The Hamburg and Alice Coalfleet’s Diary
The 1870’s were prosperous for all the builders along the Avon River with some 82 vessels having been launched. The 1880’s were less prosperous and would have seen only 51 vessels built and the 90’s, a mere 20. Yet the ‘Hamburg’, built in the late 1880’s was a very successful ship.
On December 1, 1891 she left New York bound for London with 12,000 barrels of refined oil. This is one of the very few times in the ‘Hamburg’s’ sailing career that her master was not Andrew Caldwell. This time she was under the command of a man well known to the Churchill fleet, George Coalfleet family history relates that sometime around 1779 a coal bearing ship from England went aground in the Bay of Fundy with the loss of almost all on board. The sole survivor was a small boy who spoke few words. One of the words he could say was ‘Pete’. The boy was taken in by the Barker family in Hantsport and named Peter Coalfleet. George was his great grandson. George Coalfleets wife was Alice. Alice accompanied her husband on many of his voyages and kept a dairy. The bulk of the diary concerns her life about the ‘Plymouth’ another large (1312 tons) Churchill built barque (built in 1879). The ‘Plymouth’ like the ‘Hamburg’ was also built by John Fox Davidson. On the ‘Plymouth’ Anna bore and raised her children, including the latest that was just two years and four months old when she made the following entries in her diary. At the time of the first entry she is back in Hantsport with her husband.
Saturday, November 21, 1891
“George Churchill wants Dodd [her pet name for her husband] to go on to NY and take the Hamburg for one trip to London, so he thinks he better go.”
Wednesday, November 25, 1891
“Dodd leaves for NY this morning. Rena [Alice’s sister who she had not seen in a long while and who is married to the Captain of the ‘Loodiana’] and I are both in bed with sore throat. Dodd says it is from talking too much. Dr. Margeson says we are alright.”
Sunday, November 29, 1891
“Snow on the ground. Rena and I go to church in the evening. She wants me to go on to NY with her.”
Tuesday, December 2, 1891
“Renda and I start for NY. First time I have left the children but will only be gone for a short time.”
After a short visit with her sister in NY Alice goes back to Hantsport. A couple of days before Christmas the Loodiana leaves NY bound for London with her sister on board.
Monday, December 28, 1891
“The Hamburg arrived in London today, 24 days passage. Hope the Loodiana will soon arrive too.”
Although Alice doesn’t record it, the New York Maritime Register has the Hamburg leaving London a month later on January 28, 1892, after having being remetaled. A week later the ‘Disaster’ section of the NYMR shows that the:
“Hamburg which left from London for NY had her headgear damaged by being fouled with a barge.”
In April Alice learns of the fate of her sister aboard the Loodiana.
Wednesday, April 6, 1892
“The Loodiana was burnt at sea in January 16th off Land’s End - … I am just heart weary and now we are beginning to get anxious about the Hamburg. In less than two years I have lost my brother and two sisters and now I am the only one left, …”
Monday, April 11, 1892
“A telegram this morning – the Hamburg’s arrival in NY and the saddest news of all – for Dodd died at sea Feb. I had premonition that something was wrong but cast it aside as foolish anxiety – but it is all too true…”
Alice doesn’t say how George died and neither does any of the documents yet examined. Sadly this was not the end of Alice’s trouble. Within four months both her grandmother and grandfather would also pass away. There is yet one more link between the Plymouth, which was the setting for some of Alice’s happiest memories, and the Hamburg, which brought her the saddest. These two vessels would one day end up almost beside each other across the river from the site where each was built.
