Antwerp, Belgium Passenger Lists 1892-1939

First Vessel To Enter The New Siberia Dock At Antwerp - 1907

First Vessel To Enter The New Siberia Dock At Antwerp - 1907. GGA Image ID # 1759fecab9

Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province of Flanders. Antwerp is located on the right (eastern) bank of the river Scheldt, which is linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde estuary. The city has one of the largest seaports in Europe.

Antwerp with the Scheldt Quay circa 1892.

Antwerp with the Scheldt Quay circa 1892. Photo by Albert. (Norddeutscher Lloyd Geschichte und Handbuch, 1892) | GGA Image ID # 2284032949

Quick Links to Decades: 1890s | 1900s | 1910s | 1920s | 1930s

======== 1890s ========

Front Cover, Cabin Passenger List for the SS Friesland of the Red Star Line, Departing Saturday, 20 July 1895 from Antwerp to New York.

Red Star Line

======== 1900s ========

Passenger List, Red Star Line SS Vaderland, 1901, Antwerp to New York (Front Cover)

North German Lloyd / Norddeutscher Lloyd

1900-09-04 SS Bayern - Bremen to Hong Kong via Antwerp, Genoa, Colombo, and Singapore

Red Star Line

======== 1910s ========

Front Cover - 16 September 1911 Passenger List, RMS Vaderland, Red Star Line

Red Star Line

======== 1920s ========

Front Cover, Red Star Line SS Belgenland Cabin Class Passenger List - 26 June 1926.

Red Star Line

Canadian Pacific Line

1926-06-30 SS Melita Passenger List - Antwerp to Québec and Montréal

======== 1930s ========

Front Cover of a Cabin, Tourist and Third Class Passenger List for the SS Volendam of the Holland-America Line, Departing 9 September 1939 from Antwerp to New York

Arnold Bernstein / Red Star Line

1938-09-24 SS Gerolstein Passenger List - Antwerp to New York

Red Star Line

Holland-America Line

1939-09-09 SS Volendam Passenger List - Antwerp to New York

View of the Port of Antwerp from an Airplane in 1921.

View of the Port of Antwerp from an Airplane in 1921. GGA Image ID # 1420435d51

Like most European ports, Antwerp is an artificial one consisting of the river outlet leading to the sea—three hour's boat journey distant. The enormous artificial "basins" reached from the river employing locks. In the River Schell (or L'Escaut as the French call it), only a lew of the more extensive lines docked.

Because of its waterway connections with the Rhine, Antwerp was the principal port for South Germany. Only in the last few years has Rotterdam rivaled Antwerp.

Because of its steamship lines to the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Australia, many commodities' principal port and market from all climes. Here a continental grain center, here the rubber and ivory market of the world, goods of the Belgian Congo. Diamonds were cut and polished here in numbers only exceeded by Amsterdam. Here were brought in large quantities cotton from America, coffee from South America, sugar from the East and West Indies, wool from Australia and Argentina. (Rosenbaum Review, 10 March 1917)

Antwerps Proposed Free Port

Our Antwerp correspondent writes that even before the War, Belgium was considering the erection of a free port at Antwerp similar to those existing at Bremen and Hamburg. The fact that goods could be sent to these two last-named ports and stored in them free of all duties led to their becoming the chief continental markets for wool, coffee, cotton, etc.

There is a proposal now before the French Senate to establish a free port at Havre and Dunkirk. This has caused quite a stir in Belgian ship-ping circles. It is now proposed to establish a neutral tone at Antwerp where all goods could come in duty-free. This would significantly improve Antwerp's position as one of the foremost European porta of entry, but the project has not met the government's approval.

The Nautical Gazette, Vol. 98, 8 May 1920, p. 728.