Edward J. Lawrence was the last survivor of ten six-masted schooners built between 1900 and 1909, with the ship consumed by flames in 1925 while moored off Portland, Maine, as thousands of spectators took in the spectacle according to a report at the time.
[7] On June 16, 1909, Edward J. Lawrence went aground at Cross Rip Shoals off Nantucket, while en route to Portland with coal loaded at Norfolk, Virginia, but floated free afterward with the assistance of a tugboat.
Departing port alongside another Percy & Small-built schooner called Carl F. Cressy, the two ships sailed southwest, initially under the watch of French gunboats which eventually turned back to the Bay of Biscay.
York triggered a U.S. Department of the Treasury inquiry after claiming members of the United States Life-Saving Service had offered to purchase the wreck with an eye on profiting in violation of federal rules, which was not substantiated subsequently.
The South Portland Historical Society has a newspaper clipping in its archives with a photograph captioned "Battling To Save The Edward J. Lawrence" by an unspecified publisher, that shows three vessels alongside the burning schooner during the attempt to extinguish the fire: an unidentified fireboat, the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Ossipee, and the steam tugboat Cumberland.
[12] A Boston Globe correspondent reported the decision to beach Edward J. Lawrence on a reef off Fort Gorges in Portland Harbor, and described the fire as "the most spectacular for years" with the 320-foot length of the ship and its masts "fringed with flame".
At low tide, hull ribs are visible close to the surface at a point of Portland Harbor in the vicinity of Fort Gorges and Little Diamond Island, that are believed to be part of the wreck of the Edward J.