HANSA, 13 DECEMBER 1853

[Michael Palmer]

On Mon, 18 Dec 2000, "Faye Weber" <lill...@silk.net> wrote:

> SKALA, Adalbert(died on voyage) 29, Catherine 27, Anna 50, Marie 3,
> Joseph 8, Germany: Hansa 13 December 1853
>
> Joseph may be my ggg grandfather. I would be interested to know more
> about the HANSA......from where it embarked.......from which German
> port......when it departed.......when and where it arrived in America.
> Family lore says that it docked at Ellis Island. I would also like to
> know where to look for the passenger list for this ship.

Since the vessel arrived before the opening of the immigration depot at
Castle Garden the passengers most probably left the HANSA in the harbor
before she docked, on lighters which took them directly to the Manhattan
docks.

The date of the passenger manifest for this voyage is very important, since
there were at least three vessels named HANSA carrying German emigrants to
American ports in the early 1850's.

According to contemporary accounts in New York newspapers and records in
the Staatsarchiv Bremen, the Bremen bark HANSA, A[ugust] Brinkama, master,
arrived at New York on Saturday, 10 December 1853, from Bremerhaven 27
October 1853; the vessel had left Bremerhaven with 223 passengers, and
there had been 25 deaths on the passage. That the passenger manifest was
not signed and dated until Tuesday, 13 December 1853, is most probably due
to the time the vessel spent in quarantine on account of the many deaths
during the voyage, as well as the fact that she arrived on a Saturday,
after immigration officials had closed their office for the weekend. You
will find a microfilm copy of the passenger arrival manifest on National
Archives Microfilm Publication M237, roll 135, a copy of which you can
borrow through any LDS (Mormon) Family History Center (Family History
Library microfilm #0175491). Ira A. Glazier and P. William Filby, ed.,
_Germans to America; Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports_, vol. 6
(Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 1989), pp 155-157, prints a
transcript of this passenger manifest. However, the transcripts in
_Germans to America_ are notoriously inaccurate, so you should check the
published information against the microfilm copy of the original passenger
manifest.

Turning to the vessel itself, the Bremen bark HANSA was built at Vegesack/
Fähr, on the River Weser just northwest of the city of Bremen proper, by
the shipwright H[ermann] F[riedrich] Ulrichs, for the Bremen firm of B.
Grovermann & Co, and was launched on 14 September 1852. 153
Commerzlasten/343 tons register; 36,2 x 8,2 x 4,1 meters (length x beam x
depth of hold). Her masters were, in turn, August Brinkama and Georg
Jaburg, both of Vegesack, and Peter Heyn, Ad. Büttner, and H. C. L. Riefe,
all of Bremen.

In 1856, the HANSA, bound from Hartlepool for Cuba, rescued the crew of the
British ship ROSALIA, Tegau, master, out of Londonderry, which had been
abandoned at sea, in a sinking condition, on 29 September.

In December 1858, the HANSA sailed from Liverpool, but on the second day
out Capt. Brinkama fell overboard and was killed. The HANSA arrived back at
Liverpool on 12 December 1858, and sailed the very next day with a new
master.

In 1863, the HANSA, Heyn, master, rescued the crew of an English fishing
boat.

In 1871, the HANSA was sold to J. Hoppe, of Copenhagen, and renamed ONDA.
0n 5 July 1874, the ONDA ex HANSA, C. Nielsen, master, bound from
Copenhagen to Ivigtut, Greenland, was abandoned at sea in a sinking
condition.

Source: 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. 276-277, no. 32. Pawlik reproduces, p. 276, an oil painting of
the HANSA, ascribed to the well-known Bremen painter Oltmann Jaburg. I
attach a scan of this reproduction, in .JPG format.

Michael Palmer

[TSchoell]

I am interested in details of the voyage of a North German Steamship by the
name of HANSA which according to the N.Y. Times of Monday 18 May 1868 sailed
from Bremen on May 2. Is this the same ship which sailed from Bremerhaven on
27 October 1853? If not, what details are known of this ship and this voyage
and its arrival? Back in 1983 the National Archives sent me a photocopy of a
manifest for the arrival of the HANSA, but it lists the information as being
given by a K. von Oterendorf (?), master of the N.G. Steamship DEUTSCHLAND. I
was never sure whether the individual I am interested in, Georg Frey from
Groembach in the Black Forst, arrived on the HANSA or the DEUTSCHLAND. Are
there any pictures or descriptions of this HANSA? Any help would be much
appreciated!