The steamship BRAUNSCHWEIG was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd by Robert Steele & Co, Greenock (yard #79), and was launched on 1 April 1873. 3,079 tons; 107,16 x 11,94 meters (length x breadth); straight stem, 1 funnel, 2 masts; iron construction, single screw propulsion, compound engines, 1,524 (maximum 1,750) hp, service speed 12 knots; accommodation for 34 passengers in 1st class, 33 in 2nd class, and 600 in steerage; crew of 99.

The BRAUNSCHWEIG was intended for Norddeutscher Lloyd's Baltimore service. 9 September 1873, maiden voyage, Bremen - Southampton - Baltimore. 16 October 1880, first of 4 roundtrip voyages, Bremen-New York. 1886, rebuilt by AG Weser for Norddeutscher Lloyd's Imperial Mail service (Reichspostdienst) to the Far East; 2,200 hp; two more boilers; service speed 13 knots. 13 July 1886, first voyage in the Reichspostdienst, Trieste-Port Said. 13 January 1887, first voyage, Bremen-Suez Canal-Far East. 8 July 1891, first voyage, Bremen-Suez Canal-Australia. 13 January 1894 - 14 January 1896, resumed Bremen-New York service (11 roundtrip voyages). 15 April - 30 May 1896, 2 roundtrip voyages, Naples-New York. 29 September 1896, sold to Gebr. Moosbacher; scrapped at Genoa.

Sources: Arnold Kludas, Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutschen Lloyd, Bd. 1: 1857 bis 1919 (Herford: Koehler, c1991), pp. 22-23 (photograph) and inside front cover; Edwin Drechsel, Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen, 1857-1970; History, Fleet, Ship Mails, vol. 1 (Vancouver: Cordillera Pub. Co., c1994), p. 67, no. 39 (photograph); Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 2 (1978), p. 549.

The British snow BRAVE, 227/214 tons, was built at Sunderland and launched in July 1840. The annual volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1840/41-1846/47 give the following information:

Master: W. Lowes

Owner: T. Tiffin

Port of Registry and Survey: Sunderland

Destined Voyage: London

The BRAVE last appears in Lloyd's Register for 1846/47, but there is no mark against the entry to indicate the reason for her removal from the register.

The Bremen ship BREMEN was built at Vegesack/Fähr by the shipwright H[ermann] F[riedrich] Ulrichs for the Bremen firm of J. F. W. Iken & Co, and was launched on 25 February 1854. 410 Commerzlasten / 949 tons register, 49,2 x 10,7 x 6,1 meters (length x beam x depth of hold).

Owners:
     1854-1862 - J. F. W. Iken & Co, Bremen
     1862-1863 - E. Iken & Co, Bremen
     1863-1871 - Gerhard Lange, Bremen
     1871-1888 - Fritz Dulz, Pillau, East Prussia

Masters:
     1854-1860 - Daniel Beenken, Vegesack
     1860-1862 - Dettmer Meyer, Vegesack
     1862-1863 - Carl H. W. Schierenberg, Vegesack
     1863-1866 - Johann Friedrich Dannemann, Bremen
     1866-1868 - Johann Trentwehl, Bremen
     1868-1871 - Jügen Bullerdiek, Bremen
               - A. Lietke, Danzig
               - Hoffstädt, Fischhausen, East Prussia

The BREMEN was originally intended for the North American emigrant trade. 10 April 1854, maiden voyage, Bremerhaven-New York, with 418 passengers. The ship was also engaged in the New Orleans trade, and by 1863 had carried over 2,000 emigrants to that port. After 1863, she also made voyages to Chile, the East Indies, and Asia.

In 1868, the BREMEN was re-rigged as a bark.

After her purchase by Franz Dultz, of Pillau, in 1871, the BREMEN was engaged as a petroleum carrier between New York and Hamburg. On 20 November 1888, the BREMEN, Capt. Hoffstädt, sailed from New York for Danzig with a cargo of petroleum in barrels, and went missing.

Source: Peter-Michael Pawlik, Von der Weser in die Welt; Die Geschichte der Segelschiffe von Weser und Lesum und ihrer Bauwerften 1770 bis 1893, Schriften des Deutschen Schiffahrtsmuseums, Bd. 33 (Hamburg: Kabel, c1993), pp. 277 and 278, no. 35.

The steamship BREMEN, the first of five passenger steamships of this name owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd, was built by Caird & Co, Greenock (yard #58) at a cost of 1,281,000 gold marks, and launched on 1 February 1858. 2,674 tons; 101,46 x 11,89 meters (length x breadth); clipper bow, 1 funnel, 3 masts (barkentine rigged); iron construction, screw propulsion, service speed 11 knots; accommodation for 60 passengers in 1st class, 110 in 2nd, and 400 in steerage; crew of between 102 and 118; freight capacity 1,000 tons; coal capacity 850 tons, burned at the rate of 2.2-2.5 kilos per horsepower hour.

