On Ships They Came: SS Zeeland

 
Built in 1900, she was the sister ship to Vaderland. During WWI she served as a troop carrier, then was converted back to  passenger ship in 1916.  She continued service as a passenger ship under different ownership and names until she was  sold and scrapped in 1930.

At the age of 15, Anton (Thomas) Kollain sailed by himself on the SS Zeeland of the Red Star Line, departing Antwerp on March 5th, 1910, and arriving in New York on March 15th.  He was temporarily detained as a "Likely Public Charge" until claimed by his parents, Ignatz & Maria Kollain, who arrived in 1909 on the the SS Kroonland (a near sister ship of the Zeeland) and were already residing in New York.

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Passenger record for Gregorz Kolbusz

Arriving in New York in June 1900, from Galicia on the ship Main.

Seen below in the ship's passenger manifest are Gregorz Kolbusz with his wife, Gertrude, and daughter MaryAnna

(click image to enlarge)

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HMTS Alert & the loss of Jack Cassingham

The HMTS Alert was torpedoed and sunk in the Straits of Dover by the Seehund German midget submarine U-5330 while making repairs on an undersea telegraph cable.  All 59 hands were lost.

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CASSINGHAM, JACK. Third Engineer Officer.
Merchant Navy.
Died 24 February 1945. Aged 39.
Son of John Odion Cassingham and Kate Cassingham.
Husband of Violet Cassingham, of Folkestone, Kent.
Commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial, London. Panel 4.

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Visit: kentfallen.com for more information including a list of persons who perished on the ship.

Restoring pride in the SS United States

SS United States is a luxury passenger ship built in 1952 for the United States Lines and was designed, amoung other things, to capture the trans-Atlantic speed record - which she did.  SS United States is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the United States and is the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction.  She proveded transatlantic passenger service until 1969, and is currently docked at Pier 82 on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.

In July, 2012, the SS United States Conservancy launched an online campaign called "Save the United States" that allows donors to sponsor square inches of a virtual ship for redevelopment, while allowing them to upload photos and story content about their experience with the ship. Donors to the virtual ship will be featured in an interactive "Wall of Honor" aboard the future SS United States museum.

Read the full article: Restoring pride in the SS United States - Washington Times

Visit their website: http://www.ssunitedstatesconservancy.org/

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Certificate of Arrival on the SS LaTouraine

Above is the Certificate of Arrival for our Great Aunt Becker who arrived in New York in August 1912 aboard the SS La Touraine.

Built in France, SS La Touraine was an ocean liner that sailed for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique from the 1890s to the 1920s and was initially equipped with accommodations for 392 first-class, 98 second-class, and 600 third-class passengers. 

Westbound from Havre to New York, La Touraine was in wireless contact with Titanic during the afternoon and evening of April 12,1912, until about 9 p.m.. Around 8 p.m.,  La Touraine  transmitted ice warnings describing field ice and two large icebergs in the vicinity of 43° N., 42.8° W.

                SS La Touraine 

Length:	536 feet (163.7 m)
Beam:	56 feet (17.1 m)
Tonnage:	9,047 gross tons
Engines:	Steam triple expansion engines powering two propellers.
Service speed:	19 knots

The Great White Fleet

On this date in history 1909, The Great White Fleet returned to Norfolk, Virginia, from an around-the-world show of naval power.

The "Great White Fleet” sent around the world by President Theodore Roosevelt consisted of sixteen new battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. The battleships were painted stark white except for gilded scrollwork on their bows.
The fourteen-month long voyage was a grand show of American military sea power. The squadrons were manned by 14,000 sailors and made twenty port calls on six continents covering approximately 43,000 miles.

