The Bremen bark ATALANTA was built at Vegesack/Fähr (on the eastern bank of the Weser River, northwest of Bremen) by Hermann Friedrich Ulrichs, was and launched on 26 February 1857. 247 Commerzlasten / 565 tons; 40,5 x 9,3 x 5,1 meters / 143 x 30 x 17.5 feet (length x beam x depth of hold); International Signal Code QBHD. Principal owners of the ATALANTA were the Bremen firm of Konitzky & Thiermann, and her masters were, in turn, August Horstmann, Hinrich Gerhard Bulling, Johann von Harten, and Lüder Högemann.

In 1880, the ATALANTA was purchased by C. Hartlaub, of Bremen. In July 1882, in the face of Hartlaub's mounting debts, the ATALANTA was forcibly auctioned by order of the Amtsgericht Geestemünde, and was purchased by the Schiffahrtsgesellschaft "Astra", of Riga. The ATALANTA thus passed into Russian hands, her new master being Capt. Lindemann. In 1883, she made a passage from Swansea to Vera Cruz, returning to Europe by way of Pensacola.

On 8 November 1887, the ATALANTA, Capt. Heimann, collided with the Danish bark EMIL (ex Bremen bark NORMA, built in Vegesack/Fähr by Ulrichs in 1859) off Helsingor, but sustained no major damage. On 21 November 1888, during a storm, the ATALANTA, bound from Riga to Antwerp with a cargo of wood, was stranded on the beach at Goeree, in the Netherlands; 6 members of the crew lost their lives, and the vessel was a total loss.

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. 280, no. 43.

The U.S., later Bremen, ship ATHENA was built at Quincy, Massachusetts, by George Thomas, in 1856 or 1857. 1018 tons; 175 x 36 x 33.5 ft (length x beam x depth of hold). She was almost immediately acquired by the Bremen firm of Konitzky & Thiermann and Capt. D. Schilling, as the Bremen ship ATHENA, Schilling, master, arrived at New York on Saturday, 13 June 1857, 37 days from Bremen (New York Herald, 14 June 1857). International Signal Code: QBJH; 487 Commerzlasten. She appears in the annual volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1876/77-1880/81, as the Bremen bark ATHENA, the property of D. Schilling, under the command of Capt. Bellmer, and registered at the port of Geestemünde. On 19 July 1886, the Bremen bark ATHENA was stranded in the Orkney Islands and became a total loss.

Sources: Rolf Reinemuth, Segel aus Downeast; Die unerschrockenen Männer von der Weser und ihre prächtigen Schiffe aus Neu-England (Herford: Koehler, c1971), p. 121, where the date of the vessel's acquisition by Konitzky & Thiermann and Capt. Schilling is incorrectly given as 1864; Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 1876/77-1881/82.

The turbine ship ATHENIA, the second vessel of this name owned by the Anchor-Donaldson (from 1935: Donaldson Atlantic) Line (II), was built by Fairfield Co Ltd, Glasgow (yard #596), and was launched on 28 January 1922. 13,465 tons; 160,4 x 20,23 meters (length x breadth); 1 funnel, 2 masts, clipper stern; twin-screw propulsion, double-reduction steam turbines; accommodation for 516 cabin-class and 1,000 3rd-class passengers; crew of 300.

19 April 1923, maiden voyage, Glasgow - Liverpool - Quebec - Montreal. March 1927, passenger accommodation altered to 314 in cabin, 310 in tourist, and 928 in 3rd. 3 September 1939, torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-30, at 56.44 N, 14.05 W, 250 miles west of Inishtrahull, Northern Ireland (the first passenger liner to be sunk in World War II by a submarine).

Sources: 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. 3 (1979), pp. 1006 (photograph) and 1014; Arnold Kludas, Die großen Passagierschiffe der Welt; eine Dokumentation, Bd. 2 (2nd ed.; Oldenburg/Hamburg: Gerhard Stalling, c1973), p. 194 (photograph). See also Alastair MacTavish Dunnett, The Donaldson Line; a century of shipping, 1854-1954 (Glasgow: Jackson, 1960); P. J. Telford, Donaldson Line of Glasgow (Kendal: World Ship Society, 1989); Duncan Haws, Merchant Fleets, 13: Donaldson Line ([Hereford:] TCL Publications, 1989).

The British bark ATHOL, 367 tons, was built at St. John, New Brunswick, and launched in May 1834. The annual volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1834/35-1841/42 give the following information:

Master:  McCredy

Owner:  Robertson

Port of Registry:  St. Johns [= St. John, New Brunswick]

Port of Survey:  London

Destined Voyage:  St. Johns [= St. John, New Brunswick]

According to the Canadian Ship Information Database, No. 9001466, the ATHOL was lost at Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia. Although the Database does not give a date, the ATHOL was last surveyed in 1835, and may have been lost as early as 1838: although she appears in Lloyd's Register for 1839/40 through 1841/42, she is listed without a rating, indicating that her classification had expired. (Lloyd's Register continued to carry the names of vessels lost until officially notified of their loss, which might be as many as three or four years after the event.)