming.  The vessel constructed in 1879 in Pittsburgh was a sister to the Montana and  the Dacotah.  Each were 250 feet long.  They were regarded as the "leviathans of the Plains."  Coulson & Company was the owner of the Far West used in Col. Custer's ill-fated Campaign of 1876.   

The present USS Wyoming, on the previous page, may not, however,  be the last.  The television program Star Trek has predicted the existence of a USS Wyoming in space,  just as Capt. Cook's HMS Endeavour finds its counterpart in the space shuttle program.  Pictured below  is the Mediterranean Class Starship of which the Starship USS Wyoming mentioned in the episode Flashback, will be a part in the 24th Century. 



United Federation of Planets USS Wyoming, NCC-43730