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  • ship HELEN McGAW, Hamburg>NY, 1854 (was: Correct name of a ship)

    From fxsligo@gmail.com@21:1/5 to Michael Palmer on Thu Sep 13 22:55:33 2018
    On Friday, 26 January 2001 00:21:02 UTC+13, Michael Palmer wrote:
    On Wed, 24 Jan 2001, mcs <rsibb@bellsouth.net> wrote:

    I am currently transcribing a ship which arrived in New York September
    4, 1854 ( departure Hamburg) the captain is Wm H Lunt.

    I am having trouble deciphering the correct name of the ship. It looks like Helen Mae Gaw, or Helen Mac Gaw ( the last portion may be Graw)

    Does anyone have any insights on what the correct name should be ?

    The vessel in question is the ship HELEN McGAW, William H. Lunt, master, which arrived at New York on 3 September 1854 (the passenger arrival
    manifest is dated the following day, 4 September), 41 days from Hamburg,
    with 245 passengers, consigned to John McGaw. There is an inaccurate transcript of this list in Ira A. Glazier and P. William Filby, ed.,
    _Germans to America; Lists of Passengers Arriving at U.S. Ports_, vol. 8 (Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 1968), pp. 149-150. Note
    that the abstracts of the Hamburg departure list for this voyage contain information not on the New York arrival list. The Hamburg passenger departure lists have been microfilmed and the abstracts of passenger departure lists for vessels departing from Hamburg from April through December 1854 may be found on Family History Library microfilm #0470836.
    The abstracts are arranged alphabetically by the first letter of each passenger's surname, thereunder chronologically by the date of departure.
    For additional information on the Hamburg passenger departure lists, including Family History Library microfilm roll numbers, see the account
    by Jim Eggert and myself at http://www.genealogienetz.de/gene/misc/emig/ham_pass.html

    The following account of the HELEN McGAW is posted on my website at http://www.geocities.com/mppraetorius/

    The ship HELEN McGAW, 598 tons, was built in Medford, Massachusetts, in
    1847, and registered at the port of New York on 29 August 1850.

    1848 - Albert A. Burwell, master, advertised as sailing in
    Richardson, Watson & Co's line of sailing packets between
    New York and Liverpool.

    1848 - Albert A. Burwell, master, advertised as sailing in
    Richardson, Watson & Co's Black Diamond Line of sailing
    packets between Philadelphia and Liverpool.

    1849 - G. T. Tucker, master, advertised as sailing in Richardson,
    Watson & Co's Black Diamond Line of sailing packets between
    Philadelphia and Liverpool.

    1850 - William H. Lunt, master, advertised as sailing in the Black
    Star Line of sailing packets between New York and Liverpool.

    15 Aug 1851 - William H. Lunt, master, arrived at San Francisco, 173 days
    from Norfolk, Virginia, via Rio de Janeiro and Valparaiso,
    with government stores and Capt. Stone and 23 of the
    Ordnance Company.

    30 Mar 1853 - Arrived San Francisco, 161 days from New York.

    1856 - W. S. Tucker, master, advertised as sailing in the "Line of
    Liverpool Packets" (known in Liverpool as "Line of
    Philadelphia Packets") between Philadelphia and Liverpool.

    Sources: Forrest R. Holdcamper, comp., _List of American-flag Merchant Vessels that received Certificates of Enrollment or Registry at the Port
    of New York, 1789-1867 (Record Groups 41 and 36)_, National Archives Publication 68-10, Special Lists 22 (Washington, DC: National Archives
    and Records Service, 1968), p. 311; Carl C. Cutler, _Queens of the
    Western Ocean; The Story of America's Mail and Passenger Sailing Lines_ (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, c1961), pp. 385, 386, 404, and 406].

    I have no information on the HELEN McGAW's later history or ultimate fate, but it should be possible to trace the former and to determine the latter from the annual volumes of the _New York Marine Register_ (first published in 1857; from 1860 under the title _Original American Lloyd's Register_).


    Michael Palmer

    Thanks for the information about some of the early history of the Helen McGaw. A little bit of later history - my great grandfather Archie Sligo traveled on this ship from Melbourne to Port Chalmers, Dunedin, NZ, early in an exodus from Australia and
    elsewhere to NZ following the discovery of gold in Otago, NZ. He left on 21 September and arrived on 7 October 1861. I surmise that much American shipping would have been attracted to the South Pacific to cater to the thousands of hopeful miners seeking
    Otago gold.

    Frank Sligo

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