The U.S. ship ROBERT L. LANE was built at New York by Abraham C. Bell, and was launched from his yard at the foot of Stanton St., on the East River, at 9 o'clock on the morning of 28 January 1854. The New York Evening Post for 27 January 1854, reports that her dimensions "were stated a short time ago", but the only earlier reference I can find to this vessel in the newspaper is a notice in the edition for 17 January 1854, which states only that "[t]his vessel has a full length figure of Mr. Lane upon her bow. She is a fine looking ship, and built in a superior manner..." The New York Tribune for 28 January 1854 adds only that she was 1,400 tons burthen, but this is overly optimistic: her certificate of registry, issued on 13 March 1854 (the day she cleared New York for New Orleans on her maiden voyage), states that she was of 1,079 tons burthen [Forrest R. Holdcamper, comp., List of American-flag Merchant Vessels that received Certificates of Enrollment or Registry at the Port of New York, 1789-1867 (Record Groups 41 and 36), National Archives Publication 68-10, Special Lists 22 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1968), p. 599]. There may be a description of her in the New York Herald, which in the 1850's had the most thorough maritime news coverage of all the popular New York newspapers and often printed lengthy reports of vessel launchings.

The ROBERT L. LANE was the first of several vessels built on the order of Lane, West & Co, 77 South St., New York, for their service from New York to Havre (V. Mazin & Co, Havre agents), which was established in January 1854, and was popularly known as the "Marine Union Line". In addition to the ROBERT L. LANE, the line consisted of the CONNECTICUT (1081 tons), CONFEDERATION (1186 tons, lost near Liverpool, 7 January 1857), ST. BERNARD (711 tons, lost Berry Island, 23 March 1855), ST. PAUL (620 tons), METROPOLIS (964 tons), and, from 1855, SWITZERLAND (1139 tons). In 1856, the vessels were advertised as sailing from New York the 17th, and from Havre the 1st of each month. The line was discontinued in 1857, and I have no information on the later history or ultimate fate of the ROBERT L. Lane.

Source: 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. 396 and 524.

The U.S. ship ROCHESTER was built at Bath, Maine, by Levi Houghton in 1837. 563 tons; 131 ft 2 in x 30 ft 10 in x 15 ft 5 in (length x beam x depth of hold).

In 1850, the ROCHESTER was purchased by the Bremen shipowner L. F. Kalmann, and renamed BREMERHAVEN. 227 Commerzlasten. International Signal Code: QBFM. 1865, during the dispute over Schleswig-Holstein, the BREMERHAVEN was re-registered under the neutral Russian flag. In 1870, the BREMERHAVEN ex ROCHESTER was sold Norwegian. I have no information on her later history or ultimate fate.

Source: William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, [1945-1955]), V.3192, 3221, and 3264; Rolf Reinemuth, Segel aus Downeast; Die unerschrockenen Männer von der Weser und ihre prächtigen Schiffe aus Neu-England (Herford: Koehler, c1971), pp. 37 and 139.

The U.S. ship ROGER A. HEIRN was built at New York by William H. Webb (hull #111), for the New York firm of Post, Smith & Co, and was launched on 9 April 1857. 1,088 tons; 173 feet 4 inches x 37 feet x 23 feet (length x beam x depth of hold). She was a built for the New York-Antwerp trade, and was essentially a duplicate of the JOHN H. ELLIOTT, built by Webb for the same owners in 1856. She was completed about 1 June 1857, received her first registry certificate on 2 June, and soon departed for Antwerp for the Hurlbut Line, for which Post, Smith & Co were then the New York agents. James Stewart was her master for almost her entire career. Post, Smith & Co were succeeded as owners first by J & N Smith & Co, and then by Smith & Dunning. In 1858, she ran in Tapscott's Line of New York-Liverpool packets, and in 1860, in Stanton & Thompson's Line of New York-New Orleans packets. With the outbreak of the Civil War, the ROGER A. HEIRN reverted to European routes, first to London, then, from late spring 1862 through late summer 1864, to Liverpool. On 6 January 1865, now transferred to British registry to avoid the issue of Union vessels trading with the Confederacy, she cleared New York for Matamoros, Mexico, to load Confederate cotton. (Smith & Dunning, a New York-based commission merchant, were instrumental in bringing Texas cotton to the North and to Great Britain throughout the Civil War.)

On 6 August 1865, the ROGER A. HEIRN arrived at New York from Liverpool with merchandise and 406 steerage passengers. She then sailed to Mobile, where she loaded 2,644 bales of cotton for Liverpool. She set sail from Mobile on 16 December 1865 with a fresh easterly breeze. As she drew abeam of Sand Island, just inside the bar at the mouth of Mobile Bay, the breeze shifted to the southeast. Feeling it unsafe to attempt to cross the bar with a head wind, Capt. Summerville anchored the vessel for the night. During the night, however, the wind increased to gale force, the vessel lost an anchor with its cable, and drifted onto the West Bank of Sand Island. Her masts wet cut away and on the following day, 17 December 1865, she was found to have almost 15 feet of water in her holds. She was shortly afterwards declared a total loss.

Source: Edwin L. Dunbaugh and William duBarry Thomas, William H. Webb: Shipbuilder (Glen Cove, New York: Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, 1989), pp. 212-213.

The Bremen ship ROLAND was built at Vegesack/Grohn by Johann Lange, for the Bremen firm of Gebr[üder] Kulenkampff, and was launched on 7 September 1854. 319 Commerzlasten; 40,7 x 10,3 x 5,9 meters (length x beam x depth of hold). Masters: Heinrich Reiche (1854-1859), H. H. Wicke (1859-1863), and F. A. Wiegmann (1863-1865). In October 1865, the ROLAND, bound from Surabaja, Indonesia, to Amsterdam, was lost on the Indonesian island of Pulo Raas.

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. 226-227, no. 227.

The ship ROME, of Bath, Maine, was built at Bath in 1847. 673 tons; 142 ft 4 in x 32 ft 3 in x 16 ft 1 1/2 in (length x beam x depth of hold). She appears to have been a transient, sailing in 1852 between Le Havre and New York, in 1853, J. Gross, master, between Bremen and New York, and in 1854, J. Gross, master, between Antwerp and New York. In 1854, Moulton, master, she was advertised as running in the Brigham Line of New York-New Orleans coastal sailing packets, and in 1858, W. Lincoln, master, in the Stanton & Thompson Line of New York-New Orleans coastal sailing packets.

Sources: William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, [1945-55]), V.3196; 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. 521 and 524.