The Bremen ship ALBERT was built at Vegesack/Grohn by Johann Lange, for the Bremen firm of Gebrüder Kulenkampff, and was launched on 1 June 1841. 200 Commerzlasten; 32,5 x 9,1 x 5,5 meters (length x beam x depth of hold). Her maiden voyage was from Bremerhaven to Baltimore, under the command of Joh. Klockgeter, who was later succeeded, in turn, by D. von Tritzen, H. Reichl, Remme, and Joh. C. Meyer. In 1855, the ALBERT was sold to F. Hvistendahl, Krageroe, Norway, who renamed her PRINS ALBERT, and placed her under the command of C. Hvistendahl. Her later history and ultimate fate are not known.

Source: Peter-Michael Pawlik, Von der Weser in die Welt; Die Geschichte der Segelschiffe von Weser und Lesum und ihrer Bauwerften 1770 bis 1893, Schriften des Deutschen Schiffahrtsmuseums, Bd. 33 (Hamburg: Kabel, c1993), p. 203, no. 165.

The U.S. ship ALBONI was a medium clipper, designed and built by Mason C. Hill, at Mystic, Connecticut, and launched in October 1852. She was named after Marietta Alboni (1826-1894), the celebrated Italian contralto, who was then in the middle of a tour of America. 917/837 tons (old/new measurement); 156/182 x 37.5 x 21 feet (length between perpendiculars/ overall length x beam x depth of hold). Her figurehead was the image of a dove with an orange branch in its beak. She was originally owned by Charles Mallory, but was purchased shortly after launching by James Bishop & Co of New York for a reported $55,000.

The ALBONI was originally employed in the Cape Horn trade, for which she made 4 voyages:

1. Maiden voyage, N. R. Littlefield, master, New York 11/21/1852 - San Francisco 3/31/1853 (130 days); 65 days to the Horn, 99 days to the equator in the Pacific; when 113 days out was within 300 miles of the Golden Gate, being close to the coast in a dense fog for the final 7 days. Return: San Francisco - Callao (51 days) - New York (85 days), with a cargo of guano.
2. Littlefield, master, New York 4/8/1854 - San Francisco 9/1/1854 (146 days); had a very hard time off Cape Horn, being driven back 700 miles and forced to go round the Falkland Islands twice; hove to on one occasion for 9 days; carried skysails for 60 days after passing Cape Horn. Return: San Francisco - Shanghai (52 days); Shanghai 12/1854 - New York in 98 days.
3. Barnaby, master, New York 5/5/1855 - San Francisco 10/21/1855 (169 days elapsed, 165 days net claimed). Return: San Francisco - Shanghai (59 days); Shanghai 1/28/1856 - NY 5/19/1857 (111 days, 93 days from Anjier).
4. Barnaby, master, New York 6/8/1858 - San Francisco 11/8/1858 (153 days elapsed, 150 days net claimed). Return: San Francisco - Shanghai (53 days) - Singapore - Foochow; Foochow 12/24/1859 - Anjier 1/8/1860 - Start Point 4/12/1860 - London 4/16/1860 - New York 1/12/1861 (61 days).

The ALBONI was then engaged in trade between New York, Bremen, and Antwerp. After the first voyage, to New York, Captain Blanke was replaced by Captain Hoyer. About January 1863, the ALBONI was sold to Theodore Ruger, renamed the ELSIE RUGER, and transferred to the Hannoverian flag. She was engaged principally in the trans-Atlantic trade, but made at least one more voyage (in 1864) to the Orient (New York - Hong Kong). In 1868, she was listed as still owned by Ruger, but hailing from Geestemünde. Her name does not appear in ship registers for 1874.

Sources: Octavius T. Howe and Frederick C. Matthews, American Clipper Ships, 1833-1858, vol. 1 (Salem, MA: Marine Research Society, 1926), pp. 4-6; Carl C. Cutler, Greyhounds of the Sea; The Story of the American Clipper Ship (New York: Halcyon House, c1930), pp. 237, 357, 419, 473, 486, 494, 500, 512; William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, [1945-55], II.1508, 1526; III.1659, 1888, 1940, 1963, 1966, 1969, 2018, 2024, 2029, 2030, 2043, 2044, 2045, 2060, 2065, 2097; IV.2231, 2266, 2269; V.2853, 2855, 3072; VI.3629, 3659, 3661, 3747, 3920, 3937, 3942.

Russian frigate ALEXANDER PETION was built in Archangelsk, Russia, year not given, although she was considered "old" when she arrived in Bremen in 1829. 959 45/94 French tons (in the hanseatische Schiffahrtsregister, capacity given as 480 Lasten, approximately equal to 320 of the later standard Commerzlasten); 2 decks. She arrived at Bremen on 19 November 1829 under the command of Arnold Philipp Gaetjen. She was renamed OLBERS, after Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers (1758-1840), the famous Bremen medical doctor and astronomer, in honor of the 50th anniversary, in 1830, of Olbers receiving his medical doctorate from the University of Göttingen. She was later under the command of Johann Michael Herklotz.

