S/S Finland

Frank Burglechner, his mother and two sisters emigrated from Germany in 1913. They boarded the S/S Finland in Antwerp, Belgium, on 7 June and arrived in New York City on 18 June. The S/S Finland had an interesting career as an ocean liner.  She was built in 1902 by W. Cramp and Sons in Philadelphia for the Red Star Line, a subsidiary of International Mercantile Marine (IMM). She began plying the Antwerp to New York run after she was launched and remained on it for the next seven years. In November 1907 as the ship neared Antwerp, a gale in the English Channel almost drove S/S Finland ashore. The timely assistance of two tugs kept ship from grounding on the breakwater at Dover, England.

On 19 January 1908 Finland collided with the Greek cargo ship S/S Epirus of Terneuzen, Netherlands, sinking Epirus. A year later she was reflagged as a Belgium ship but stayed on the Antwerp-New York route. Three months later she was chartered by the White Star Line, another IMM subsidiary, for three round-trip voyages between Naples and New York.

On 25 December 1910 Finland rammed and sank the S/S Baltique which was anchored in the Flushing Roads, just off the East River near New York City, sheltering from a storm. Six crew were lost from Baltique.

When the United States declared war on the German Empire in 1917, the United States Army needed ships to transport troops to Europe. S/S Finland entered Army service on 2 June 1917. On 28 October as she was returning to the States in a convoy, she was struck on her starboard side by a torpedo. Nine men died in the attack, but Finland was able to return to Brest, France. On 26 April 1918 she was transferred to the U.S. Navy but little changed in terms of her responsibility for transporting troops. She was decommissioned from naval service on 15 November 1919 and transferred back to the Red Star Line.

Workers pose by the torpedo damage to Finland in drydock at Brest, France;
photograph courtesy of Wikipedia

On 28 April 1928 Finland arrived in Blyth, England, to be scrapped by Hughes Bolckow Shipbreaking, Limited.

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'S/S Finland Torpedo Damage,' Wikipedia

Anchor Lines: Scottish Ships for Scottish Passengers

As I start writing the book I promised my father about our Muir family from Scotland, I've noticed that many of those ancestors immigrated to Canada or the United States on ships owned and operated by Anchor Lines, including my great great grandfather, James Muir. Why?

That question led me to a wonderful book about the steamship company by Martin Bellamy and Bill Spalding entitled The Golden Years of the Anchor Line, which answered my question on the first page:

"The Anchor Line was one of the great shipping companies of the Clyde. It grew out of the flourishing engineering and economic development that transformed the Clyde from a shallow meandering river into one of the world's great ports and shipbuilding centers. From the 1880s to through the 1930s, the Anchor Line was famed for its sleek liners operating between Glasgow and New York. For a long time, its beautiful black-funnelled transatlantic liners were the largest ships to sail regularly from the Clyde, and they came to symbolize the romance of Glasgow's great shipping and shipbuilding industries.

The Anchor Line was not in the same league as Cunard, which had very large and luxurious ships. The largest Anchor liner was a little over half the length of the Queen Mary. Instead, the company built its reputation on providing comfort at an affordable price. It bolstered its image using bold marketing materials showing highly idealized views of ships and their destinations. It also played heavily on its Scottish heritage, advertising 'Scottish ships and Scottish crews for Scottish passengers.' This not only attracted local custom but also appealed to the American tourist's nostalgia for the 'old country'."

Anchor Line poster from 1928; photo courtesy of
The Golden Years of the Anchor Line

The book includes this quote by Patrick Dollan from the 1930s:

"Every Scot thrills with pride and memories of the adventure and enjoyment of travel on hearing of the Anchor Line. When I was a boy, it was the ambition of every youngster to sail across the Atlantic on an Anchor liner which for us was synonymous with safety, comfort and America. We could not then think of traveling on any other ship than an Anchor liner -- to young Scots the vessel of romance and daring."