19 June 1858, maiden voyage, Bremen-New York, carrying 115 passengers and 150 tons of freight; upon arrival at New York (4 July), she made a demonstration cruise to Sandy Hook, with invited guests that included Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 14 January 1860, reached Southampton under sail with a broken shaft; out of service undergoing repairs at Southampton for 6 months. 8 July 1860, resumed Bremen-New York service. 1864, a Krupp steel shaft installed, and boiler pre-heating. 5 November 1873, last voyage, Bremen - Southampton - New York. June 1874, along with the steamship NEW YORK, sold to E. Bates & Co., Liverpool, for £19,000; both vessels converted to sail. 16 October 1882, ran ashore on the Farallon Islands, 27 miles outside the Golden Gate, San Francisco, directly under the light house, in a dense fog. The cargo of coal and whiskey was insured, the ship was not. Small craft waited for the whiskey cargo to float up; in 1929, a T. H. P. Whitelaw proposed raising the whiskey, but was prevented from doing so by the U.S. government.

Sources: Arnold Kludas, Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutschen Lloyd, Bd. 1: 1857 bis 1919 (Herford: Koehler, c1991), pp. 10-11 (picture); Edwin Drechsel, Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen, 1857-1970; History, Fleet, Ship Mails, vol. 1 (Vancouver: Cordillera Pub. Co., c1994), p. 13; Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 2 (1978), p. 544.

Master:
     1861/62-1868/69 - R. Keats
     1868/69-1870/71 - J. Whyte
     1870/71-1872/73 - Middleton
     1872/73-1874/75 - J. Morgan
     1874/75-1880/81 - Hammond

Owner:
     1861/62-1872/73 - J[ohn] C. Buckle
     1872/73-1876/77 - W. & J. Herron
     1877/78         - J. Herron
     1877/78-1878/79 - W. Campbell
     1878/79-1880/81 - J. Herron

Port of Registry:
     1861/62-1872/73 - Bristol
     1872/73-1875/76 - Liverpool
     1876/77-1880/81 - Bristol

Port of Survey:
     1861/62         - St. John, New Brunswick
     1861/62-1864/65 - Bristol
     1864/65-1866/67 - London
     1867/68-1873/74 - Bristol
     1873/74-1874/75 - Liverpool
     1875/76-1880/81 - Newport

Destined Voyage (through 1873/74):
     1861/62         - Bristol
     1861/62-1864/65 - West Indies
     1866/67         - [not given]
     1867/68-1868/69 - Karrache
     1868/69-1873/74 - San Francisco

On 22 November 1880, the bark BRISTOLIAN, J. McClements, master, and a crew of 14, bound from Quebec for Port Glasgow with a cargo of timber and deals, stranded on Anticosti Island, 5 miles west of Becscie River, with the loss of 3 men.

Source: Abstract Returns of Wrecks and Casualties on Coasts of U.K.; Casualties to British Ships elsewhere, and to Foreign Ships on Coasts of British Possessions Abroad, Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons, 1882 [C.3177] lxiii.384.

The U.S. ship BRITANNIA was built at New York by Brown & Bell in 1826. 630 tons; 132 ft 10 in x 32 ft 6 in x 16 ft 3 in (length x beam x depth of hold). She served in the Black Ball line of sailing packets between New York and Liverpool from 1826 through 1835, during which period her westbound passages averaged 38 days, her shortest passage being 28 days, her longest 59 days. The packet business in the 1820's and 1830's was very competitive, and by 1835 the BRITANNIA was considered too small, and her accommodations too outmoded, and she was sold as a transient. The BRITANNIA was lost at sea in the summer of 1842; I do not at present know the details

Sources: Robert Greenhalgh Albion, Square-riggers on Schedule; The New York Sailing Packets to England, France, and the Cotton Ports (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1938), pp. 44, 116, 276-277, 308, 338, 341, 343; Carl C. Cutler, Queens of the Western Ocean; The Story of America's Mail and Passenger Sailing Lines (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, c1961), pp. 154, 155, 185, 202, 206, 272, 356, 377, 510; William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, [1945-55]), vol. 2, pp. 1110, 1111, 1207, 1298; vol. 5, p. 2788.

The steamship BRITISH EMPIRE was built for British Shipowners by Harland & Wolff, Belfast (engines by G. Forrester & Co, Liverpool), and was launched on 7 March 1878. 3,329 tons; 119,56 x 11,89 meters / 392.3 x 39 feet (length x breadth); straight step, 1 funnel, 4 masts; iron construction, screw propulsion, service speed 12 knots.