2. 1896 – On September 1 , she left “… from Pensacola for Dundee, grounded on the bar [Caucus Shoal – Northern Shipwreck Database] when leaving port Sept.1. She got off and was surveyed and proceeded Sept.4.” (New York Maritime Register – Disasters, September 9th)
3. 1903 – “Hamburg from NY June 6 for Rouen, went ashore on the bar at Peconic, LI, at 12:30 AM June 9th, during a fog, and was floated 12th by tug ‘Alert’, after 1200Bbls of her cargo of Naphtha had been lightered, and apparently uninjured. The bark was towed to New London 14th by Scott’s wrecking tug, where was reloading the lightered part of her cargo on the 16th .” (Diasters, New York Maritime Register. June 17)
4. 1904 – “Hamburg from NY for Montevideo arrived at St. Thomas Feb. 27 with loss of her main topgallant masts and some sails.” “… Repairs on Hamburg…proceeding. Will not discharge [cargo-unknown]. Sails ordered from NY.” (Disasters, New York Maritime Register, March 2, ‘23)
On December 1, 1891 she left New York bound for London with 12,000 barrels of refined oil. This is one of the very few times in the ‘Hamburg’s’ sailing career that her master was not Andrew Caldwell. This time she was under the command of a man well known to the Churchill fleet, George Coalfleet family history relates that sometime around 1779 a coal bearing ship from England went aground in the Bay of Fundy with the loss of almost all on board. The sole survivor was a small boy who spoke few words. One of the words he could say was ‘Pete’. The boy was taken in by the Barker family in Hantsport and named Peter Coalfleet. George was his great grandson. George Coalfleets wife was Alice. Alice accompanied her husband on many of his voyages and kept a dairy. The bulk of the diary concerns her life about the ‘Plymouth’ another large (1312 tons) Churchill built barque (built in 1879). The ‘Plymouth’ like the ‘Hamburg’ was also built by John Fox Davidson. On the ‘Plymouth’ Anna bore and raised her children, including the latest that was just two years and four months old when she made the following entries in her diary. At the time of the first entry she is back in Hantsport with her husband.
Saturday, November 21, 1891
“George Churchill wants Dodd [her pet name for her husband] to go on to NY and take the Hamburg for one trip to London, so he thinks he better go.”
Wednesday, November 25, 1891
“Dodd leaves for NY this morning. Rena [Alice’s sister who she had not seen in a long while and who is married to the Captain of the ‘Loodiana’] and I are both in bed with sore throat. Dodd says it is from talking too much. Dr. Margeson says we are alright.”
Sunday, November 29, 1891
“Snow on the ground. Rena and I go to church in the evening. She wants me to go on to NY with her.”
Tuesday, December 2, 1891
“Renda and I start for NY. First time I have left the children but will only be gone for a short time.”
After a short visit with her sister in NY Alice goes back to Hantsport. A couple of days before Christmas the Loodiana leaves NY bound for London with her sister on board.
Monday, December 28, 1891
“The Hamburg arrived in London today, 24 days passage. Hope the Loodiana will soon arrive too.”
Although Alice doesn’t record it, the New York Maritime Register has the Hamburg leaving London a month later on January 28, 1892, after having being remetaled. A week later the ‘Disaster’ section of the NYMR shows that the:
“Hamburg which left from London for NY had her headgear damaged by being fouled with a barge.”
In April Alice learns of the fate of her sister aboard the Loodiana.
Wednesday, April 6, 1892
“The Loodiana was burnt at sea in January 16th off Land’s End - … I am just heart weary and now we are beginning to get anxious about the Hamburg. In less than two years I have lost my brother and two sisters and now I am the only one left, …”
Monday, April 11, 1892
“A telegram this morning – the Hamburg’s arrival in NY and the saddest news of all – for Dodd died at sea Feb. I had premonition that something was wrong but cast it aside as foolish anxiety – but it is all too true…”
Alice doesn’t say how George died and neither does any of the documents yet examined. Sadly this was not the end of Alice’s trouble. Within four months both her grandmother and grandfather would also pass away. There is yet one more link between the Plymouth, which was the setting for some of Alice’s happiest memories, and the Hamburg, which brought her the saddest. These two vessels would one day end up almost beside each other across the river from the site where each was built.
2. 1896 – On September 1 , she left “… from Pensacola for Dundee, grounded on the bar [Caucus Shoal – Northern Shipwreck Database] when leaving port Sept.1. She got off and was surveyed and proceeded Sept.4.” (New York Maritime Register – Disasters, September 9th)
3. 1903 – “Hamburg from NY June 6 for Rouen, went ashore on the bar at Peconic, LI, at 12:30 AM June 9th, during a fog, and was floated 12th by tug ‘Alert’, after 1200Bbls of her cargo of Naphtha had been lightered, and apparently uninjured. The bark was towed to New London 14th by Scott’s wrecking tug, where was reloading the lightered part of her cargo on the 16th .” (Diasters, New York Maritime Register. June 17)
4. 1904 – “Hamburg from NY for Montevideo arrived at St. Thomas Feb. 27 with loss of her main topgallant masts and some sails.” “… Repairs on Hamburg…proceeding. Will not discharge [cargo-unknown]. Sails ordered from NY.” (Disasters, New York Maritime Register, March 2, ‘23)