Search the names of over 14,000 sailors who sailed with the Great White Fleet

Le Saint-Jean-Baptiste & Fille du Roi Jeanne Chevalier

    
The ship Le Saint-Jean-Baptiste captained by Pierre Guillebaud departed Dieppe at the end of June in 1671 with 120 girls.  Listed among the 104 Filles du roi from the Paris area and northern France was our ancestor:

 Jeanne CHEVALIER , de par. St_Jacques, v. Dieppe, Normandie.   

A normal crossing took two and a half months. The Le Saint-Jean-Baptiste  arrived in Montreal in August 1671.  Upon arrival the Filles du roi were entrusted to a woman, from France or the colony, who protected them and kept them under strict discipline until married where she would attend and sign as witness to the nuptial agreements.

"The St-Jean Baptiste" was a 295-300 barrel vessel. The dimensions of a boat of 300 barrels would have been 76 feet in length, 27.33 feet in width and 10.5 feet in depth if using George Fournier’s method which he described in his book, Hydrographie, published in 1643. This type of boat was called a galleon and could be armed if needed.


On its return to Dieppe on 10 January 1672, the vessel brought back from Nouvelle-France beaver skins, moose, stone, wood, pitch, and other rare items.


Jeanne Marguarite Chevalier is the 2nd of our ancestors to be listed as a passenger on this ship.

John Paul Jones's 1777 USS Ranger

Ship sloop (3m) L/B/D: 131.4 (berth deck) × 28 × 11 dph (40.1m × 8.5m × 3.4m) Tons: 697 bm Hull: wood Comp: 140 Arm: 18 × 6pdr Built: James K. Hackett, Portsmouth, N.H.; 1777.












On this date in history John Paul Jones, master of the newly built ship USS Ranger, leaves Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with a crew of 140 men enroute to France, beginning its raids on British warships during the Revolutionary War.

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Ships of our Ancestors: SS Kroonland

SS Kroonland

The 12,241 gross ton passenger steamship was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Completed in 1902, she was operated commercially for the next fifteen years, mainly between New York and Antwerp, Belgium.  In 1916 she began service between the United States and Great Britain. On 20 May 1917, Kroonland was damaged by a German submarine's torpedo while en route to Liverpool. Following repairs, the ship returned to service and was formally taken over by the U.S. Army then later the Navy. After the Armistice, Kroonland began bringing veterans home until September 1919. after which she was decommissioned in October 1919 and returned to  commercial operations in 1920.  Kroonland was scrapped in 1927.

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Our ancestors, Ignatz & Maria Kollain, arrived in New York aboard this ship in October of 1909.

(click image to enlarge)

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1864 Photo of the U.S. Gunboat Mendota

     
Click on the picture to fully enlarge it.

      

U.S. Gunboat Mendota, 1864

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Although we have no personal connection to this picture, this photo truly fascinates me.  
See more at the National Archives Website: Pictures of the Civil War

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Captain Edmund Du Castell is Commissioned Commander

    

Abstracts of New Jersey Commissions
   

 (click image to enlarge)

The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine

Volume VI, Abstracts of New Jersey Commissions, Page 287

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Passenger George (Wojcieck) Kolbush

With the partial indexing of the Hamburg Passenger Lists now available on Ancestry.com I have finally been able to locate an immigration record of our ancestor George Ignatz Kolbush (Wojcieck Kolbusz) of Losnica/Loznica, Poland. I had known from the 1900 census record that he arrived in 1888.  A revisiting of Ancestry's immigration database has finally yielded results.  He is listed at the top of the page of this passenger list dated 1 May 1888.

(click image to enlarge)

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Remembering the Mayflower

 

The Mayflower left England in September of 1620 with 102 passengers and a crew of 25–30. After a long and ardous journey lasting 66 days they finally arrived in the New World in November of that year. During this journey one child died, one baby was born en route, and a second child was born during the winter of 1620-1621, while wintering aboard ship in Provincetown Harbor.  Many of the passengers were Pilgrims fleeing religious persecution, others were hired hands, servants, or farmers recruited by London merchants.