Source: Dieter Gerdes, Olbers-Planetarium: Fünf Schiffe nach Olbers benannt.

The steamship ALGERIA was built for the Cunard Line by J & G Thomson, Glasgow, and was launched on 12 July 1870. 3,428 tons; 110,08 x 12,53 meters/361.2 x 41.4 feet (length x breadth); straight stem, 1 funnel, 3 masts; iron construction, screw propulsion, service speed 13 knots; accommodation for 200 passengers in 1st class and 1,054 in steerage.

27 September 1870, maiden voyage, Liverpool - Queenstown - New York. 22 October 1881, last voyage, Liverpool - Queenstown - New York. 1882, acquired by the Red Star Line and renamed PENNLAND; compound engines by J Jack & Co, Liverpool. 13 May 1882, first voyage, Antwerp-New York. 1888, new spar deck; 3,760 tons. 15 December 1894, last voyage, Antwerp-New York. 11 April 1895, proceeded Antwerp-Philadelphia. 18 May 1895, first voyage under charter to the American Line, Philadelphia-Liverpool; passenger accommodation: 200 in 2nd class, 1054 in steerage. 6 April 1901, last voyage, Philadelphia-Liverpool. 4 May 1901, resumed Antwerp-New York service. August 1901, resumed Antwerp-Philadelphia service. 1902, 3rd class only. 27 March 1892, last voyage, Antwerp-New York (3 roundtrip voyages). 23 September 1903, last voyage, Philadelphia-Antwerp (15 roundtrip voyages). 1903, scrapped in Italy.

Source: Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 1 (1975), p. 151. Pictured in Michael J. Anuta, Ships of Our Ancestors (Menominee, MI: Ships of Our Ancestors, 1983), p. 4, courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem.

The U.S. ship ALICE BALL, 898 tons, was built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1857, and enrolled at the port of New York on 8 August 1863.

Source: 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. 31.

The U.S. bark ALICE TAINTER was built at New York by the celebrated New York shipwright William H. Webb as a cargo carrier for the New York firm of Post, Smith & Co, and was launched in February 1856. 667 tons; 140 ft x 31 feet 5 inches x 17 feet 8 inches (length x beam x depth of hold); draft load 15 feet 4 inches. She was, in the judgment of her builder, "... a good sea boat. Good carrier".

The ALICE TAINTER's first certificate of registry was issued on 2 April 1856, and she sailed the following day on her maiden voyage, to Antwerp, under Capt. Spencer.

On 16 July 1862, the ALICE TAINTER, then under the ownership of J. & N. Smith & Co (successors to Post, Smith & Co), arrived at New York, from Matamoros, Mexico, 25 June, carrying a cargo of cotton belonging to Charles Stillman, a Brownsville, Texas, steamboat owner and entrepeneur (and business partner of Richard King and Mifflin Kenedy, founders of the King Ranch). The ALICE TAINTER was one of a number of vessels that sailed between Matamoros and New York and New England carrying Confederate cotton, returning with such articles as cavalry boots, coffee, powder, and soap. This trade was carried on with the full knowledge of Union military and civilian officials, but was condoned as it kept the mills of New England running (clothing many Union soldiers in Confederate cotton) and provided a market for Northern manufactured goods.

After her voyage to Matamoros, the ALICE TAINTER made a roundtrip voyage from New York to New Orleans and Matanzas, Cuba. On 23 April 1863, she cleared from New York for Shanghai, returning from Liverpool on 25 July 1864. During this voyage she was transferred to Bermudian registry, under the ownership of Pendergast Brothers. She subsequently traded between North and South American ports. On 6 December 1874, she arrived at New York, 47 days from Rio de Janeiro, with a cargo of coffee. Nothing is known of her movements after this date, but she was removed from the register about 1876.

Source: Edwin L. Dunbaugh and William DuBarry Thomas, William H. Webb: Shipbuilder (Glen Cove, New York: Webb Institute of naval Architecture, 1989), pp. 207-208.

