Atlantic Four-Master: The Story of the Schooner Herbert L. Rawling 1919-1947

When America entered World war II, Captain Francis Bowker was serving as bosun aboard the four-masted schooner Herbert L. Rawding. This product of the World War I shipbuilding boom had been built at Stockton Springs, Maine, in 1919. Moved from trade to trade during the final decline of merchant sail, she was one of very few great schooners still active in 1941. After fruitless service during the war, she began a new career in Newfoundland. Perhaps the last four-master to carry cargo on the Atlantic, she foundered off Spain in 1947.