High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Thomas W. Lawson was a seven-masted, steel-hulled schooner originally planned for the Pacific trade, but then used primarily to haul coal and oil along the East Coast of the United States. Built in 1902, the ship holds the distinction of being the largest schooner and the largest pure sailing vessel (without an auxiliary engine) ever built. Larger sailing vessels with auxiliary engines for propulsion were the French France II (1911) and German R. C. Rickmers (1906), both five-masted barques.