The British ship ALIQUIS (Official No. 535; International Signal code: HDGQ) was built under Lloyd's Register of Shipping Special Survey by John Munn, Quebec, in 1854. 1150/1247 tons (old/new measurement; Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1855/56) / 1125/1125/1032 tons (net/gross/under deck; Lloyd's Register, 1875/76). 185.9 x 36.3 x 22.9 [Lloyd's Register, 1863/64] / 184.9 x 35.7 x 22.9 [Lloyd's Register, 1875/76] / 181 x 32.30 x 22.90 [Wallace] / 182 x 32 x 23 [Marcil] feet (length x breadth x depth of hold). Originally registered at Quebec, but re-registered at Liverpool 29 August 1854. The following is taken from the annual volumes of Lloyd's Register for 1855/56-1880/81:

Master:
     1855/56-1860/61 - T. Pain
     1861/62-1864/65 - Scancroft [1861/62-1862/63 "Scowcroft"]
     1864/65-1867/68 - J. Davidson
     1867/68-1879/80 - F. Marshall
     1880/81         - [not given]

Owner:
     1855/56-1878/79 - G. Marshall [1855/56-1857/58 "Marshall &"]
     1879/80         - G. Marshall [lined out]
     1880/81         - [not given]

Port of Registry:
     1855/56-1878/79 - London
     1879/80-1880/81 - Amsterdam

Port of Survey:
     1855/56-1857/58 - Liverpool
     1858/59-1868/69 - London
     1868/69-1869/70 - Liverpool
     1869/70-1870/71 - Liverpool [lined out] / Clydeside
     1871/72         - Clydeside
     1873/74-1874/75 - London / Liverpool
     1875/76-1876/77 - London
     1877/78         - Clydeside [last survey in Great Britain, 6/1877]

Destined Voyage [-1873/74]:
     1855/56-1857/58 - Adelaide
     1858/59         - India
     1859/60-1860/61 - [not given]
     1861/62-1864/65 - India
     1865/66         - India [lined out]
     1866/67         - [not given]
     1868/69-1872/73 - India
     1873/74         - Guatemala

From the entries in Lloyd's Register for 1879/80 and 1880/81, it appears that the ALIQUIS was sold Dutch in approximately 1879/80, and re-registered, under the Dutch flag, at Amsterdam. For her later history check the annual volumes of the Registre Veritas, the publication of the Bureau Veritas, the Continental classification society. Since the ALIQUIS was built under special Lloyd's Register of Shipping survey, the records of this survey survive among the Lloyd's Register of Shipping Survey Reports deposited in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London SE10 9NF; there is a microfilm copy of this survey in the National Archives of Canada, microfilm reel A-434, survey 102.

Sources: Lloyd's Register, 1855/56-1881/82; Canadian Ship Information Database, No. 9000603, quoting National Archives of Canada, RG 42, Vol. 1409 (original Vol. 198 = microfilm reel C-2062); and No. 91000043, quoting Eileen Marcil, The Charley-Man: a history of wooden shipbuilding at Quebec, 1763-1893 (Kingston, Ontario: Quarry Press, 1993); Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, Wallace Ship List, quoting Frederick William Wallace, Record of Canadian shipping; a list of squarerigged vessels, mainly 500 tons and over, built in the Eastern Provinces of British North America from the year 1786 to 1920 (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1929); according to Ian Hawkins Nicholson, Log of logs; a catalogue of logs, journals, shipboard diaries, letters, and all forms of voyage narratives, 1788 to 1988, for Australia and New Zealand and surrounding oceans,, vol. 1, Roebuck Society Publication No. 41 (Yaroomba, Qld: The Author jointly with the Australian Association for Maritime History, [1990]), p. 16, papers concerning two voyages of the ALIQUIS (Liverpool 23 May 1855 - Adelaide 12 August 1855, and Plymouth 4 June 1856 - Adelaide 26 August 1856) are held in the Public Record Office of South Australia, Adelaide, GRG 35/48/1855.

The steamship ALLEMANNIA was built for the Hamburg-America Line by C. A. Day & Co, Southampton (yard #23), and was launched on 11 May 1865. 2,695 tons; 96 x 12,5 meters/315 x 41 feet (length x breadth); straight stem, 1 funnel, 2 masts; iron construction, screw propulsion, service speed 12 knots; accommodation for 60 passengers in 1st class, 100 in 2nd class, and 600 in steerage; crew of 90.

17 September 1865, maiden voyage, Hamburg-Southampton-New York. 1872, compound engines by Reiherstiegweft, Hamburg. 5 October 1872, last voyage, Hamburg-New York. Hamburg-New Orleans, then Hamburg-West Indies service. 11 April-11 September 1880, resumed Hamburg-New York service (3 roundtrip voyages). 1880, purchased by W. Hunter & Co, Liverpool, and renamed OXENHOLME. 1894, sold to A. Chapman, Liverpool. 6 June 1894, bound to South America, stranded near Santa Catharina, Brazil, with no loss of life.

Sources: Arnold Kludas and Herbert Bischoff, Die Schiffe der Hamburg-Amerika Linie, Bd. 1: 1847-1906 (Herford: Koehler, 1979), p. 26 (photograph, the earliest known of any Hamburg American Line vessel); Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 1 (1975), p. 388.

