The Hamburg ship GUTENBERG was built at Lübeck by Hans Jacob Albrecht Meyer, for the Hamburg shipowner Robert Miles Sloman, in 1848; Bielbrief (registry certificate) Lübeck 21 March 1848. 236 Commerzlasten; no other measurements given.

Masters:
     1848/1849 - O. H. Flor
     1849/1850 - J. C. Wienholtz
     1850/1851 - F. J. Peters
     1851/1852 - Paul Nickels Paulsen
     1852      - H. J. A. Jörgensen
     1852/1855 - H. L. Visser
     1855      - C. C. Röber
     1856/1856 - N. C. Petersen
     1856/1858 - H. Meyer
     1858/1860 - H. C. Johannsen
     1860      - J. A. Bothel

The GUTENBERG was employed exclusively in the Hamburg-New York trade, except for a voyage Indianola/Point Isabel/New Orleans in 1855, a voyage New York/London in 1857, and a voyage New York/Hartlepool in 1859. She ran aground and became a total loss on Goodwin Sands, the night of 31 December 1860/1 January 1861.

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. 2, p. 209; Ernst Hieke, Rob. M. Sloman Jr., Errichtet 1793, Veröffentlichungen der Wirtschaftsgeschichtlichen Forschungsstelle e.V., Hamburg, Bd. 30 (Hamburg: Verlag Hanseatischer Merkur, 1968), p. 376.

The Bremen bark GUTENBERG was built at Vegesack/Grohn by Johann Lange, for the Bremen firm of Gerhard Lange & Co, and was launched on 16 May 1863. 301 Commerzlasten / 654 register tons; 42,2 x 9,9 x 5,1 meters (length x beam x depth of hold). International Signal Code: QBVL. She was the first locally-built vessel to be constructed entirely of cyanized wood (i.e., wood impregnated with quicksilver chloride). 1 June 1863, maiden voyage, Bremen-New York, under Capt. Hinrich Raschen, of Vegesack.

The GUTENBERG was originally engaged primarily in the North American emigrant trade. She was considered a fast sailor, and in 1865 won a race with the Bremen ship ORPHEUS, traveling the distance from New York to Bremen in 22 days. Raschen was succeeded as master of the GUTENBERG by Johann Schlossbauer, from Bremerhaven, who died on board the vessel in 1870, on a voyage from Batavia to Liverpool, and who was in turn succeeded by Heinrich Frerichs, also from Bremerhaven. About 1875, the GUTENBERG was sold to the Bremen firm of Siedenburg, Wendt & Co. Her masters under the new owners were, in turn, J. H. Gerlach and Friedrich Averdam. In December 1885, the GUTENBERG, bound from New Orleans for Bremen with a cargo of wool, was stranded on the Tortugas Keys, off southern Florida, and became a total loss, although the cargo was saved and brought to Bremen on the steamship BREMA. The verdict of the Seeamt Bremen (3 July 1886) placed responsibility for the wreck on Capt. Averdam.

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), pp. 239-240, no. 256.

The U.S. ship GUY MANNERING was built at New York by William H. Webb, New York (hull #43), for Robert L. Taylor and Nathaniel W. Merrill's line (called in Liverpool the Black Star Line) of sailing packets between New York and Liverpool, and launched in March 1849. 1,418 tons; 190 ft x 42 ft 6 in x 29 ft 8 in (length x beam x depth of hold); 3 decks (the first three-decked merchant vessel built in the United States); draft load 24 ft. The name GUY MANNERING was derived from a romance published by Sir Walter Scott in 1815; Taylor & Merrill had already given names derived from Scott's works to two earlier ships built for them by William H. Webb, the MARMION (1846), and the IVANHOE (1847). The GUY MANNERING continued in the New York-Liverpool service through the Civil War, although her voyages may have been irregular as the war progressed. On 30 November 1865, under the command of Charles Brown, the GUY MANNERING cleared New York (sailing on 2 December) for Liverpool, with 6 passengers, a crew, including the captain, of 32, and a cargo of 1611 bales of cotton, 5326 bushels of wheat, 33,986 bushels of corn, and 4 cases of cotton goods. On the afternoon of 31 December 1866, the GUY MANNERING was wrecked on the west coast of the island of Iona, with the loss of 17 lives. The following are the two most complete accounts of the wreck I have at hand:

