Immigration Records
24
The SS Western Metropolis was the steamship on which George and Renata (Kraus) Krauss and family made the crossing of the Atlantic from Bremen to New York.
Ship Name
The SS Western Metropolis derived its name from the Lake steamboat Western Metropolis. The engine, which had originally been in the Lake steamboat Empire State, had been used in the construction of the Lake steamboat Western Metropolis. When the Lake steamboat Western Metropolis was refurbished with a new engine, the Empire State engine was taken to the Atlantic coast and used in the construction of the SS Western Metropolis.
Information Source
Maritime History of the Great Lakes, Western Metropolis (steamboat) at http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/results?fsu=Western+Metropolis+%28steamboat%29
Ship History
The wooden side-paddle steamship WESTERN METROPOLIS was a built for George Griswold, A. Benner, William Wall, and others (contemporary reports list her as belonging to the firm of Benner & Brown) by F. Z. Tucker, Brooklyn, and was launched in 1863. 2,269 tons as built (remeasured in 1865 at 2,092 tons); 285 ft 4 in x 40 ft 8 in x 23 ft (length x breadth x depth of hold); draft 16 ft; straight stem, 1 funnel, 2 masts. Her engine (75 inch bore; 12 foot stroke) had been built in 1848 by Merrick & Towne, Philadelphia, and had served two Great Lakes steamers, the EMPIRE STATE, built in 1848, and the WESTERN METROPOLIS, built in 1856–it is from this vessel that she took her name–new boilers, wheels, and general reconditioning by Morgan Iron Works. Described by a contemporary, Capt. George H. Norton, as a “very slow, clumsy, unwieldy, hard steering steamer”.
Chartered by the Quartermaster Corps immediately upon completion for $850 per day, and kept in continuous use from December 1863 until late January 1865. First voyage, New York-New Orleans; on the return voyage, seized the steamer ROSITA, with a cargo of munitions and liquor, and towed her prize into Key West on 29 January 1864. Spent most of 1864 ferrying troops and supplies between New York and Hampton Roads, in support of the Union Army’s activities in Virginia; northbound, carried hundreds of sick and wounded. December 1864, loaded troops for the attack on Fort Fisher.
20 February 1865, single roundtrip (and first commercial) voyage, New York-Greytown, chartered to M. O. Roberts. April 1865, single roundtrip voyage, New York-New Orleans, chartered to H. B. Cromwell & Co. May-July 1865, New York-New Orleans, chartered by Quartermaster Corps. August 1865, single roundtrip voyage, New York-New Orleans, chartered to W. H. Robson & Co; returned with a record cargo of 3,000 bales of cotton. 30 September 1865, single roundtrip voyage (her only voyage for her original owners, Benner & Brown), New York-Apalachicola, Florida, returning with a cargo of cotton.
November 1865, sold to Ruger Brothers. Originally advertised to sail for the Ruger Brothers’ North American Lloyd Line to Bremen via Southampton on 17 March 1866, the WESTERN METROPOLIS did not sail until 28 June 1866. However, she had been refitted with paddle wheels that shed their floats in anything but a dead calm, and the WESTERN METROPOLIS was forced to turn around and put in to Boston, which she reached on 6 July 1866, before all the paddles were lost. After temporary repairs, on 10 July 1866, she sailed for New York (arrived 19 July), unable to continue the voyage to Bremen; laid up.
Late 1866, together with the other vessels of the North American Lloyd Line, sold to Isaac Taylor’s New York & Bremen Steamship Co.7 March 1867, first voyage, New York – Cowes – Bremen (arrived after a voyage of 17 days). Continued to make eastbound sailings at approximately eight-week intervals. 24 August 1867, sailed from New York on fourth (and last) voyage for New York & Bremen Steamship Co; 8 September 1867, arrived at Southampton with a broken shaft; repaired at Southampton, and proceeded on to Bremen; on return passage, reached New York 6 November 1867, from Bremen 20 October 1867 and Cowes 22 October 1867, with 921 passengers; there had been 3 deaths on the passage: an infant, a case of delirium tremens, and a case of apoplexy.
30 June 1868, sold for $57,000; her new owner advertised her for sale for the rest of 1868 and all of 1869, without success. 1870, acquired by Merchants’ Steamship Co, Frederic Baker, agent, for its New York-New Orleans service. 12 March and 9 April 1870, two roundtrip voyages, New York-New Orleans. 18 May 1870, Capt. H. S. Quick, sailed from New York for Havre – Bremen – Copenhagen – Swinemüunde – Kiel – Christiansand, chartered to Ruger Brothers. Returned by the northern route, arriving New York 7 July 1870, with 954 passengers; from the Shetlands to Newfoundland the weather had been cold and foggy: 3 infants among the passengers died, as did one sailor, of pneumonia. September 1870, returned to New York-New Orleans service. October 1871, port shaft cracked on voyage from New York to New Orleans; shaft replaced at sea. February-August 1873, laid up. 13 February 1875, last voyage, New York-New Orleans-New York (arrived 9 March 1875). March 1875, Merchants’ Steamship Co ceased operations. 1875-1878, laid up; several changes of ownership reported; last sale to Cornelius Delamater, who bought her for $15,000. March 1878, at the Delamater Iron Works, on the North River side of Manhattan, where her engine was removed. I have no information on her later history or ultimate fate
Information Source
Cedric Ridgely-Nevitt, American Steamships on the Atlantic (Newark: University of Delaware Press, [1981]), pp. 329-330.
