Baltic Lloyd

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Baltic Lloyd
Stettin-American Steamship Actien-Gesellschaft
legal form Corporation
founding September 1870
resolution April 25, 1876
Reason for dissolution liquidation
Seat Szczecin
Branch Shipping company

The Baltic Lloyd (English: Baltic Lloyd), the Stettin-Amerikanische Dampfschiffahrts-Actien-Gesellschaft , was a German shipping company for the combined passenger and cargo shipping. The company was founded in 1870 by merchants from Szczecin and was supposed to take part in the competition for the transport of emigrants on the North Atlantic route. At times it had five steamships, but for economic reasons it had to discontinue regular service in August 1874. After the sale of her ships, she went into liquidation on April 25, 1876 .

History of the company

The company was founded in Stettin in 1870 with a capital of 650,000 Thalers . Co-founders and supervisory boards were u. a. the entrepreneur and zoologist Heinrich Dohrn , the commercial councilor Johannes Quistorp , the businessman Alexander Weylandt (father-in-law of the hygienist Karl Kißkalt ) and the shipowner Carl A. Domcke, who was later also a member of the board of directors at Germanischer Lloyd . The supervisory board also included TR Oswald, whose shipyard built the Lloyd's ships in Sunderland , England .

As early as the end of 1871, the general assembly decided to increase the capital to 2 million thalers in order to be able to increase the number of ships from two to five and thus be prepared for a 14-day sailing rhythm. In this context, the Ostsee-Zeitung and Börsen-Nachrichten of the Baltic Sea in Stettin and other newspapers advertised the Baltic Lloyd by recommending it "as a very promising and very promising company".

In 1872 the majority of the shares in the shipping company belonged to the Berlin group of companies Heinrich Quistorps , Johannes Quistorp's brother. After the company had paid a dividend of 10% in 1871, it suffered losses in 1872 and the following year, which began its economic decline. After another major loss in the first half of 1874, the Lloyd's management took the ships out of service and put them up for sale from August 1874; the overseas traffic from Stettin to York with steamships was thus ended again for the time being. After the sale of the ship at the beginning of 1876, the general assembly finally decided on April 25, 1876 to liquidate the company, whereby the company assumed that it would still be able to make a capital repayment of around 45 - 50% to the shareholders.

The shipping company had already failed after a few years because the calculated freight rates could not be realized despite the satisfactory number of passengers. The agricultural products that were mainly handled in Szczecin were not in great demand in the United States, and petroleum , which was considered an import product, was then usually transported by sailing ships for safety reasons.

Routes and cargo

Advertisement by Baltic Lloyd in the Hamburgische [n] Börsenhalle on September 7, 1871
Poster for the New York City-Stettin-Passagen by Ernst Moritz Arndt on March 29, 1873 and by Franklin on April 19, 1873
Poster for the New York City-Stettin-Passagen by Ernst Moritz Arndt on March 29, 1873 and by Franklin on April 19, 1873

The shipping company operated from Stettin the North American traffic with freight and passengers, especially emigrants, and called New York via Copenhagen and Christianssand or Le Havre . In the autumn of 1873, a joint service from Antwerp to York was agreed with the Belgian White Cross line in order to have a shorter journey. Until then, Le Havre was also the port of departure for the German emigrants transported by Lloyd. It was thus deleted.

The cargo to New York was mainly lead, cement and railroad tracks. Maize, resin, lard, bacon and tallow were shipped in the opposite direction. However, the cargo arriving in the port of Stettin from York amounted to almost double that which was going there. Parcel delivery and cargo acceptance were also offered. Letters to New York "Via Stadt Stettin" cost 2½ silver groschen .