Originally chartered to the American Line. 25 September 1878, maiden voyage, Liverpool-Philadelphia, for the American Line. 1 September 1880, last voyage, Philadelphia-Liverpool. 30 May 1885, 1 roundtrip voyage, Liverpool - Queenstown - New York, chartered to the Guion Line. 1886, purchased by the Nederlandsche-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart Maatschappij (Holland America Line), and renamed ROTTERDAM (the second of several vessels of that name owned by the line); accommodation for 70 passengers in 1st class, 70 in 2nd class, and 800 in steerage. 6 November 1886, first voyage, Rotterdam-New York. 8 February 1890, first voyage, Amsterdam-New York. By 29 October 1892, resumed Rotterdam-New York service. 31 August 1895, resumed Amsterdam-New York service. 1895, renamed EDAM (to make way for a new steamship named ROTTERDAM); 28 November 1895, first voyage, Amsterdam-New York, under new name. 25 February-27 May 1899, Rotterdam-New York. 1899, scrapped in Italy.

Source: Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 3 (1979), pp 911 and 940.

The steamship BRITISH QUEEN was built for the Ulster Steamship Co, Belfast, by Harland & Wolff (yard #138), Belfast (engines J. Jack & Co, Liverpool), and was launched on 4 November 1880. 3,558 tons; 125,05 x 11,89 meters / 410.3 x 39 feet (length x breadth); straight stem, 1 funnel, 4 masts; steel construction, screw propulsion, service speed 12 knots.

The BRITISH QUEEN and her sister, the BRITISH KING, were the first all passenger ships built by Harland & Wolff, and the first to have steel hulls. The BRITISH QUEEN spent the first part of her career under charter:

1. American Line. 31 January 1881, maiden voyage, Liverpool-Philadelphia. 27 January 1883, last voyage, Liverpool-Philadelphia.
2. New Zealand Shipping Co and Shaw, Savill & Albion. 22 March 1883, first voyage, London-New Zealand (4 roundtrip voyages).
3. Anchor Line. 28 May 1885, first voyage, London-New York. 19 October 1885, last voyage, London-New York (3 roundtrip voyages). December 1885, first voyage, London - Halifax - Boston. June 1886, last voyage, London - Halifax - Boston (4 roundtrip voyages).
4. Inman Line. 10 May 1887, first voyage, Liverpool-New York. 19 July 1887, last voyage, Liverpool-New York (3 roundtrip voyages).
5. Furness Line. August 1887, first voyage, London-Boston. November 1888, last voyage, London-Boston.

1889, purchased by the Nederlandsche-Amerikaansche Stoomvaart-Maatschappij (Holland America Line), and renamed OBDAM; accommodation for 80 passengers in 1st class, 60 in 2nd class, and 800 in steerage. 23 March 1889, first voyage, Rotterdam-New York. 1896, triple-expansion engines. 9 June 1898, last voyage, Rotterdam-New York. 1898, McPHERSON (U.S. Army transport). 1905, acquired by the Frank Zotti Steamship Co (Zotti Line) and renamed BROOKLYN. 19 October 1905, first voyage, New York - Azores - Naples - Genoa. 23 June 1906, last voyage, Marseilles - Azores - New York (5 roundtrip voyages). 1906, S. V. LUCKENBACH (U.S.). 1915, ONEGA (U.S.). 30 August 1918, torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel by German submarine UB 123.

Sources: Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 3 (1978), p. 941. Tom McCluskie, Ships from the Archives of Harland & Wolff, the Builders of the TITANIC (Edison, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, c1998), pp. 136-141, reproduces several of Harland & Wolff's original plans for the BRITISH QUEEN and the BRITISH KING.

The wooden side-wheel steamship BROTHER JONATHAN was built at Williamsburg, New York, by Perine, Patterson & Stack, for Edward Mills, and was launched on 2 November 1850. 1,359 52/95 tons; 220 feet 11 inches x 36 feet x 13 feet 10 inches (length x breadth x depth of hold); 2 masts, 2 decks, round stern, billethead; hull of white oak, live oak, locust, and cedar, floors of white oak 14 inches thick; designed with sharp ends, hollow lines, taffrail formed like an eagle with a 9-foot wingspread; engines (Morgan Iron Works, New York), 6 foot bore x 11 foot stroke; paddle wheels 33 feet in diameter; berths for 365 passengers as built; main saloon 70 feet long with 12 staterooms on each side, each with 2 doors, 1 opening into the saloon the other on deck; total cost $190,000.

1851-1852, sailed between New York and Chagres for Edward Mills. March 1852, sold by Mills to Cornelius Vanderbilt, who undertook extensive alterations, in which her guards were raised and built up solid and her passenger capacity increased to 750. 14 May 1852, cleared New York for San Francisco. 1852-1856, sailed between San Francisco and San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, for Vanderbilt. From 1856, operated in the local coastwise service, owned by John T. Wright and the California Steam Navigation Co. 1861, extensively rebuilt. 30 July 1865, struck a sunken rock off St. George's Point, 8 or 10 miles north of Crescent City, and went down in 45 minutes.

Source: John Haskell Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869, University of California Studies in History, 29 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1943), p. 217.