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Peter's Ship:
Kronprinz Wilhelm
Named for the German crown prince, Kronprinz
Wilhelm, this passenger liner was built by AG
Vulcan in 1901 for the shipping line North
German Lloyd. She was one of the largest and
most luxurious liners afloat, and was an
important part of the North German express team
of four-stackers. She was a 14,908-ton vessel
637 ft. long by 66 ft.wide, four funnels, two
masts, a twin screw and a service speed of 22
knots. Launched on March 30,1901, she sailed
from Bremen, Germany on Sept ber 17th on her
maiden voyage to New York. Accommodations on
board the liner were divided into three classes:
367 first, 340 second and 1,054 third class
passengers. First class contained the most space
and included salons of carved wood and
magnificent art, suites and staterooms with
marble bathrooms and special sitting rooms. A
deluxe suite aboard in 1901 could cost as much
as $2,000 for a week's crossing. Second class
was a modified version of first class, but with
far less opulence and space.The steerage
quarters, the most profitable to the company,
were given the smallest amount of space and
certainly the least amount of comfort.
Steerage Accomodations
For those in
steerage, which included most immigrants, the
voyage to America could cost as little as
$10.The Kronprinz Wilhelm started her last
voyage from Bremen to New York on July 21, 1914,
and during the night of August 3rd, she was the
only German liner to escape from the port of New
York upon the outbreak of World War I. She later
rendezvoused with a German cruiser near Cuba
where she was provided with provisions and
outfitted with two 88mm canons. After being
fitted as a commerce raider, she captured and
sank several merchant ships in the South
Atlantic between August 1914 and March 1915. In
April, however, with the crew in poor health and
in need of desperate repairs, she hobbled into a
neutral port on the northeastern coast of
America. There American authorities refused to
allow the German crew to repair the war damage,
and because she was unable to depart within the
allowed time, she was interned. When America
entered the war in 1917, the ship was refitted,
renamed the Von Steuben, and used as a troop
transport between America and Europe. At the
conclusion of the war she sat and rusted for
years and was eventually scrapped in 1923, a sad
end to such a proud liner.
The ad below
is from the Pecirkuv Narodni kalendar - 1900,
published in Prague. It was featured on the back
page of the almanac and calendar. F. Missler of
Br en made an offer of passage to America,
Africa, and Australia from the Port of Bremen,
Germany. The ad, in Czech, was targeted for the
Czech and Slovak peoples.In the early 1900's
there was a wave of immigration from what is now
the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic to
America and other destinations throughout the
world. Featured as the back cover of the
almanac, the ad promoted this immigration
. By 1903 the Austro-Hungarian government was
making a serious effort to st the tide of
igration and passed the Hungarian igration Law
of 1903. The igration Law contained some pretty
_ measures to slow the immigration from the
Austro-Hungarian pire. Ads like this were banned
throughout the Austro-Hungarian pire. It became
illegal to bring information like this into the
Austro-Hungarian pire. Article 46 of the law
stated, "Any one who encourages migration at a
public meeting by speeches, or by distributing
printed matter or pamphlets, or by exhibiting
these publicly, shall be punished with
imprisonment for not more than two months, and
by a fine not exceeding 600 crowns." Taking an
ad like this to an inn, meeting place, or church
and showing it to other people could land you in
jail in Austria-Hungary.
PASSENGER
MANIFESTS
Before 1820 there was no federal law requiring the
recording of passengers arriving in America.
However, beginning in 1891, blank passenger
lists were printed by the U.S. government and
sold to ship companies throughout Europe. These
lists were then distributed to the various ports
in Europe and were completed by the ship's
purser at the port of barkation before the ship
sailed. As a result, the printed column headings
were in English, but the names appear as the
ship's purser penned th on the list. Before the
20th century, most pursers would merely ask the
passengers their names and then write th on the
list as they sounded. Obviously, the errors that
resulted from this practice were predictable,
especially with surnames transliterated from
non-Latin alphabets, such as Ukrainian, Russian,
Chinese, etc. Some pursers, on the other hand,
would simply transcribe each passenger's name
from passports, travel papers or other forms of
identification. This approach se ed to be the
common practice beginning in the early 1900's.
When Peter arrived in America in 1907, current
day Slovakia was part of the Austro-Hungarian
pire and still under a Hungarian administration.
Hence, he most likely traveled under a Hungarian
passport and as such his papers were written in
Magyar where a "y" was placed at the end of
surnames ending in "n", i.e., Cubony. A review
of church documents during the late 1700's to
the early 1900's also revealed various spellings
of the family surname, i.e., Cubon, Csubony,
Csubon, and Cubonik.
Above is Peter’s name, line 25, as it appeared
on the passenger manifest of the Kronprinz
Wilhelm on October 22, 1907. Also appearing in
the manifest are Rosa’s brothers, Jan and Anton
Chudej, and Rosa’s brother-in-law, Josef Polka
It is thought that the passenger appearing on
line 24, Lukas Bielcik-Cilbony (Cubony), was
most likely a cousin of Peter’s.
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Rosa's ship:
Barbarossa
The Barbarossa was a 10,769 gross ton vessel
built by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg in 1896 for "theshipslist.com/ships
lines nglloyd.html" Norddeutscher Lloyd [North
Germen Lloyd] a Her details were - length 525ft
x beam 60ft, two funnels, two masts, twin screw
and a speed of 15 knots. There was accommodation
for 230-1st, 227-2nd and 1,935-3rd class
passengers. Launched on 5 9 1896 she sailed from
Bremen on her maiden voyage to the Suez Canal and
Australia on 8 1 1897. She commenced her first
transatlantic voyage from Bremen to Southampton
and New York on 24 5 1897 and her first voyage
from Genoa to Naples and New York on 16 3 1906.
Her last run from Bremen to Australia started on
21 12 1910 (11 round voyages) and on 4 9 1912
she commenced her first voyage between Bremen,
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Galveston.
On 6 11 1913 sailed on her last trip between
Genoa, Naples and New York (18 round voyages),
30 4 1914 started her last run Bremen - Philadelphia - Baltimore (3 round voyages) and
18 7 1914 last run Bremen - New York. In August
she took refuge in New York, due to the outbreak
of the Great War and in April 1917 was seized by
the USA when America entered the war. She was
renamed MERCURY by the US Navy and in 1919, went
to the US Shipping Board. In 1920 she went to
the Baltic Steamship Corporation but did not
actually run for th and in 1924 was scrapped in
the USA. [North Atlantic Seaway by N.R.P.Bonsor
vol.2,p.559. |