The first two sister ships , Franklin and Humboldt , offered space for a few cabin passengers and around 600 passengers on the tween deck. According to an advertisement of the shipping company in the Hamburg stock exchange hall of September 7, 1871, the passage with the Franklin cost the passage with the Franklin on September 26, 1871 at noon under Captain F. Dreyer and on October 24 at noon with the Humboldt under Captain P. Barandon left, a cabin 100 thalers Prussian courant, in the intermediate deck 55 thalers with food. As can also be seen from the American advertising posters of the shipping company, English and German-speaking passengers were addressed for the crossing back to Stettin. Former emigrants who wanted to visit their homeland or returning failed emigrants come into consideration. The passage prices to Europe were then in 1873 on the Ernst Moritz Arndt for a cabin of the 1st class at 100  $ , which corresponds to about 4000  , the 2nd class at 72 and for the intermediate deck still at 30 $. However, in 1871 the shipping company was praised by the New Yorker Handelszeitung for its comparatively comfortable tween decks, which with their chambers for 8 to 16 people allowed separate accommodation for men and women or even entire families of emigrants.

fleet

The ships of the company ran in the northeastern English shipyard TR Oswald & Co. in Sunderland from the stack . They were all designed as two masted steamships with additional sails in an iron construction. They were each driven by a ship's propeller and had white funnels with a black tip as a shipping company identification . All maiden voyages led from Stettin to New York.

Only fragmentary information is available about the captains of the ships. From the advertising posters shown for a ship passage go as captains F. Dreyer ( Ernst Moritz Arndt , 1873), who had steered emigrant ships in the service of the North German Lloyd in 1868 and 1869 and was released there after a shipwreck with the Union , and E. Dehnicke ( Franklin , 1873). The Humboldt was piloted by Captain P. Barandon in 1871 and the Ernst Moritz Arndt on July 3, 1873 from Stettin by Captain Felberg. The pioneer of German northern and polar tourism, Wilhelm Bade , was also a ship's captain for Lloyd, but probably only in the feeder traffic with the steamship Der Kaiser between Stettin and Swinoujscie .

Painting with the SS Humboldt , around 1871 (Heimatmuseum Schloss Schönebeck)
  • The Humboldt

The Humboldt's first voyage for the shipping company lasted from June 27, departure from Stettin via Copenhagen and Christianssand , to July 16, 1871, when it arrived in New York with freight and 655 passengers. In February 1872 the Humboldt first called the ports of London and Le Havre, through which the routes of all Lloyd's ships were initially run. On July 9, 1874, the Humboldt set off from Stettin for the company's last trip and reached New York on August 3, after a stopover in Antwerp. The return journey began on August 13th. After that, Baltic Lloyd ceased its ship passages. The ship completed a total of 15 passages for Lloyd. It went to Raffaele Rubattino in 1874 .

  • The Franklin

From Stettin to New York via Copenhagen, the first voyage of the Humboldt's sister ship took place on August 8, 1871 , after it had been completed in June 1871. It was in the service of Lloyds until 1874 before it was also sold to Raffaele Rubattino in Genoa and then renamed Batavia . It then went to the Navigazione generale Italiana in 1881.

  • The Thorwaldsen

The ship, which was only procured in September 1872, ran aground on the return voyage from New York to Stettin on April 4, 1874 on the southwest coast of Sweden , near the island of Hallands Väderö , after having moved 50 miles from the official course; There were no human lives to be mourned. The Thorwaldsen was then scrapped at Torekov .

  • The Ernst Moritz Arndt

The ship left London on February 27, 1873 on her maiden voyage, which led via Le Havre to New York. The name was given in connection with the veneration of Arndt, who died in 1860, by Heinrich Quistorp, who was related by marriage to him, and whose group of companies included the Baltic Lloyd when the ship was commissioned. On October 16, 1873, the Ernst Moritz Arndt set sail for the first time via Antwerp, while Le Havre had been canceled at the same time. In total, she traveled the transatlantic route 6 times, the last time from Stettin on May 28, 1874. In 1875 she was sold to Alicante in Spain, to López & López, where she then served as Habana .

  • The Washington

After being launched in May 1873, the maiden voyage, which began on July 31, 1873, led from Stettin via Le Havre to New York. Her fourth and last voyage for Baltic Lloyd began on May 28, 1874 in Stettin and led via Copenhagen and Antwerp to New York again, before it was also sold to López y Compañía in 1875 and renamed Ciudad Condal .

