William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 10-25-14
The SV The Twenty One Friends was three-masted schooner built in 1872 and named for the group of 21 Philadelphia Quakers — vile capitalists they were — that financed it.
It was rammed by the John D. May off Cape Hatteras in1885 while returning to Philadelphia with a full load of lumber from Brunswick, Ga.
The man in charge, a Captain Jeffries, ordered his crew to abandoned the vessel.
The Twenty One Friends, however, proved tougher than thought.
It didn’t sink but for the next two years drifted around the Atlantic as a ghost ship and was sighted on both coast.
She finally came to rest in Ireland, where her cargo was salvaged and she was employed as a fishing vessel.
