The steamship POLYNESIA was built for the Carr Line by C. Mitchell & Co, Walker-on-Tyne (yard #430) (engines by Wallsend Slipway Co), and was launched on 5 November 1881. 2,171 tons; 92,1 x 11,0 meters (length x breadth); straight stem, 1 funnel, 2 masts; iron construction, screw propulsion, double-expansion engines; accommodation for 950 passengers in steerage.

The Carr Line operated a passenger service between Hamburg and New York from 1881 to 1888. 5 November 1881, maiden voyage, Hamburg-New York. 25 May 1888, purchased by the Hamburg America Line. Between 27 April 1889 and 29 May 1892, 19 roundtrip voyages, Stettin-New York. 11 August 1894, last voyage, Hamburg-Baltimore. 1894, West Indies service. 30 July 1903, given to Furness, Withy & Co, West Hartlepool, in payment; sold to Gläfcke & Hennings, Hamburg. 1904, sold to Antonio & Bernado, Genoa. 28 August 1921, sunk by mine near Reggio, Italy.

Sources: Arnold Kludas and Herbert Bischoff, Die Schiffe der Hamburg-Amerika Linie, Bd. 1: 1847-1906 (Herford: Koehler, 1979), p. 46 (photograph); Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An I l l ustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 1 (1975), p. 395.

The Bremen ship POST was built at Vegesack/Fähr by Hermann Friedrich Ulrichs, and launched on 9 April 1845. 227 Commerzlasten / 486 tons; 35,3 x 9,3 x 5,8 meters (length x beam x depth of hold). The POST was built for the Bremen firm of F. & E. Delius (1850, E. C. Delius & Co; 1852, Delius & Schumacher; 1853, E. C. Delius & Co), and was named for the family of Anna Delius, née Post, wife of the proprietor. Masters of the POST were, in turn, Lüder Hinrichsen, Georg Wilhelm Haake, Christian Treviranus, Carl Joh. H. Rahe, and Lüder Gerhard Mauer. The ship was engaged primarily in the transport of emigrants to New York, Baltimore, and New Orleans.

In 1856, the POST was sold to Reinhard Bädecker, of Bremen, who employed her in particular in the Far East trade, under the command of Joh. Chr. Wiegand and Lüder Gerhard Mauer. In 1862, Bädecker sold her to Jacob Lüdergain, from Skien, Norway, who retained her original name, and placed her under the command of A. Jensen. On 15 November 1872, Raaum, master, bound from Svartvik, near Sundsvall, for London with a cargo of deals, the POST stranded on Kemlinge, and became a total wreck.

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. 270, no. 14. Diary of aborted voyage on the POST from Bremen to New Orleans, 6 October 1847, by Friedrich Wilhelm Schultz, of Berndorf, Waldeck, in the possession of Maureen Girard , March 1999.