Boats: the "Mercury"; July 11, 1860; Le Havre-NY (and the
Michael Palmer
On Wed, 10 Dec 1997, "Barbara V. Smith" <bar...@frognet.net> wrote:
> I once was subscribed to Emigration Ships List, but it was apparently too
> early in my research to ever post a query, but now I have several boats I'm
> curious to know more about and I've seen notes on this list that indicate
> every once in a while, the expert Michael Palmer answers here. Frankly, I
> don't care how or where or from whom I get info, only if there's someone out
> there who might provide direct facts on this, or these boats, OR can direct
> me to where I can research myself.
>
> The "Mercury" in the subject line carried my paternal g-g-grandfather,
> Joseph VON ROHR & his wife & girl, 5, & boy, 1, from Le Havre to New York,
> landing(?) on July 11, 1860 according to Vol.13 of Germans to America.
The ship MERCURY, French, master, arrived at New York on 11 July 1860, 35
days from Havre, with merchandise and 286 passengers, to Boyd & Hincken.
According to the report in the New York _Herald_, "The M had strong W
winds till up with the Banks, with much rain". You will find a microfilm
copy of the passenger manifest of this voyage (which you should check
against the transcript published in _Germans to America_) in National
Archives Microfilm Publication M237, roll 202, a copy of which you can
borrow through AGLL, any LDS (Mormon) Family History Center (Family
History Library microfilm #0175558), or Interlibrary Loan.
The MERCURY was a 3-masted, square-rigged ship, built by Westervelt &
Mackey, New York, for Boyd & Hincken's Havre Second Line of pacekts
between New York and Havre, and launched on 3 September 1851. 1,350/1,156
tons (old/new measurement); 193.6 x 38.10 x 22.2 feet (length x beam x
depth of hold); 2 decks, draught 21 feet. She was the largest vessel in
the Havre Second Line, and the fastest (she is often considered a "medium
clipper"): in the 18 years (1851-1869) in which she sailed in the line,
her westbound passages, from Havre to New York, averaged 33 days, her
fastest passage being 23 days, her longest being 49 days [Robert
Greenhalgh Albion, _Square-riggers on Schedule; The New York Sailing
Packets to England, France, and the Cotton Ports_ (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1938), pp. 286-287, 299; William Armstrong Fairburn,
_Merchant Sail_ (Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational
Foundation, [1945]55]), II.1176, 1190, 1198, 1199, 1201, 1202, 1206,
1226, 1271, 1292, 1301, 1304; V.2780, 2781, 2799, 2816; Carl C. Cutler,
_Queens of the Western Ocean; The Story of America's Mail and Passenger
Sailing Lines_ (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, c1961), p.
321].
I have no information on the MERCURY's history after 1869, or on her
ultimate fate. However, it may be able to trace this history in the
annual volumes of one or more of the following:
1. _American Lloyd's Registry of American and Foreign Shipping_ (from
1858; begun in 1857 as the _New York Marine Register_), a
"classification" society like Lloyd's and the Bureau Veritas.
2. American Shipmasters' Association (later American Bureau of
Shipping), _Record of American and Foreign Shipping_ (from 1867),
also a "classification" society.
3. _Merchant Vessels of the United States_ (from 1867), published
originally by the Treasury Department, then, in turn, by the Bureau
of Navigation, the Bureau of marine Inspection and Navigation, and
the Bureau of Customs.
The best collection of these registers is held by the Mariners' Museum,
100 Museum Drive, Newport News, VA 23606-3798,
http://www.mariner.org/mariner.
