Snow & Burgess
Snow & Burgess began its career, as depicted in this image, a full-rigged ship. The John Lyman Marine Digest, v.20, no.19, Dec. 13, 1941 reports the vessel’s history thus:
“Snow & Burgess, wood ship of 1655 tons and 1300 M lumber capacity, was built at Thomaston, Maine, by Samuel Watts in 1878 and named for the firm of shipbrokers who were his New York agents. She was sold in 1890 to A. P. Lorentzen, San Francisco, and converted to bark rig; and about 1904 was rerigged as a five-masted schooner. There were grave doubts expressed along the Coast at the time as to the wisdom of doing this; but it is said she sailed better as a schooner than as a square-rigger. In 1916 Lorentzen sold her to A. F. Mahoney for $35,000, and in 1918 she was resold to C. Henry Smith for a reported $225,000; but this was in keeping with her earning power, for in December 1917 she was chartered to take lumber from Puget Sound to the Cape Town-Delagon Bay range at 320 shillings per M. prepaid, commission free. In March 1920, she arrived at Port Townsend from Manila, leaking badly and with her back broken, and was laid up. In January, 1921, she was sold for $3000, and on July 10, 1922, the Snow & Burgess was burned for junk.”
She was not a large vessel, but was well built, serving 42 years. The 1904 conversion to a five-masted schooner not only reduced the manpower required to work square sails, but made her very fast, a quality that escalated her commercial value.
Her life was characteristic of fin de siècle maritime enterprise, with one exception. Capt. A. H. Sorensen and his wife Marie welcomed a baby girl while at sea. In 1990, Burgess Cogill (nee Sorensen) published When God was an atheist sailor: Memories of a childhood at sea, 1902-1910
Recounting her birth, she wrote: “Her first trip with my father as master was the occasion of my birth on September 5, 1902, in the mid-Pacific, miles from land and doctor. It had been agreed if they had a son, he would name the boy "Burgess" after the schooner. But as my father looked down at me, he said very seriously. "If we have a dozen children, there'll never be another one like Burgess." Thus, I was born "at large" and named for the proud ship you see.”
