Continuation…….To realize that trade in all American goods depended on balancing the ships bringing cargo from US with ships returning filled with emigrants the ports took active promotion. Emigration agents were sent into greater Germany to promote business and take initiatives to deal with any problems emigrants had with exploitation by ship personnel and ship agents. In 1832 Bremen passed a number of regulatory laws to deal with emigration trade, lodging houses were inspected, ships monitored for their seaworthiness and the captains required to carry enough food for a ninety day trip as well as carry insurance for the passengers. This concern of the city increased its share of the trade in German emigrants. In 1851 the city established bureaus for emigrants at railroad stations, river landings and in the city center. In 1852 the city erected an Emigrant House that provided lodging for 2,000 people, with eating facilities, chapel, information bureau and an infirmary. Emigrants paid 66 pfennigs per person per day.

During the time when sailing was the primary mode of getting to America, ships that most emigrants might board ranged from about 90 feet to 200 feet or more in length, with displacements from 250 tons to over 1,700 tons. Most were three-masked wooden ships with square rigging. Most ships carrying passengers to the U.S. after 1825 had to be at least 115 feet in length according to US law. As immigration increased in the 1830’s and 1840’s to America ships became larger and capable of carrying more than a thousand passengers. Emigrant ships were known as “packets”, a term denoting passenger ships that sailed on a regular schedule between two ports. Ships would carry freight/goods to Europe and return to America with emigrants.

Many emigrants who did not have the money for cabin passage (could be as much as $100), said in what is called tween-decks or the space between upper deck and cargo hold, with clearance that ranged five to eight feet. Beneath steerage on some large ships was another deck that was cramped or crowded but used for additional sleep space. The nature of cargo of some ships would affect the conditions for passengers traveling westbound or to America. On larger ships, eating tables would be placed in central aisles. Bunks for sleeping were mounted on stanchions which were two high. For cooking an iron gate was placed above a fire made on a bed of stones. Toilet facilities were primitive and no provision for bathing. Water was mostly used for cooking, about 2 gallons a day per person. Ventilation was inadequate with open hatches to upper deck as the main source of air. If a storm happened for a couple days the hatches would be closed with little or no ventilation. So odors were present in the steerage area.

It is hard to imagine what it must have felt like when an emigrant family departed on their ship and saw the docks slowly disappear in the distance. Such a departure would have provided a strong emotional response in seeing possibly friends and relatives waving farewell from the dock. For sure it would have been the last view of the old country and the fear or excitement of finally going to a new land they had only heard about. Two great fears faced all passengers, life-threatening illness and shipwreck on stormy seas. Close quarters, crowded conditions and unsanitary environment in the steerage were areas for disease, such as cholera.

Favorable winds from Europe going westbound to America were not available due to the prevailing winds of the North Atlantic coming from the west. Sailing vessels consumed a lot of time tacking against the wind, which greatly added time and distance of travel to America. From the port of Liverpool to New York might take a distance of 3,500 miles, though the approximate distance is 3,000 miles. East bound ships could sail quickly and directly “with’ the prevailing winds. The Gulf Stream was an advantage for eastbound because it warmed the ship and carried the ship in a more direct route. Westbound had to steer away from the Gulf Stream current. This meant that the average emigrant might be at sea for four to six weeks or even longer, twelve. On average going eastbound was three weeks. Well-rigged ships and able crews thus were an important factor in the journey.

Most of the migration through Canada came up the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City. Quebec was simply a stop on the way into the interior. A boat trip through the Great Lakes could bring immigrants to other points of settlement and their final destination the growing area of the American Midwest. The Ernie Canal opened travel into the Great Lakes.

Emigration from north German ports developed slowly with sources of migrants began to shift to north and east in the 1830s in the ports of Hamburg and Bremen. The river system of Weser offered transportation for emigrants to Bremen. The building of railroads in the late 1830s offered alternative routes for migrants from the interior German states and thus competition for these northern German ports. The result was to provide cargoes of emigrants for ships arriving in the ports with American commodities, so they would not have to return empty or seek cargo in other ports.

Bremen had already in the 1820s established itself as the center of tobacco trade between America – especially Baltimore- and Germany, replacing Dutch ports as the principal entry point for tobacco in all northern Europe. However at about the same time the accumulation of silt in the Weser River began to impend the movement of oceangoing vessels. To avoid this growing problem the city in 1827 built a new town called Bremerhaven (near mouth of Weser river and opened this port in 1830. Gradually New York city in 1840s replaced Baltimore as the chief American port connecting to Bremen.

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.