Description of ships
Michael Palmer
On Wed, 22 Oct 1997, efi...@paston.co.uk (E.Finch.) wrote to
dha...@ix.netcom.com:
> >Hi Ted, I just joined emigration-ships, and you seem to have all the lowdown
> >on the descriptions of various ships, from a reference volume you must have. I
> >am looking for more information on the BORUSSIA and the CIMBRIA that some of
> >my ancestors came over on-think they were both Hamburg-American Lines. But I
> >can't find anything on the SIR ISSAC NEWTON (about 1852) and the IRENE (same
> >time frame) They may have run from Harve-New York. Do you have any information
> >about these 4 ships? Thanks in advance. Dar at dha...@ix.netcom.com
>
> Hi Dar,
>
> The "Borussia" was a 2,131 gross ton ship, built by Caird & Co, Greenock in
> 1855 for the Hamburg America Line. Her details were - length 280ft x beam
> 38.5ft, clipper stem, one funnel, three masts, iron construction, single
> screw and a speed of 10 knots. There was accommodation for 54-1st, 146-2nd
> and 310-3rd class passengers.
> Launched on 3/7/1855, she was immediately chartered by the British
> government as a Crimean War transport. On 1/6/1856 she started her first
> Hamburg - New York voyage and on 30/4/1870 sailed from Hamburg on her last
> run on this service. In 1871 she was fitted with compound engines and was
> then transferred to the Hamburg - West Indies service.
> In 1876 she went to the Dominion Line and on 2/9/1876 started sailings
> between Liverpool and New Orleans. On 20/11/1879 she left Liverpool for the
> last time for New Orleans but was abandoned at sea on 2nd December with the
> loss of 169 lives. [North Atlantic Seaway by N.R.P.Bonsor, vol.1,p.387]
>
> There was a second "Borussia" planned for the company but she was launched
> in 1900 as the "Kiautschou" and was later bought by North German Lloyd and
> became the "Princess Alice".
>
> [snip]
Just to add to what Ted has written above, you can find additional
information on the BORUSSIA in Arnold Kludas and Herbert Bischoff, _Die
Schiffe der Hamburg-Amerika-Linie_, Bd. 1. 1847-1906 (Herford: Koehler,
1979).
There is a lovely oil painting of the BORUSSIA in the collections of the
Museum fuer Hamburgische Geschichte
Holstenwall 24
D-20355 Hamburg
Germany
from whom you should be able to obtain a high-quality reproduction.
I can provide the following information on the SIR ISAAC NEWTON: bark,
built by the shipbuilder J. Meyer, of L"ubeck, Germany, in 1839 for the
Hamburg shipowner Robert Miles Sloman, Bielbrief 25 April 1839. 149
Commerzlasten; no measurements given. Walter Kresse, ed., _Seeschiffs-
Verzeichnis der Hamburger Reedereien, 1824-1888_, Mitteilungen aus dem
Museum f"ur Hamburgische Geschichte, N. F., Bd. 5. (Hamburg: Museum f"ur
Hamburgische Geschichte, 1969), Bd. 2, S. 207, gives the following
additional information:
Master:
1839-1842 - J. Wendt
1842-1844 - J. C. Wienholtz
1845-1846 - P. B. Matzen
1847-1852 - J. H. Niemann
1852-1854 - G. H. Schladetsch
1854-1855 - H. P. Rickleffs
1855-1857 - C. Christiansen
1857-1858 - H. H. Paap
1858-1860 - T. A. T"onnessen (Dahl?)
1860-1861 - F. C. L. Br"usch
1861-1862 - P. E. J"orgensen
1862-1864 - J. P. Frahm
Voyages:
1839-1849 - New York, exclusively
1849/1850 - New York (as the ROMANOW, under the Russian flag)
1850-1852 - New York (again as the SIR ISAAC NEWTON, under the
Hamburg flag)
1852 - New Orleans/Liverpool
1852/1853 - New York/Mobile
1853 - Quebec/Hull
1853/1854 - New York
1854/1855 - New York/Hull
1855/1856 - Sydney/intermediate ports/Batavia
1857 - New York
1857 - New York/London
1858 - New Orleans/Hartlepool
1858/1860 - Dona Francisca/Desterro/intermediate ports/Callao/Cardiff
1860 - New York
1860/1861 - New York
1861 - Quebec/Newcastle
1861/1862 - England/intermediate ports/Newport (Wales)
1862/1863 - Dona Francisca/Bahia
1863 - New York
She was sold in 1864 to Swedish owners, her new master being Capt.
Dieckmann.
There is a black-and-white reproduction of an oil painting of the SIR
ISAAC NEWTON, together with two other Sloman sailing vessels, LORD
BROUGHAM and SIR ROBERT PEEL, in Ernst Hieke, _Rob. M. Sloman Jr.,
errichtet 1793_, Ver"offentlichungen der Wirtschaftsgeschichtlichen
Forschungsstelle e.V., Hamburg, Bd. 30 (Hamburg: Verlag Hanseatischer
Merkur, 1968). This volume is out of my library's collections at the
moment, but once it has been returned one of my volunteers, in a wild
moment, has offered to make a scan of this reproduction for you. If you
are interested, please reply to me privately, with the subject "SCAN: SIR
ISAAC NEWTON", so that I can recognize it easily. The book is checked out
to a faculty member, so I cannot press for its return, but I expect it
back in the next four weeks.
Concerning the IRENE I have only the following information: sailing ship,
1187 tons, built in Essex, Connecticut, in 1851, and registered at the
port of New York on 11 December 1851. Master, in 1853-1854: Edward C.
Williams. In addition to at least three voyages from Le Havre to New York
in 1853-1854 (see _Germans to America_, vol. 4, pp. 279-282; vol. 5, pp.
341-345; and vol. 9, pp. 97-102), she also sailed in the Washington Line
of New York-Liverpool packets in 1853, and in the Sturges & Clearman Line
of New York-Liverpool packets in 1854 [Forrest R. Holdcamper, comp., _List
of American-Flag Merchant Vessels That Received Certificates of Enrollment
or Registry at the Port of New York, 1789-1867 (Record Groups 41 and 36)_,
National Archives Special Lists, No. 22, National Archives Publication No.
68-10 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration,
1968), p. 345; Carl C. Cutler, _Queens of the Western Ocean; The Story
of America's Mail and Passenger Sailing Lines_ (Annapolis: United States
Naval Institute, c1961), pp. 385 and 387]. For additional information on
the IRENE, contact the following institutions, in order:
1. Mystic Seaport Museum
50 Greenmanville Ave.
Mystic, CT 06355-0990
http://www.mystic.org
2. Peabody Essex Museum
East India Square
Salem, MA 01970
http://www.pem.org
3. The Mariners' Museum
100 Museum Dr.
Newport News, VA 23606-3798
http://www.mariner.org/mariner
Michael Palmer
--
Michael Palmer
Claremont, California
mpa...@netcom.com