Ocean-going liners
Written as part of Amy Johnson Crow’s “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge. This week’s topic: Transportation
My grandfather, Robert Hamilton Macnee, spent a lot of time on ocean liners. I have traced 30 voyages across the Atlantic and around the world. It occurred to me to see how many of the ocean liners he sailed on I could trace. And as I study the photos of the liners, fascinating to see the sails and masts disappear, replaced by funnels, which themselves disappear finally. (For more on this topic see “Lost Liners: Ocean Evolution”, a PBS documentary at http://www.pbs.org/lostliners/ocean.html)
First I have to acknowledge that I cannot find a record of his first departure from Great Britain. He left after 1881, when the census reveals that he was living with his parents in Glasgow. But before 1892, when he was married in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
My grandfather’s voyages
October 1893
Mr. and Mrs. McNee sailed from Montevideo to New York, on the ORCANA, then on to Liverpool on the UMBRIA
The S.S. Umbria was built in Glasgow. This picture is from the London Illustrated News, January 7, 1893. Here the masts and sails are still prominent.
April 1895
Liverpool to Rio de Janeiro on the ORISSA. Robert was unaccompanied on this trip.
The Orissa , shown defensively armed during World War 2, was torpedoed and sunk, June 25, 1918.
October 1895
Rio de Janeiro to New Orleans, en route to Mexico, on the S.S. Awana (no photograph). Robert was accompanied by his Wife Jeannie, and her sister Mary Simpson.
August-September 1897
Robert and Jeannie sailed from New York to Liverpool on the CAMPANIA, returning from Glasgow on the NEBRASKA presumably en route to Mexico City.
Jeannie SImpson Macnee died in Mexico City in 1898.
The S.S. Nebraska, in Vancouver. (From City of Vancouver archives.)
June and September 1900
Robert returned briefly to Scotland, leaving New York for Glasgow and returning; both journeys were on the CITY OF ROME
Amongst the things internet collectors collect are ephemera such as liner passenger lists.
In 1901 Robert married Emma Jane Carr in Brooklyn, New York: She was from Birmingham, England, but there is NO data for her journey to the USA. Their son, Douglas, was born in Orange, New Jersey, in 1903.
September 1905
Robert, Emma, and Douglas, sailed from Glasgow to New York on the CALEDONIA (I have found no record of the eastbound voyage)
The masts on this ship seem to have no connection to sails.
July 1907
Robert from New York to Liverpool on the CAMPANIA. (see 1897)
August 1907
Emma sailed with Douglas from New York to London on the Minneapolis, never to return to the USA.
Interesting that my Dad left the USA for the last time on the Minneapolis, as I am writing this in my daughter’s home in Minneapolis.
August 1908
Robert from New York to Liverpool on the LUSITANIA; Southampton to New York on the ADRIATIC.
The Lusitania was torpedoed, in May 1915, precipitating the entry of the United States into World War I
June 1909
Robert, Liverpool to New York, on the LUCANIA.
The postcard intentionally compares the Lucania (and her sister ship, the Compania) to the Britannia, the fist Cunard steamship, launched in 1840. The Cunard line, established in 1840 with four small steamers, had provided constant, reliable ocean-going travel for the first time.
August-September 1910
Montreal to Bristol on the ROYAL GEORGE, returning from Dover on the LAPLAND
The Royal George at Avonmouth, Bristol.
The Lapland (image from Wikipedia)
June 1911
Bermuda to New York on Oceana. But how did he get to Bermuda? Perhaps he sailed with a friend from Manhasset Bay Yacht Club, of which he was elected secretary in 1909?
August-September 1912
Glasgow to New York on the CAMERONIA (again, no eastbound voyage.)
I love this postcard, with the foamy seas and fluffy skies.
August-September 1914
New York to London on the Minneapolis (see August 1907), returning from Glasgow on the Columbia.
June 1916
Robert sailed from New York to Glasgow on the Lucania (see 1909), leaving the United States to resettle in Great Britain.
There was a gap of ten years before Robert resumed to his travels. In August 1926, he sailed from Las Palmas, Spain to Liverpool on the Aceta. Again I have not found the record of an outward journey – it could have been by rail. And I have no information as to whether this was business trip or a personal voyage.
September 1915
From Gibraltar to London on the CHINA. As above - how did he get there and what was he doing there?
July 1929
Glasgow to New York, on the CALEDONIA, (see 1905) in transit presumably to Canada, since he returned to Glasgow from Montreal on the MINNESOTA
Another piece of ephemera
March 1931
A Bermuda Cruise: Liverpool to Liverpool (round trip). Now it is clear that Robert was traveling for pleasure.
October-November 1931
Glasgow to New York on the TRANSYLVANIA. Robert must then have taken the train across country because he sailed from San Francisco to Honolulu on the PRESIDENT HARRISON. From Honolulu he sailed to Kobe, Japan, and presumably back to Great Britain, but there is no record of that voyage.
By now the masts seem little more than flagpoles.
Robert Macnee, age 61, born Falkirk, Scotland, male and single; Accountant. Passenger sailing from San Francisco Nov 13, 1931 for Kobe, Japan, arriving at the Port of Honolulu in transit.
August 1932
A round trip voyage beginning and ending in Liverpool, on the SECRETARY, stopping at Marseilles, Port Said, Colombo, Java, Australia, and returning via the Cape.
January and March 1935
From Liverpool to Valparaiso in January, returning at the end of March, on the REINA DEL PACIFICO. The voyage would have included traveling through the Panama Canal.
It is clear that Robert still enjoyed ocean travel. As the first post-Covid cruises begin to leave US ports, I think he would have been among the first ready to climb aboard, perhaps on the latest SS BRITTANIA.
Compare this Brittania with the one shown in the June 1909 postcard - a very different vessel. I suspect it lacks the adventure of the earlier ones.