The Baltic Lloyd fleet
Ship name Launch Commissioning
maiden voyage
Whereabouts L.reg.
 (in  m )
Width
 (in m)
GRT
 (in  t )
PS v max
(in kn )
Passengers
I./II. / ZwD
Trim.
Humboldt  Apr. 1871 June 1871
June 27th 1871
1874 sold to Raffaele Rubattino in Genoa (now: Sumatra )
1881 transition to Navigazione generale Italiana (NGI)
1910 transition to Società Nationale del Servizi Marittimi
1913 transition to Società Marittima Italiana (Genoa)
1923 scrapping
89.60 9.47 1,801 800 11 Above sea level
approx. 600
56
Franklin  June 1871 August 1871
8th August 1871
1874 sold to Raffaele Rubattino (now: Batavia )
1877 scrapping near the Île Jarre (Marseilles)
89.60 9.47 1,878 800 11 Above sea level
approx. 600
66
Thorwaldsen 0May 9, 1872 September 1872
October 12, 1872
1873 dismantling on the Swedish coast after being stranded 94.48 11.58 2,600 1,400 12 (150)
700
70
Ernst Moritz Arndt 22 Aug 1872 February 1873
February 27, 1873
1875 sold to Antonio López y López (now: Habana ).
1900 scrapping
96.61 11.33 2,597 1,400 12 (150)
700
70
Washington May 1873 July 1873
July 31, 1873
1875 sold to Antonio López y López (now: Ciudad Condal ).
1906 scrapping in Genoa
93.46 11.63 2,576 1,400 12 (150)
700
70

Charter ships

In addition to the 5 ships owned by the shipping company, the shipping company evidently chartered other ships from time to time in order to be able to transport the number of emigrants. A trip of the SS Bladworth from Christiansand (May 18, 1872) to New York (June 4, 1872) and the Jason SS also from Christiansand (June 13, 1872) to New York are proven.

Others

In October 1871 the Hamburgische Börsenhalle reported on a tragic incident on the Franklin that caused a sensation. On the crossing to New York in November 1871, the steamer got into bad weather, so that almost all passengers became seasick . In addition, several children fell ill with cholera , some of which died after a short time. Of around 160 passengers suffering from cholera, 41 died, including 20 children under the age of twelve. The Franklin , which was just able to reach Halifax for a stopover after a 24-day storm voyage, to fill up its bunkers , had to be thoroughly disinfected in the destination port of New York . Rudolf Virchow was even brought in to investigate the cause .

In the 1920s, a branch of North German Lloyd also operated under the name "Baltischer Lloyd" ( Latvian : Baltijas Lloids) in Riga, Kaufstr. 22. It was structured as a legally independent public limited company. For 1935, a travel agency under this name is also recorded for Riga and additionally Liepāja .

literature

  • Arnold Kludas : The History of German Passenger Shipping. Volume 1: The pioneering years from 1850 to 1890 . Kabel Verlag, Hamburg 1986, ISBN 3-8225-0037-2 .
  • Kurt Pittelkow, Reinhart Schmelzkopf: home port of Stettin. The history of the port of Szczecin, its shipping companies and its machine-driven ships 1815-1945 . Strandgut, Cuxhaven 1987