List of passengers on the Mayflower

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On Ships They Came: SS Melita

  

Canadian Pacific S.S. Melita c.1918

When construction began in 1913, the SS Melita was intended for the Hamburg America Line. World War I intervened, however, and while on the stocks she was purchased by Canadian Pacific. After being launched in 1917, she was towed to Belfast for the installation of her engines and outfitting.

She entered service with a 25 January 1918 maiden voyage from Liverpool to St. John, New Brunswick.

During the period from 1922 to 1927, Melita was in Canadian Pacific's Antwerp to St. John service. She then provided service from Britain to Canada, beginning in April 1927.
After 146 Atlantic crossings, Melita was used for local cruising until she was sold for scrap in Genoa in 1935. She was bought from the breakers by Italia, renamed Liguria, and used as a troop transport.  She was scuttled in January 1941, after being damaged in a 1940 air attack on Tobruk.  She was then raised and scrapped in 1950.
 
Nikolaus Lakatos immigrated from Segenthau, Romania, to Quebec, Canada, aboard this ship in 1924.

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Tower Hill Memorial - Tombstone Tuesday

Albert John Cassingham b. 1918 in Kent, England

Son of Albert John Cassingham and Emily Morris

Ninth Engineer Officer Merchant Navy

Died at sea on December 6/7 1942.

Commemorated at Tower Hill Memorial in London 

along with all in the Merchant Navy & fishing fleets who were lost during WWI & WWII and have "no grave but the sea".

Albert John Cassingham was serving aboard the SS Ceramic on the night of December 6th, 1942, when it was sunk by torpedoes fired from the German submarine U-515. 

All but one of the 656 aboard were lost.

The Crew Of S.S. Ceramic on her Last Voyage

On Ships They Came: SS Cleveland

SS Cleveland

Built in 1908, the SS Cleveland had twin-screw propellers and quadruple-expansion steam engines with a maximum speed of 16 knots. With a passenger capacity of 239 first-class, 224 second-class, 496 third-class, and 1,882 steerage, she mainly provided passage between Hamburg and New York.  Service was suspended during World War I, during which Cleveland was kept at Hamburg.

On 12 January 1912 in Honolulu, Hawaii, harbor pilot Milton P. Sanders suddenly dropped dead as the Cleveland was being moved. Control of the ship was not maintained and she collided with the Colorado causing moderate damage. No one was injured.

The News-Palladium  25 Jan 1912 viewed on NewspaperArchive.com

It was on the SS Cleveland of the Hamburg-American Line that Maria (Rauner) Stoss immigrated with her daughter, Theresa Stosz, departing from Hamburg on Jan 3, 1930, and arriving in NYC on 14 Jan 1930.

SS Cleveland was retired in 1931 and disassembled for scrap in 1933.

The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives - Steamship Tickets

The Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives has a number of original steamship tickets for Transatlantic and other destinations, dating from the 1880s through the 1950s for immigrant passages to America. All of the contracts have been transcribed and have an English translation.

Even though it is highly unlikely they have your family's steamship ticket, try selecting a contract from the same steamship line or ocean liner used by your ancestors for illustrating your family history.

Steamship Tickets, Immigrant Steamship Passage Contracts Archives 1800s – 1950s

What is a Sloop?

1707- Nov. 9. Where as her Majesty on the 4th of May 1702 declared war against the Kings of France and Spaine and whereas Capt. George Roach, John van Lawer and the Hurst Merchants hath equipped the sloop Resolution for a private man of war, Capt. Edmund Du Castell is commissioned Commander.

The Man-O-War is a naval ship that was designed for combat and not for merchant service. Early sloops (c.1700-1711) were single-masted, however, by 1716, all surviving sloops had been re-rigged as two-masted, and all new sloops continued to be two-masted until the 1750s, when three-masted - ship-rigged - sloops were introduced. The sloop-of-war had a single gun deck that carried anything up to eighteen cannon.