Bremen (ship, 1858)
 The Bremen on a contemporary painting
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The Bremen was a sailing steamer of the North German Lloyd launched on February 1, 1858 . On June 19, 1858, the North Atlantic service of North German Lloyd was started with the Bremen . The Bremen's sister ship was the Newyork , which entered service in the same year. After 1874, the Bremen was dismantled by Edward Bates & Company in Liverpool to a sailing ship and stranded on October 16, 1882 off the California coast near the Farallon Islands .
Technical specifications
The cargo capacity of the Bremen was around 1000 tons. The coal bunkers held 850 tons of coal. The shipyard stated that the steam engine consumed 2.2 to 2.5 kg of coal per hour and PSi. The ship was clipper moderately built sleek and with the sail rigging a Bark equipped. The ship had a funnel, three masts and was 1,710 GRT tall and 101.46 m long. The costs for the shipping company amounted to the equivalent of 399,750 thalers .
In a postponed description of this first steamer Bremen it says about the ship:
“The ship, equipped with an engine of 700 horse power, has a total of four decks, which are divided into several watertight compartments. The loading capacity amounts to about 850 tons of coal and about 1000 tons of goods. The cabins are furnished with the best of comfort and taste, the first will hold about 60, the second 110 passengers. On both sides of the beautiful, spacious salon, which is adorned with the finest furniture and medallions on the walls with views of Bremen, the nice bedrooms of the first cabin are located, each of which is furnished for 2 or 4 people and apart from the clean beds, sophas and washstands and various lockable boxes included. Not only the first but also the second cabin has a special smoking room for men and an elegant ladies room. Music lovers will find an excellent piano in the first cabin. The ship also has two bathrooms and a library. The tween deck is spacious, airy and meets all health considerations, it will be able to accommodate over 401 people in total. "
History of Bremen
On February 1, 1858, the iron steamer in ran Scottish Greenock launched. According to contemporary reports, the official commissioning of the new Bremen turned out to be an impressive "patriotic celebration" with great attention from the population. In the course of welcoming the invited guests, Consul Hermann Henrich Meier addressed the following words: “And so we proceeded with confidence. In our coat of arms - an anchor that crosses the Bremen key and is surrounded by a wreath of oak leaves - you can see our motto. In the anchor we hold the hope that the key will open up the traffic routes for us, which we want to hold onto with German manpower, perseverance and loyalty. ” After the satisfactory test drive and guest drive that led to the Hoheweg lighthouse and back At the invitation of the director of the North German Lloyd, Eduard Crüsemann , who also took part, representatives of the Bremen Senate, including Mayor Arnold Duckwitz and delegates from the Bremen Chamber of Commerce, nothing stood in the way of the opening of the planned North Atlantic Service of North German Lloyd.
Maiden voyage
As early as June 12, 1858, the Bremen was the first of four new transatlantic steamers ordered by Norddeutscher Lloyd in Great Britain to be ready for a test drive on the Bremerhaven roadstead , and on June 19, 1858, the North Atlantic service was started with her. At around 6 p.m. the Bremen left the Bremerhaven roadstead under the command of Captain Heinrich Wessels. On board were 150 tons of cargo including letter mail, 22 cabin and 93 between deck passengers. On July 3, 1858, at 7 a.m., the Bremen arrived at the port of destination New York City in the USA after a 14 day and 13 hour crossing . The official opening of the line was celebrated there with an on-board party attended by around 450 people, including American guests. In New York, too, the new Bremen made a demonstration trip with guests to Sandy Hook , in which Henry Wadsworth Longfellow also took part. The return journey began on July 17, 1858 and on the morning of July 30, 1858, the Bremen was back on the Weser with 220 tons of freight and 60 passengers.
Another service for the North German Lloyd
On January 14, 1860, the Bremen reached the port of Southampton with a broken propeller shaft under sail. It was taken out of service and under repair for six months. Only on July 8, 1860 did the ship resume service from Bremen to New York. During a further stay in the shipyard in 1864, the ship received a new boiler and a new propeller shaft made of Krupp steel . Then the ship went back to the Bremen – New York liner service. The last departure on the Bremen – Southampton – New York line took place on November 5, 1873.
Sale and whereabouts
In June 1874 the Bremen was sold together with the steamer New York to the British company Edward Bates & Company in Liverpool for the sum of 19,000 pounds. There both ships were dismantled to sailing ships.
On February 17, 1874, the Provinzialzeitung in Bremerhaven reported on the sale of the two steamers BREMEN and NEWYORK. In the ownership of the new shipowner Edward Bates, the BREMEN made the headlines mainly in the US press. The second part of the history of the BREMEN was very different from what we were used to under the North German Lloyd and in use as an emigrant ship. The ship has been regularly associated with slavery and marine diseases such as scurvy.
As a British sailor, the ship finally stranded in the thick fog on October 16, 1882 on the California coast off Farallon Island, 27 miles outside the Golden Gate , directly below the lighthouse and was a total loss. The cargo consisted of coals and whiskey. It was not until 1929 that the American T. H. P. Whitelaw tried to rescue the cargo from the wreck, but was prevented from doing so by the US government due to prohibition .
The myth of the sunken whiskey
At that time, whiskey was carried on the ship both as a "means of payment" and as cargo. The Bremen last drove from Liverpool to San Francisco and, according to reports in the American press, had loaded 5000 small barrels of the finest, 50-year-old Monongahela whiskey. This type of whiskey was made from 100% rye and was produced by European immigrants before Kentucky Bourbon was invented. The price of the bottled whiskey was equivalent to around US $ 10 million. Captain Whitelaw, who specialized in lifting shipwrecks like the Bremen, made several attempts to get approval from the US government. Unfortunately without success. Fishing boats, which occasionally drove to the scene of the accident on the BREMEN, hoped to pick up one or more barrels of the whiskey, if they had come to the surface of the water. The US newspapers of the time - from New York to San Francisco - reported about the sinking of the BREMEN.
literature
- NDL (Ed.): Seventy Years of North German Lloyd Bremen 1857–1927. Anniversary edition, Atlantic-Verlag GmbH, Berlin W50 1927.
- Helge Ellwart, Helmut Grams (ed.): Downfall before San Francisco - The BREMEN 1858 . Schünemann Verlag, Bremen 2018, (bilingual G / E) 208 S; ISBN 978-3-96047-041-0
- Harald Focke : Under steam and sail from the Weser to New York. The first BREMEN of the NDL started on its maiden voyage 160 years ago . In: Men from Morgenstern , Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 822 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven June 2018, p. 1–2 ( digitized version [PDF; 5.7 MB ; accessed on June 21, 2019]).
- Detlev Scheil: The German emigrant ship. New book contains interesting facts about the sailing steamer "Bremen" of the North German Lloyd; May 31, 2018; Weser Kurier, district supplement Bremen Oberneuland / Schwachhausen.
- Hans Begerow: Propeller made Bremen fast; BOOK: Segeldampfer tells of trade relations between Bremen and the USA; UNIQUE CHRONICLE OF THE SAIL STEAMER “BREMEN”; Nordwest-Zeitung (NWZ) No. 140; P. 18; 19th June 2018.
Web links
- Palmer List of ships of the North German Lloyd ( Memento from December 28, 2005 in the Internet Archive )