The Hamburg ship LA ROCHELLE was built at Reiherstieg by the Hamburg firm of Joh. C. Godeffroy, for their own account; Bielbrief (certificate of registry) 21 May 1855. She was named after the French city from which the Huguenot Godeffroy family had fled to Berlin before settling in Hamburg in 1737. 350 Commerzlasten / 738 net register tons; 52,44 x 9,22 x 6,35 meters (length x beam x depth of hold).

Masters:
     1855-1860 - J. Meyer
     1861-1868 - J. Junge
     1869-1880 - H. Witt

Voyages:
     1855/56   - Adelaide/intermediate ports/London
     1856      - Goteborg
     1856/57   - Melbourne/Valparaiso/Totoral/Valdiva
     1858-1862 - East London/intermediate ports/London
     1862/63   - Moreton Bay/intermediate ports/Callao
     1863/64   - Moreton Bay/intermediate ports/Callao
     1864/65   - Moreton Bay/intermediate ports/Antwerp
     1865/66   - Moreton Bay/intermediate ports/Dordrecht
     1867-1872 - Callao/intermediate ports/Antwerp/intermediate ports/Apia
     1872/73   - Apia
     1873-1876 - Apia/Liverpool/intermediate ports/Altona
     1876-1878 - Apia/intermediate ports/Vavao
     1878/79   - Cape of Good Hope/Apia
     1879/80   - Melbourne/Sydney/Apia

The LA ROCHELLE was sold in 1881, as part of the liquidation of the firm's assets, to Bauck, of Helsingborg, Finland.

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. 168 and 170. 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. 2, Roebuck Society Publication No. 47 (Yaroomba, Qld: The Author jointly with the Australian Association for Maritime History, 1993), p. 448, contains references to several accounts of voyages of the LA ROCHELLE between 1856 and 1865.

The U.S. ship LADY ARABELLA was built at Belfast, Maine, in 1843. 399 tons; 120 x 27 x 14 feet (length x beam x depth of hold).

1844

James Simpson, master, advertised as sailing in the Dispatch Line (also known as Winsor's Line, and, in New Orleans, as the Crescent Line) of Boston-New Orleans packets.

1846

James Simpson, master, advertised as sailing in the New Orleans Packet Line between Boston and New Orleans.

1848

Trimstram Chesley, master, advertised as sailing in the New Orleans Packet Line between Boston and New Orleans.

Sources: William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, ME: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, [1945-1955]), vol. 5, p. 3471; Carl C. Cutler, Queens of the Western Ocean; The Story of America's Mail and Passenger Sailing Lines (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, c.1961), pp. 451 and 538.

The British ship LADY PEEL was built at Quebec by Thomas Lee, in 1843. 567 tons, 119 x 27.2 x 20.4 feet (length x beam x depth of hold); 1 deck, square stern, figurehead of a woman. She was re-registered at Falmouth, England, in April 1844. The annual volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1844/45-1860/61 give the following information (the vessel is omitted from the annual volume for 1849/50):

Master:
     1844/45-1848/49 - J. Luety
     1850/51-1853/54 - [G. C.] Johns
     1854/55-1857/58 - Moon
     1858/59-1859/60 - [not given]
     1860/61         - Johns

Owner:
     1844/45-1848/49 - J. Vivian
     1850/51-1857/58 - J. Nichols
     1858/59-1860/61 - Harris & C[o]

Port of Registry:
     1844/45-1848/49 - Falmouth
     1850/51-1860/61 - Plymouth

Port of Survey:
     1844/45-1848/49 - Falmouth
     1850/51-1860/61 - Plymouth

Destined Voyage:
     1844/45-1848/49 - Moulmein (Burma)
     1850/51-1855/56 - Quebec
     1856/57         - West Indies
     1857/58-1860/61 - Quebec

The LADY PEEL last appears in Lloyd's Register for 1860/61; according to the Wallace Ship List, she was abandoned in the North Atlantic in December 1872.

Additional Sources: Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, Wallace Ship List, quoting Frederick William Wallace, Record of Canadian Shipping; a list of square-rigged 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); Canadian Ship Information Database, No. 9016992, quoting National Archives of Canada, RG 42, Vol. 1404 (original Vol. 193 = microfilm reel C-2061), and No. 91000557, quoting Eileen Reid Marcil, The Charley-Man; a history of wooden shipbuilding at Quebec, 1763-1893 (Kingston, Ontario: Quarry Press, 1993).

The steamship LAHN was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd by Fairfield Ship Building & Engineering Co, Glasgow (yard #325), and was launched on 7 September 1887 (interior furnishings completed in Bremerhaven). 5,097 tons; 141 x 14,90 meters (length x breadth); straight stem, 2 funnels, 4 masts; steel construction, single screw propulsion, triple expansion engines, service speed 18 knots; accommodation for 224 passengers in 1st class, 104 in 2nd class, and 654 in steerage; crew of 170 to 206.