As a Military Transport
The Steamship Western Metropolis.
BOSTON, Sunday, March 27. 1864The steamship Western Metropolis, of New-York, left this morning for Hilton Head, with part of the Fourth Massachusetts Cavalry. During her stay in port she has excited great attention from her size and beautiful model. She had been visited by crowds, and every person was treated with great attention by her courteous and accomplished Commander, Capt. HILTON. She is, without doubt, the most substantial and commodious transport steamer that has been to Boston.
New York Times March 28, 1864
Information Source
A digitized version from The Times’s print archive, Downloaded 28 Feb 2019 from: https://www.nytimes.com/1864/03/28/archives/the-steamship-western-metropolis.html
Ship Images
A sketch of the Lake steamboat Western Metropolis
Information Source
Illustration from Stanton, Samuel Ward, American Steam Vessels , 1895, page 149. Downloaded 28 Feb 2019 from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Western_Metropolis_01.jpg
Deck view of the WESTERN METROPOLIS as a Civil War transport
Information Source
Cedric Ridgely-Nevitt, American Steamships on the Atlantic (Newark: University of Delaware Press, [1981]), p. 328, Photographed 7 June 1864. courtesy of the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
Voyages
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Steamship WESTERN METROPOLIS, Capt. William Weir, arrived at New York 24 April 1867, from Bremen 4 April, with merchandise and 710 passengers.
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Steamship WESTERN METROPOLIS, Capt. William Weir, arrived at New York 10 June 1867, from Bremen 27 May, with merchandise and 831 passengers.
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Steamship WESTERN METROPOLIS, Capt. William Weir, arrived at New York 14 August 1867, from Bremen 28 July, via Cowes 30 July, with merchandise and 221 passengers.
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Steamship WESTERN METROPOLIS, Capt. William Weir, arrived at New York 6 November 1867 (passenger manifest dated 9 November 1867), from Bremen 20 October, via Cowes 23 October, with merchandise and 921 passengers, to Isaac Taylor. “Had strong westerly gales the entire passage. Mr. Charles A. Lewin, a saloon passenger, of Plymouth, E[ngland], died of delirium tremens; Mrs. Dorothea Ringwald, of Wurtemberg, aged 66 years, died of apoplexy, and one infant, aged 6 months, [died,] and were all buried at sea.”
Information Source
Palmer, Michael P. Palmer List of Merchant Vessels. Claremont, Calif.: Michael Palmer, 2000. Downloaded 28 Feb 2019 from http://www.oocities.org/mppraetorius/com-we.htm
Passages of the ship “Western Metropolis”
The above passages are confirmed by the following from DIE MAUS Departures of emigration passages.
| date | vessel’s name | Agency / shipping company | captain | destination | Number of passengers | Arrivals | Remarks | |||||||
| 04/03/1867 | Western Metropolis | Friedr. Reck & Co. | Weir | new York | 884 | |||||||||
| 05/25/1867 | Western Metropolis | Friedr. Reck & Co. | Weir | new York | 976 | |||||||||
| 07/27/1867 | Western Metropolis | Friedr. Reck & Co. | Weir | new York | 149 | |||||||||
| 17/10/1867 | Western Metropolis | Friedr. Reck & Co. | Weir, Wm. | new York | 866 |
Information Source
DIE MAUS Departures of emigration passages. Downloaded 28 Feb 2019 from: http://212.227.236.244/auswanderung/abfahrtsdaten/passagen.php?s=s&v=Western+Metropolis&lang=de
Transatlantic Crossing Time
Departure date from Bremerhaven: 25 May 1867
Arrival date at the Port of New York: 10 Jun 1867.
Time to cross: (7 + 10 = 17 days) 2 weeks and three days.
During this time period, steamships made the voyage time from Bremen to New York in 3 weeks or less as reported in Statistics concerning the transatlantic crossing
Steerage
The Krauss family traveled steerage class. Steerage is the name given to the lowest deck on a ship where the control lines ran for the rudder, enabling the steering of the ship, hence the word ‘steerage’. Steerage (or Tween Decks) and Third Class was the default choice of many immigrants from the 1850s through the 1930s who could afford the price of passage and little else.This class offers communal quarters with early steerage often housing hundreds of immigrants in one large room. For a good description of steerage decks, see Emigrants Between Decks