Edwards K., Anderson R., Cookson R. Anatomy of the Ship. The four-masted Barque 'Lawhill'

London: Conway Maritime Press, 1996. — 128 p.This book is a tribute to "Lawhill", and also to Richard Cookson, a man with a passion and love of sailing ships, particularly the deep water square-riggers which still sailed the world's trade routes in the first half of the twentieth century. These vessels have now almost completely disappeared from the oceans, the few remaining examples converted to sail training ships, or, more often, moored permanently as museum ships. By the 1930s it was obvious that these ships would soon be gone and Richard Cookson spent hundreds of hours on board as many as he could when they visited nearby British ports. He measured, sketched, photographed and recorded faithfully the details of deck gear, fittings and rig, and over the ensuing years built up on this basic data by writing to owners, crew, and institutions, eventually compiling a reference collection possibly unrivalled in private hands. This vast amount of information collected so carefully over the years begged the writing of a book, and he began one on Lawhill but it was never completed to publication. Now in his eighties he lives alone with his archives in Staffordshire. In the course of our research on Lawhill, we contacted Richard Cookson who very generously offered to make available his material. A substantial part of our research has built on the very detailed notes, drawings and photographs which Richard Cookson compiled over the years. We gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to his work. In particular, we recognize that the drawings of Lawhill would not have been possible without the raw data of Richard Cookson's notebooks in which he had recorded measurements and sketched fittings directly from the ship.