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Compare, for example, the passenger lists of the SS "Humboldt" of September 21, 1872 ( [1] ), the SS "Franklin" of December 2, 1871 ( [2] ) or the SS "Ernst Moritz Arndt" of November 10, 1873 ( [3] ).
  2. Information according to The Ships List website .
  3. Monica Cioli: Pragmatism and Ideology. Organizational forms of German liberalism at the time of the Second Empire (1878–1884) . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2000, p. 167 (online)
  4. Manfred Stürzbecher: Kißkalt, Karl. In: New German Biography. 11 (1977), (online version)
  5. Zeitschrift für Seewesen, Hamburg 1889, No. 5 (March), p. 33 (online)
  6. Hansa. German nautical magazine. , Hamburg 1927, No. 14 (April), p. 608 (online)
  7. HANSA. Journal of marine life. Hamburg 1871, No. 25 (December), p. 236 (online)
  8. ^ Otto Glagau: The stock exchange and start-up fraud in Berlin. Paul Frohberg, Leipzig 1877, p. 405 (online) .
  9. ^ Heinrich Quistorp wanted to use the "Westend-Gesellschaft Heinrich Quistorp & Co." in the early days , the Berlin Westend develop as a residential area and diversify its business activities beyond.
  10. Max Wirth: History of the trade crises. 4th edition. Sauerländer, Frankfurt am Main 1890, p. 568 (online)
  11. HANSA. Journal of marine life. Hamburg 1876, issue No. 5 (May), p. 98 (online)
  12. a b Forum Overseas Emigration (online) ( Memento of the original from January 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / forum.transoceanic-emigration.net
  13. ^ E. Foerster: Practical steel shipbuilding . Salzwasser Verlag, Paderborn 2012, p. 265 (online) ISBN 978-3-86444-800-3 .
  14. Max Peters: The development of the German shipping company since the beginning of the century Vol. 1–2, Gustav Fischer, Jena 1899–1905, Volume 2: The development of the German shipping company from the beginning of the 19th century to the establishment of the German Empire. P. 60 (online)
  15. On the mail transport of Lloyds between Stettin and New York, which also carried mail on behalf of the US Post , compare Walter Hubbard and Richard F. Winter. Published by Susan M. McDonal: North Atlantic Mail Sailings 1840-75 . US Philatelic Classics Society, 1988, p. 317 ff.
  16. HANSA. Journal of marine life. Hamburg 1871, No. 21 (October), p. 187 (online)
  17. ^ Arnold Kludas: The history of the German passenger shipping. Volume 1. The pioneering years from 1850 to 1890. P. 34.
  18. Compare the departure dates of emigrant ships, passages of the UNION, the Bremen State Archives (online)
  19. HANSA. Journal of marine life. September 21, 1873, No. 19 .
  20. Compare the website of the private magazine FLUKE to Captain Wilhelm Bade .
  21. Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor: North Atlantic Seaway. An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World With the New . David & Charles, Newton Abbot 1978, Volume 2, p. 773.
  22. ^ Article in the New York Times of April 6, 1873, which also contains a detailed list of the lost cargo (online)
  23. Arndt married Quistorp's great cousin Charlotte Marie Quistorp in 1800. In memory of him, Quistorp planned an unrealized monument in front of the " Germaniaturm ", which was designed as a water tower for Berlin-Westend, but which was torn down in 1892, unfinished.
  24. Another voyage of the SS "Ernst Moritz Arndt" from Stettin, departing Swinemünde on July 4, 1873, under steam and sails with hydrographic and meteorological information is described in great detail in the HANSA magazine of September 21, 1873.
  25. a b On the Vida maritima website , LOS VAPORES HABANA Y CIUDAD CONDAL - accessed on January 24, 2015 - a ship painting is shown.
  26. Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor: North Atlantic Seaway. An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World With the New . David & Charles, Newton Abbot 1978, Volume 2, p. 774.
  27. The table is largely based on Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping. Volume 1. p. 63.
  28. This is the length of the ship recorded in the register between the stem in the waterline and a point on the rudder stock. In this length specification, the protruding parts of the stern and a possible clipper bow are not included. This information comes entirely from the manual for the German merchant marine. (Arnold Kludas: The History of German Passenger Shipping. Volume 1, p. 8).
  29. ^ English Wikipedia on the Compañía Transatlántica Española . In 1881 the company was transformed into the Compañía Transatlántica Española .
  30. Norway Heritage
  31. ^ Advertisement by Baltic Lloyd in the Leipziger Illustrirten Zeitung of May 25, 1872 (No. 1508).
  32. ^ Arnold Kludas: The history of the German passenger shipping. Volume 1. The pioneering years from 1850 to 1890. P. 62.
  33. Compare the share according to Internet information .
  34. Riga calendar 1935, p.3 .