Ship ORPHEUS

[Michael Palmer]

On Sun, 11 Jan 98, "william hall" <wr...@gate.net> wrote:

> Looking for info on Ship Orpheus, on which my gr-grandfather, Herman
> Grieme (from the Alsace-Lorraine Dist of Germany) came to New York City
> on 6/3/1857 from Bremerhaven.

According to contemporary New York newspapers, the Bremen ship ORPHEUS,
Wessels, master, arrived at New York on 2 June 1857, from Bremen 28 April,
with merchandise and 255 passengers. On 10 May, at lat 42 lon 51, the
ship spotted several icebergs.

The ORPHEUS was a 3-masted, square-rigged sailing ship, built by J. H.
Bosse, Burg (now Bremen-Burg), and launched on 4 April 1854. 261
Commerzlasten/588 tons register; 42,5 x 9,5 x 5,2 meters (length x beam
x depth of hold). Original owners: Konitzky & Thiermann, Bremen,
operators (1/3); Georg C. Mecke & Co, Bremen (1/2); and the captain,
Diedrich Schilling (1/6). She was employed in the emigration trade to
North America, and was known as a fast vessel: in December 1854, the
ORPHEUS sailed from New York to Bremerhaven in the hitherto unheard of
time of 18 days 6 hours.

Schilling was succeeded as captain in 1857 by Johann Philipp Wessels, who
in 1862 also acquired Schilling's 1/6 share in the vessel. In 1862,
Ferdinand Wessels appears as master, although possibly only as a
substitute, since Johann Philipp Wessels was again captain of the ORPHEUS
in 1863.

In May 1865, the cargo of the ORPHEUS on its return voyage from New York
to Bremerhaven included a dozen alligators, destined for the zoological
gardens in K"oln and Dresden.

The next voyage of the ORPHEUS was a race, roundtrip from Bremerhaven to
New York and back, with the Bremen bark GUTENBERG, captain Hinrich
Raschen, the wager being 500 Thaler; the race was won by the GUTENBERG.

In the night of 17/18 November 1865, the ORPHEUS, bound from Hamburg to
New York with emigrants, collided in the vicinity of North Sand Head (in
the English Channel) with the British schooner MARIA, from Scarborough,
which sank; although the captain of the schooner was able to save
himself, his wife and the 3 members of the crew were drowned.

In 1868, the ORPHEUS was re-rigged as a bark. On 2 November of that year,
Kautzner, master, she sailed from Baltimore for Amsterdam with a cargo of
tobacco, but early in December was stranded near Texel. The cargo was
removed in lighters, and the vessel refloated, and towed to Nieuwe Diep.
Shortly afterwards, the ORPHEUS was sold to M. Peterson & S"on, Moss,
Norway, and from this time on sailed under the Norwegian flag, although
retaining her old name. Her new captain was M. Bruusgaard.

On 15 October 1877, on a voyage from Husom to London with a cargo of
wood, the ORPHEUS was abandoned by her crew on Dogger Bank. On 19
October, the abandoned vessel was spotted approximately 100 miles from
Cuxhaven by the Hamburg steamer UHLENHORST, which towed her to that port,
whence on 22 October she was taken in tow by the steamers GRAF MOLTKE,
GERMANIA and COWPEN to Hamburg [Peter-Michael Pawlik, _Von der Weser in
die Welt; Die Geschichte der Segelschiffe von Weser und Lesum und ihrer
Bauwerften 1770 bis 1893_, Schriften des Deutschen Schiffahrtsmuseums, Bd.
33 (Hamburg: Kabel, c1993), pp. 390-392].

Pawlik's book contains a color reproduction of an oil painting of the
ORPHEUS, by Oltmann Jaburg, 1854, as well as of a portrait of captain
Schilling and Wessels. I am sending you, by separate post,
black-and-white scans, in .JPG format, of both paintings.

You might wish to contact the following individuals, whose ancestors also
emigrated to the United States aboard the ORPHEUS (although on different
voyages):

Donald G. Knecht <mss...@gbso.net>
Clara Kress <ckr...@psci.net>

Michael Palmer
--
Michael Palmer
Claremont, California
mpa...@netcom.com