The steamship ALSTER (Official No. 25,137) was built by W. Denny & Bros, Dumbarton, in 1854. Measurements (Lloyd's Register for 1881/82): 387/599/538 tons (net/gross/under deck); 213.5 x 25.7 x 14.6 feet (length x breadth x depth of hold); iron construction, 1 deck, poop 44 feet long; screw propulsion; engine (by Holmes & Co, Hull): compound inverted, 2 cylinder 25" & 52" - 30", 100 hp; schooner rigged. 1881: owned by W. Liddell; Capt. Lee; registered at Hull. The Times (London) for 3 June 1881, p. 7f, reports that

The ALSTER, a large steamer, bound from Hull for Antwerp, with passengers, was run into near Great Yarmouth at about 7 o'clock yesterday morning by another steamer, the ADAM SMITH, of Kirkaldy, during a thick fog. The crew and passengers of the Alster, to the number of abut 40, had sufficient time to board the ADAM SMITH before their vessel sank. The party landed at Great Yarmouth yesterday afternoon and the crew were taken to the Sailors' Home. The ADAM SMITH was slightly damaged.

Sources: Lloyd's Register of Shipping, annual volume for 1881/82; Times (London), 3 June 1881, p. 7f.

The steamship ALSTER was built under Lloyd's Register of Shipping Special Survey for the Hamburg firm of O[tto] L[udwig] Eichmann by Schlesinger Davis, Newcastle, and was launched in March 1867 (certificate 15 April 1867). 237 Commerzlasten/709 tons; 61,20 x 8,75 x 4,93 meters (length x breadth x depth of hold).

Master:
     1867      - P. Thomsen
     1867      - M. H. Sass
     1867-1873 - J. M. C. Schmidt
     1870      - M. H. Sass
     1873-1879 - T. C. Köner
     1879-1880 - J. Klaasen

Voyages:
     1867 - Havre/Newcastle (2 x), Newcastle (5 x), Sunderland (5 x), Hartlepool (13 x)
     1868 - Dunkirk/Newcastle (3 x), Havre/Sunderland, Havre/Hartlepool, Rouen/Newcastle, Rouen/Hartlepool,
            Newcastle (11 x), Sunderland (4 x), Hartlepool (7x)
     1869 - Helgoland (5 x), Newcastle, Shields (13 x), Sunderland (6 x), Hartlepool (17 x)
     1870 - Newcastle (2 x), Shields (15 x), Hartlepool (3 x)
     1871 - Havre/Hartlepool (4 x), Blyth (5 x), Shields (2 x), Sunderland, Hartlepool (10 x), Grimsby (3 x)
     1872 - Blyth (2 x), Shields (5 x), Hartlepool (11 x), Grimsby (6 x)
     1873 - Antwerp/Shields, Blyth (7 x), Shields (4 x), Hartlepool (11 x), Grimsby (4 x)
     1874 - Blyth (19 x), Shields (3 x), Hartlepool, Cardiff (5 x)
     1875 - Blyth (14 x), Shields, Newcastle, Hartlepool (15 x)
     1876 - England (32 x)
     1877 - Blyth (11 x), Newcastle (5 x), Hartlepool (9 x)
     1878 - London/Blyth, Blyth (8 x), Newcastle, Sunderland, Hartlepool (16 x)
     1879 - London/Blyth (2 x), Grimsby/Blyth, Blyth (26 x), Sunderland (3 x), Hartlepool
     1880 - Blyth (9 x), Sunderland

In June 1880, Eichmann returned the ALSTER to her builders, perhaps in (partial) payment for the steamer LIBELLE, which Schlesinger Davis delivered him in February 1881. The annual volume of Lloyd's Register for 1881/82) gives the following information on the ALSTER:

Official No. 81,788
Tonnage:  528/709/688 (net/gross/under deck)
Measurements:  200 x 28.6 x 16.2 feet (length x breadth x depth of hold)
               iron construction, 1 deck, 2 tiers of beams
Engine (by Thompson, Boyd & Co, Newcastle): inverted, 2 cylinder 36" - 26", 80 hp
Ship rigged.
Owner:  Powley, Thomas & Co
Master:  Nance
Port of Registry:  Cardiff

Sources: Walter Kresse, ed., Seeschiffs-Verzeichnis der Hamburger Reedereien, 1824-1888, Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, N. F., Bd. 5. (Hamburg: Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, 1969), vol. 1, pp. 127-128. Lloyd's Register of Shipping, annual volume for 1881/82. The Lloyd's Register of Shipping Special Survey under which the ALSTER was built is now held by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (see in particular National Maritime Museum Research Guide H6, Lloyds: Lloyd's Register Survey Reports).