SS Silesia (1869)

For other ships of the same name, see SS Silesia.

A Hammonia class ship, the SS Silesia appeared very much like the ship pictured here, the SS Frisia
History
/ Hamburg / Germany
Name	SS Silesia
Namesake	the province of Silesia
Operator	Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft (HAPAG)
Port of registry	Hamburg
Route	Hamburg – Le Havre – New York City
Builder	Caird & Co.
Launched	14 April 1869
Christened	SS Silesia
Maiden voyage	23 June 1869
Out of service	1899
Renamed	Pacifica (1887), Citta di Napoli (1888), Montevideo (1891)
Refit	1877, compound engines
Fate	Transferred to Great Britain
United Kingdom
Name	SS Pacifica
Acquired	1887
Fate	Transferred to Italy
Italy
Name	P/fo Citta di Napoli
Owner	Fratelli Lavarello
Acquired	1888
Fate	Acquired by new Italian owner
Italy
Name	P/fo Montevideo
Owner	La Veloce Line
Acquired	1891
Homeport	Genoa
Fate	Wrecked off Lobos Island on the River Plate in Uruguay, then sold for scrap
General characteristics
Class and type	Hammonia
Tonnage	3,142
Length	361 ft (110 m)
Beam	46 ft (14 m)
Propulsion	Steam expansion (single screw) and two masts; later retrofitted with second screw
Sail plan	Square rigged on both fore and main masts
Speed	12 knots (22 km/h))
Capacity	600 passengers

The SS Silesia was a late 19th-century Hamburg America Line passenger and cargo ship that ran between the European ports of Hamburg, Germany and Le Havre, France to Castle Garden and later Ellis Island, New York transporting European immigrants, primarily Russian, Prussian, Hungarian, German, Austrian, Italian, and Danish individuals and families. Most passengers on this route were manual laborers, including stonecutters, locksmiths, farmers, millers, upholsterers, confectioners, and tailors, though physicians and other professionals also bought passage on her.

Building

Built by Caird & Company of Greenock, Scotland, the Silesia, along with the SS Germania (I) (1863), SS Germania (II) (1870), SS Frisia (1872), SS Pomerania (1873), SS Hammonia (I) (1855), and SS Hammonia (II) (1866), was a Hammonia class ship. Some sources report her as being 340 feet (100 m) in length and 40 feet (12 m) from side to side though other contemporary sources report her as somewhat larger.

With both a steam engine and a set of traditional masts, she was one of a brief but large category of "transitional" (wind-to-steam) vessels. Like many of these ships, the Silesia had a steel hull, two masts, and one steam funnel. Her two engines drove a single 10 ft (3.0 m) screw with 2,200 horsepower making 54 revolutions per minute. Twelve men shoveling coal continuously from her four coal bunkers kept her engines running around the clock, consuming 75 of her 1,100-ton capacity of coal per day. All of the steam generated in her boilers was recovered and reused during any given length of her journey. The smoke from the burning of coal quickly blackened many of her sails, which were as follows: on her foremast she had two staysails (a fore staysail and a fore topmast staysail), a course, topsail, and topgallant sail; and on her mainmast, the equivalent five sails (a staysail, topmast staysail, course, topsail, and topgallant sail) plus a spanker for a combined total of eleven sails.

History

She began her maiden voyage from Hamburg to Le Havre and New York on 23 June 1869. On 5 January 1872, she ran aground at Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada whilst on a voyage from New York to Hamburg. She was refloated. Silesia ran aground in the Elbe downstream of Blankenese on 24 April 1874 whilst on a voyage from New York to Hamburg. She had been refloated by 29 April and taken in to Hamburg. Her last voyage on this route began on 24 February 1875. After this she was fitted with a compound engine and supposedly began sailing the route from Hamburg to the West Indies, though passenger manifests continue to show her bringing immigrants to New York for many more years. On 17 February 1880, Silesia ran aground at Finkenwerder whilst on a voyage from Hamburg to New York. On 12 November that year she collided with and sank the Guernsey schooner Squale in the English Channel 12 nautical miles (22 km) south of Beachy Head, Sussex.

Accounts then differ as to the path of her ownership, with some sources claiming she was given to W.G. Armstrong & Mitchell Company in 1887 before being sold to the H.F. Swan Company who renamed her Pacifica, then in 1888 sold to A. Albini of Genoa, then in 1889 sold to Fratelli Lavarello, also of Genoa, and renamed Citta di Napoli, then in 1890 sold to the La Veloce Line, again of Genoa, and renamed Montevideo. Others record that once refitted she went to an unnamed British firm, then to an Italian company called Solari & Schiaffino, then year after that sold to Fratelli Lavarello, and then in 1891 sold to La Veloce.

Sources agree, however, that on 2 December 1899, she ran aground near the island of Lobos in the River Plate between Uruguay and Argentina and was eventually sold for scrap metal.