Ship Kepler Spring 1865

The passenger list of Rethamel family from Port of Hamburg, April 1865:

The Hamburg ship Keppler (Kepler) Jurgens, master/captain, arrived in Quebec, Canada on approximately May 25 (calculated based on about 40 days at sea) from Hamburg, Germany, with merchandise and a number of passengers. The Kepler (spelled with one K in German according to a source) was a 3 masted, square-rigged ship, built under special survey by Martin Samuelson, Hull, for Robert Miles Sloman, and launched in January 1863, 666 tons/300; 165.4 x 28.7 x 18.5 feet (length x beam x depth of hold); iron construction, 2 bulkheads.

Master: N J Jurgens, 1863-1865

Voyages:
1863- Quebec/London
1863/1864 – New York
1864 – Quebec/London
1864/65 – new York
1865 – Quebec/London (Rethamel family time)
1865 – New York / Philadelphia

On December 4, 1865, she sailed from Philadelphia for Bremen, Germany, but was never seen again. British made ship.

In the spring of 2009 the author contacted an expert genealogy for help on German relatives. The following is what was learned.

PASSENGER LISTS I

Keppler sailing from Hamburg to Quebec in 1865. The following family:
A. Retthammel, 66 years old
Contantia, 60 years old
August, 27 years old
Friederike, 22 years old
Amalie, 23 years old

The calculated years of birth fit in very well to the data for August (1837, here 1838) and “Christian” (1799). And the year of immigration is 1865, just as listed for August in the 1900 and 1910 census.

PASSENGER LIST II

In contrary to Bremen the passenger lists of the harbor of Hamburg are preserved from 1851 on. In the Hamburg list (Jan 1864 to 23 Dec 1865) of the index for “direct emigrants” we can find the Rethammel family.

Ship No. 14 Keppler to Quebec, master Jurgens, April 15, 1865, Rethamel, Aug, wife, 3 children in the passenger lists for direct emigrants (7 Jan 1865 to 23 Dec 1865) we can find the first page of the 1865 passenger list of the sail ship Keppler on.

Here we can find the following information:
No. 22 AUGUST RETHAMEL, worker, 66 years
No. 23 CONSTANTIA RETHAMEL, wife, 60 years
No. 24 AUGUST RETHAMEL, worker, 27 years
No. 25 FRIEDERIKE RETHAMEL, wife, 23 years
No. 26 AMALIE RETHAMEL, unmarried, 22 years
and – like in almost all Hamburg passenger lists – the last place or origin or place of birth is listed:

“GR. BOSCHPUL, PRUSSIA”

There were several other passengers from the same village on the same ship. 13 others [Hofmann, Neetzel and Wolf] – if I counted correct – so that there were 18 passengers from the same village on one ship.