The LAHN was the last Norddeutscher Lloyd express steamer ordered in Great Britain. 1 February 1888, maiden voyage, Bremen - Southampton - New York. 1896, modernized; 5,351 tons; masts reduced to 2, smokestacks raised, engines and boilers upgraded. 1 October 1901, last voyage, Bremen - Southampton - New York. 13 November 1901, first voyage, Genoa - Naples - New York. 4 February 1904, last voyage, Genoa - Naples - New York. 27 April 1904, sold to the Russian merchant Stroganov for £150,000, and converted at his cost by Lloyd Technical Service, Bremerhaven, to a captive balloon carrier. December 1904, taken with a Norddeutscher Lloyd crew to Libau and presented to the Russian Navy; put into service as the RUSS. On the voyage to East Asia with the Rojestwensky Squadron, suffered engine damage (possibly sabotage) near Skagen, and on 18 February 1905 returned to the Russian naval base at Kronstadt. November 1906, stricken from the Russian Navy rolls and returned to Stroganov. 1907, sold and broken up in Germany. Lloyd's Register of Shipping continued to carry the ship, allegedly renamed DNIESTR, until 1926, at 5,382 tons.

Sources: Arnold Kludas, Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutschen Lloyd, Bd. 1: 1857 bis 1919 (Herford: Koehler, c1991), pp. 34-35 (photograph); Edwin Drechsel, Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen, 1857-1970; History, Fleet, Ship Mails, vol. 1 (Vancouver: Cordillera Pub. Co., c1994), pp. 120-121 (photographs); 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. 2 (1978), p. 553.

The Hamburg iron sailing ship LAMMERSHAGEN was built at Glasgow by A. Stephen & Sons, for the Hamburg shipowner Robert M. Sloman, Jr, in 1869. 395 Commerzlasten / 913 tons gross; 192 feet 2 inches x 33 feet 5 inches x 21 feet 2 inches (length x breadth x depth of hold).

Masters:
     1869-1872 - P. E. Jörgensen
     1872-1882 - H. J. Pauls
     1882      - S. Burow

Voyages:
     1869-1871 - Glasgow/intermediate ports/Liverpool
     1871/72   - Queensland (arrived 7 September)/intermediate ports/Dunkirk
     1872/73   - Brisbane/intermediate ports/Bremerhaven
     1873-1875 - Queensland (arrived 19 February 1874)/intermediate ports/Liverpool
     1875/76   - Wellington/intermediate ports/Tongatabu
     1876/77   - Queensland (arrived Maryborough 18 January 1877)/intermediate ports/Huanillos
     1878/79   - Brisbane (arrived 6 August)/Pabellon de Pico
     1879/1882 - Newcastle upon Tyne/intermediate ports/Iquique
     1882      - Swansea

The LAMMERSHAGEN was lost 18 November 1882, southwest of Swansea, on a voyage from Westland.

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. 216; Ernst Hieke, Rob. M. Sloman Jr., errichtet 1793, Veröffentlichungen der Wirtschaftsgeschichtlichen Forschungsstelle e.V., Hamburg, 30 (Hamburg: Verlag Hanseatischer Merkur, 1968), pp. 378 and 381; Ronald Parsons, Migrant Sailing Ships from Hamburg (North Adelaide, SA: Gould Books, 1993), p. 21. See also Stoermann-Næss Holum's Genealogy Page, and his page on the wreck of the LAMMERSHAGEN (including a photograph) [URL's valid as of 26 Apr 2000].

The Bremen bark LAURA was built at Vegesack by Peter Sager, and launched on 26 March 1857. 196 Commerzlasten / 442 tons register, 36,2 x 8,5 x 4,7 meters (length x breadth x depth of hold); International Signal Code: QBWP. She was owned jointly by H. von Fischer, Bremen, and her captain, Hans Jürgen Wilmsen, of Vegesack, each of whom held a half share. Wilmsen was succeeded as captain by Louis Schmidt, also of Vegesack, who was succeeded in 1867 by Wilhelm Wilmsen; for part of that year H. Maaß, first mate, acted as master, during Wilmsen's illness.

On 22 September 1866, on a voyage from Bremen to Baltimore with 210 passengers, the LAURA was severely damaged by a hurricane, during the course of which 8 passengers were swept overboard and drowned.

In 1874, the LAURA was sold to M. L. Stranne, of Foglavik, Sweden, who renamed her JOSEFINA; her new master was O. Berndtsson. On 24 January 1877, the JOSEFINA arrived at Buenos Aires from Bordeaux; in the course of unloading her cargo, the vessel caught fire, and became 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. 138, no. 58.