1. Report, dated Iona, 1 January 1866, published in the New York Herald, 26 January 1866, p. 3a-b:

   The ship GUY MANNERING, of New York, Brown, which sailed from New York Dec[ember] 2, with a cargo of cotton and grain, for Liverpool, became a total wreck here at about 3 PM on the 31st ult[imate] (as previously reported). There were 36 passengers on board, 19 of whom were saved, and 17 were lost. After leaving New York they had a very favorable passage the first week, after which fearful storms all the rest of the passage. Their first set of sails were blown off to ribbons, and then the remaining canvaas [sic] in like manner; the cargo twice shifted, and the crew got disabled by day and night's incessant labor. The passengers were then made to work the vessel, and during the last week, from having no sails, they were tossed to and fro, and gradually drifted to the lee shore, and by the morning she had drifted out of sight, close to the short, on the west side of Iona. In half an hour she parted amidships, within a quarter mile of the beach. The first mate swam ashore over the huge breakers. He was followed by seven or eight others, but they quickly disappeared among the debris of cotton, &. The captain struck out for the shore, turned back when half way, and held on by some pieces until about eight o'clock. He was given up for lost by all, but about eight o'clock there was a faint cry heard from a piece drifting in, and every effort was used to reach him, when he was found quite benumbed, and most tenaciously holding on. He must have been five hours in the water, during which the sea was washing over him. The sailors, as picked up, were carried to the nearest houses and duly attended to, as also the captain, who is, considering the circumstances, wonderfully well. On the 1st inst[ant] three bodies were washed ashore. Most, if not all, the cotton will, it is expected, be saved.

   A report from Glasgow, dated 23 January 1866, and published in the Herald for 9 February 1866, p. 5f, states that 900 bales of cotton had been landed "in a more or less damaged state".

2. Report from the Receiver of Wrecks at Oban to the Board of Trade, published in the Times (London), 23 January 1866, p. 9e:

   The Board of Trade have received the annexed report from the Receiver of Wrecks at Oban, taken on oath, respecting the total wreck of the packet ship GUY MANNERING, from New York, off that coast. Captain Charles Browne, the master, states that his ship was of 1,610 tons register, and was owned by Messrs. Robert L. Taylor and other merchants of New York. She was laden with a cargo of cotton and grain, and had six passengers. She left New York for Liverpool on the 2d of December, and all went well for the first three days. On the fourth day she encountered a severe gale from N.W.; a continuation of heavy gales during the rest of the passage. It sometimes blew a complete hurricane, which carried away yards and sails, caused the death of two seamen, and made the ship leak badly, and shifted the cargo. The crew were exhausted from pumping and working the ship. On the 31st of December, at half-past 2 p.m., the weather was stormy, with the wind blowing from the west. The ship had 8 ft. of water in the hold, and the sails were all blown away. Finding the ship drifting to leeward among rocks, where it was not likely they could save themselves, he [the captain] thought it advisable to run her into Machar-bay, on the west side of Iona. As soon as the ship touched the ground she immediately began to break up, and in less than half an hour the whole shore was strewn over with pieces of wreck and bales of cotton; 16 persons were drowned, 19 were saved by swimming on pieces of wreck and bales of cotton. The people of the island, at the risk of their own lives, took them out of the water. They afterwards kindly provided for them and received them into their homes. The Receiver of Wrecks adds that from what he could learn from the captain and those that were saved, the ship had all her sails and spars carried away and the cargo shifted so much that she had become unmanageable. He says he has no reason to doubt the truth of the statements, and he believes that the casualty could not have been avoided. The loss is estimated at 40,000 L. The ship and cargo were insured.

Sources: New York Herald, 21 January 1866, p. 8d; 26 January 1866, p. 3a-b; Times (London), 23 January 1866, p. 9e; Edwin L. Dunbaugh and William duBarry Thomas, William H. Webb: Shipmaster (Glen Cove, New York: Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, 1989), pp. 175-176.

Pictures: William H. Webb himself published extensive plans of the GUY MANNERING in his Plans of Wooden Vessels Selected as Types from One Hundred and Fifty of Various Kinds and Descriptions, from a Fishing Smack to the Largest Clipper Ships and Vessels of War, Both Sail and Steam, Built by Wm. H. Webb in the City of New York, from the Year 1840 to the year 1869 (New York, n.d. [about 1895]), and various of these plans have been republished in later works by other authors.