Sailing day, courtesy of Glenvick-Gjonvik Archives

But this must have been a reputation they acquired over time. In the early days, things were a bit rockier. Robert Louis Stevenson recalled his experiences in steerage aboard the Anchor Line's Devonia in 1879, eight years before James Muir emigrated on an Anchor Line ship, in Notes of an Amateur Emigrant:

"...an adventure that required some nerve. The stench was atrocious; each respiration tasted in the throat like some horrible kind of cheese; and the squalid aspect of the place was aggravated by so many people worming themselves into their clothes in the twilight of the bunks."

An American, writing under the name of Windy Bill, described traveling on the Furnessia, another Anchor Line ship: "the odors in the steerage are worse than those in a slaughter house and the conditions not much better."

A steerage compartment in an Anchor Line steamship, obviously improved

But by 1882 Anchor Line operated the City of Rome, its first truly high-class transatlantic liner. After World War II the line was left with only five ships and these were in terrible condition after been used for troop transport by the military. The company never achieved its pre-war glory and in 1967 its transatlantic service ended.

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'1928 Anchor Line poster,' The Golden Years of the Anchor Line
'Anchor Line steerage compartment illustration,' The Golden Years of the Anchor Line
'Sailing Day,' Glenvick-Gjonvik Archives

S/S Captain Cook

In 1958 when Charles Findlay and his family immigrated to New Zealand, the Ministry of Transport owned the S/S Captain Cook and chartered it to the New Zealand government. They ran the ship between Glasgow and Wellington, but she had a rich history before that.

The steamship S/S Letitia was built in Govan by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company. She launched in 1924. By 1925 she was part of the Anchor-Donaldson company and sailed between Glasgow, Montreal, and Quebec during the summer. In the winter months, she sailed to Halifax and St. John.

The S/S Letitia became part of the Donaldson Atlantic Line in 1935 and that same year ran aground twice -- once at Cape Papas, Greece, and again entering the Belfast Lough.

The British Admiralty requisitioned the S/S Letitia in 1939. She was armed with eight 6-inch guns and two 3-inch guns and flew pennant F16. After performing convoy duty, the Admiralty decided ocean liners were too exposed and instead used the ship for transport duty starting in 1941. The S/S Letitia was badly damaged in 1943 and sailed to the U.S. for repairs. For the rest of the war she was used by the Canadian government to bring wounded soldiers home.

She was sold to the Ministry of Transport in 1946. The ministry renamed her the Empire Brent. A collision in the Mersey river required her to be dry docked for repairs. She was again turned into a troop transport and used between India and the Far East. In 1949 she began immigration runs between the U.K. and Australia.

S/S/ Captain Cook in Wellington Harbor, New Zealand sometime in
the 1950s; photograph courtesy of the National Library of New Zealand

In 1950 she was out of service for six months to be refitted for the U.K. to New Zealand run. She began sailing to Wellington via the Panama Canal in 1952 as the S/S Captain Cook. A fire broke out aboard her in Wellington Harbor in 1957 and caused extensive damage. She was able to limp back to the U.K. for repairs. She made her final return trip to Glasgow in 1959 and was laid up at Falmouth, Cornwall. In 1960 she was sold to British Steel. The company towed her to Inverkeithing where she was broken up.

Allan Line Steamship Company, Ltd.

The Allan Shipping line was started in 1819 by Capt. Alexander Allan and traded between Scotland and Montreal. By the 1830s the company had offices in Glasgow, Liverpool, and Montreal. Capt. Allan's son, Sir Hugh Allan, had taken over the business by 1854. He was able to take control of the Royal Mail contract between Britain and America from Cunard. By the 1880s, the Allan Line was the largest privately owned shipping concern in the world.

S/S Lake Erie in the Clyde river; courtesy of the Clyde-built Ships Database

In 1897 the company became the Allan Line Steamship Company, Ltd., of Glasgow and opened offices in Boston and London. In 1918 the company was purchased by Canadian Pacific Steamships and by 1919 the Allan name had disappeared from the ocean waves.

Early 1900s postcard of the S/S Grampian; image courtesy of Gjenvick-
Gjonvik Archives