Palmer List of Merchant Vessels


 

RICHARD MORSE (1851)

The U.S. ship RICHARD MORSE, 872 tons, built at Bath, Maine, in 1851, either by or (more probably) for Richard Morse & Sons.

1853
Dinsmore, master, advertised as sailing in Tapscott's Line of packets between New York and Liverpool.
1858
Dinsmore, master, advertised as sailing in the Merchants Line of packets between Boston and Liverpool.
1859
T. [or F.] Oliver, master, advertised as sailing in the Line of Liverpool Packets between Philadelphia and Liverpool.
Sources: William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, [1945-55]), V.3205; Carl C. Cutler, Queens of the Western Ocean; The Story of America's Mail and Passenger Sailing Lines (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, c1961), pp. 374, 388, and 406.

Voyages:

  1. Ship RICHARD MORSE, Dinsmore, master, arrived at New York on 29 September 1856, 40 days from either Antwerp (passenger manifest) or Hamburg (New York newspapers), with merchandise and 385 passengers, to C. C. Dunham & Co.

[09 May 1999]


RIO GRANDE (1846)
GELLERT [1856]

The U.S. ship RIO GRANDE was built at Bath, Maine, by [Freeman] Clark & [William D.] Sewall, in 1846 [registered Bath 14 September 1846]. 541 tons; 135 ft 10 in x 29 ft 6 in x 14 ft 9 in (length x beam x depth of hold). I know little about the voyages of the RIO GRANDE except that in 1852, D. F. Ryan, master, she was advertised as sailing in the Baldwin-Browne line of packets between Philadelphia and Liverpool.

On 4 March 1856, the RIO GRANDE was sold by Clark, of Phippsburg, for $21,000, to the Hamburg shipper Robert M. Sloman, who renamed her GELLERT, after Christian Fürchtegott Gellert (1715-1769), the poet and moralist. Measurements (Hamburg): 263 Commerzlasten; 140.6 x 29.6 x 23.11 Hamburger Füße (1 Hamburger Fuß = .28657 meter), length x beam x depth of hold, zwischen den Steven.

Masters:
     1856-1858 - H. D. Boysen
     1859-1863 - J. Terry

Voyages:
     1856/57   - from New York/Chincha Islands, Peru
     1858-1859 - Quebec/Sunderland (2 x)
     1859/60   - New Orleans
     1860      - San Jose, Guatemala/Quebec/Sunderland
     1860/61   - New York
     1861/62   - Quebec/Bristol
     1862      - Quebec/Bremerhaven
     1862/63   - Dona Francisca/Bahia/Bremerhaven

On 1 July 1863, the GELLERT ex RIO GRANDE was sold to Norwegian interests (Capt. Ambjornsen). Her later history and ultimate fate are not known.

Sources: William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, [1945-55]), V.3195, 3196, and 3261; Carl C. Cutler, Queens of the Western Ocean; The Story of America's Mail and Passenger Sailing Lines (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, c1961), p. 405; 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. 211; Ernst Hieke, Rob. M. Sloman Jr., errichtet 1793, Veröffentlichungen der Wirtschaftsgeschichtlichen Forschungsstelle e.V., Hamburg, 30 (Hamburg: Verlag Hanseatischer Merkur, 1968), p. 273.

[02 May 1999]


Argentine steamship RIO SANTA CRUZ [1896] - See: OHIO (1868)