To determine whether a picture of the MERCURY survives, contact the
Mariners' Museum, as above, as well as the following:
1. Peabody Essex Museum
East India Square
Salem, MA 01970
http://www.pem.org
2. Mystic Seaport Museum
50 Greenmanville Ave.
Mystic, CT 06355-0990
http://www.mystic.org
> I'm also interested in the bark, "Columbia", which carried two brothers
> of my maternal g-g-grandfather, Johann Gerhard WESSLING, from Bremen to
> New Orleans, arriving October 28, 1852,
The Bremen bark COLUMBIA, [Sievert] Geerken, master, arrived at New
Orleans on 28 October 1852, in ballast, with 25 boxes of cheese, 55 kegs
of fish, and 186 passengers in steerage.
The Bremen bark COLUMBIA was built by Johann Lange, Vegesack/Grohn, for
the Bremen firm of D. H. W"atjen & Co, and was launched on 17 October
1846. 213 Commerzlasten; 33,8 x 9,0 x 5,2 meters (length x beam x depth
of hold). 1 December 1846, maiden voyage, Bremerhaven-Baltimore, under
Capt. Sievert Geerken. Until 1853, the COLUMBIA served as a "packet
sailor", sailing twice a year with emigrants to New York and returning to
Europe with a cargo of tobacco or cotton. After 1853, her cargo was
chiefly tobacco. In 1854, Hinrich Semcken became her master.
In 1861, the COLUMBIA was sold for 12,000 taler to the Br"odrene R"od, of
Tj"ome, near T"onsberg. She was commanded, in turn, buy O. R"od, B. R"od,
R. R"od, and O. J. R"od.
In August 1879, bound from London to Quebec in ballast, in approximately
Lat 49 N, Lon 36 W, the COLUMBIA sank after colliding with a whale; the
crew was rescued by the steamer P. COLAND [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), p. 211].
No picture of the COLUMBIA is known to survive.
> as well as the ship, "Schiller" arriving from Bremen at Baltimore on
> October 26, 1860 which carried his wife, Maria Elisabeth REVERMAN, along
> with her parents.
According to the "Domestic Ports" section of the maritime news column of
the New York _Herald_, the Bremen ship SCHILLER, Bahr, master, arrived at
Baltimore on 25 October 1860.
As I posted on 10 December 1997, the Bremen firm of D. H. W"atjen & Co.
commissioned a total of three vessels named SCHILLER; that post
described the second of these three vessels. The vessel which arrived at
Baltimore in October 1860 is the first of the three vessels.
The SCHILLER (I) was a 3-masted, square-rigged ship, built by Johann
Lange, Vegesack/Grohn, for D. H. W"atjen & Co, and launched on 9 July
1842. 227 Commerzlasten; 35,0 x 9,0 x 5,7 meters (length x beam x depth
of hold). Under captains Hans Peter Gabriel Johannsen and Claus Bahr,
both from Vegesack, the SCHILLER served in the North Atlantic trade,
carrying emigrants to North America and returning with cargoes of tobacco
and wool.
In 1861, the SCHILLER was sold for 13,250 taler to J. Ekman & Co, of
G"oteborg, Sweden, and renamed PENELOPE (511 tons register). Her captains
under Swedish registry were, in turn, N. O. F. Thulin, J. Moolbach, T.
Overgaard, and Andersen.
In November 1874, the PENELOPE, bound from Bj"orneborg to Cartagena with a
cargo of wood, was found floating, abandoned, in the North Sea; she was
taken to Blaavand, Denmark, and condemned. No trace of the crew was ever
found; in all probability, they abandoned her on the assumption that she
would sink, and in the effort to save themselves were drowned [Pawlik,
_op. cit._, p. 204].
No picture of the SCHILLER, later PENELOPE, is known to survive.
Michael Palmer
--
Michael Palmer
Claremont, California
mpa...@netcom.com
willja...@gmail.com
I just came across this in an internet auction catalogue -
I thought it might be of interest.I realize this thread is 20 years old, but maybe it will be of some use! My great great great greandfather arrived on the Mercury in 1859.
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/eugene-grandin-the-american-packet-ship-mercury-197-c-99487bb06c
Best wishes,
Will Jamison
(willja...@gmail.com)