SS Mesaba Passenger Lists 1904

The SS Mesaba (1898) of the Atlantic Transport Line, Shown at Sea. GGA Image ID # 1d1e7031ed

Mesaba (1898) Atlantic Transport Line

Built by Harland & Wolff, Ltd., Belfast, Ireland. Tonnage: 6,833. Dimensions: 482' x 52'. Single-screw, 13 knots. Triple expansion engines. Four masts and one funnel. Fate: Torpedoed and sunk in Irish Sea, September 1, 1918. Prior Name: Ex- Winifreda (1898). Sister ships: Manitou, Marquette, Menominee and Mohegan.

All Digitized Passenger Lists For the SS Mesaba Available at the GG Archives. Listing Includes Date Voyage Began, Steamship Line, Vessel, Passenger Class and Route.

Passenger Lists contained in the GG Archives collection represent the souvenir list provided to the passengers of each cabin class (and other classes). Many of these souvenir passenger lists have disappeared over the years. Our collection contains a sampling of what was originally produced and printed by the steamship lines.

The SS Mesaba and the RMS Titanic

Seemingly the advantage because of venturing at high speed was business prestige. Mad the ice field been fifteen miles wide on the line of the Titanic's course, and had she succeeded in passing through at half-speed, she would have delayed her arrival at New York only forty-two minutes. But we now know that passage through was impossible.

At noon on the day of the Titanic's collision, the Mesaba of the Atlantic Transport Line sighted the pack and was obliged to go many miles south to round it. Her captain reported by letter to the Naval Hydrographic Office at Washington, according to Captain John J. Knapp, the chief hydrographer, that the ice was a solid pack about fifteen feet high and extending on each hand as far as the eve could reach.

Subsequent reports indicate a solid mass of pack-ice and bergs about five miles wide from east to west and forty-one miles long from north to south. A French steamer also tried to change her course and pass far to the south of her intended route. Captain Smith could not have known the actual conditions who would not have essayed the impossible.

American Personnel Sail on the Mesaba

The steamship SS Mesaba of the Atlantic Transport Line sailed on November 12th, having on board the first installment of the American personnel for the hospital ship Maine, which the Association of American Ladies in London, represented by Lady Randolph Churchill, was sent to South Africa.

At the party are three surgeons—Drs. G. E. Dodge and H. H. Rodman have been assistants of Dr. McBurney at Roosevelt Hospital and Dr. C. H. Weber of Philadelphia, whose appointment was warmly recommended from personal knowledge by Dr. John S. Billings of the United States Army.

They are in this party five nurses, Misses Hibbard. Lukins, Manly, McPherson and Me- Vean. The surgeons have taken an ambulance selected by General Francis V. Greene as the latest and best product of the American army experience. It is sent as a gift of Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, to whom Lady Randolph Churchill and her English associates have entrusted the work of selecting the American personnel for the hospital ship.

This ambulance was constructed after designs made by Major E. T. T. Marsh. It will accommodate four wounded. At the instance of Mrs. Reid, the Secretary of War has granted a leave of absence to Major Julian M. Cabell of the Medical Department so that he may accept a position as surgeon on the USS Maine.

About thirty more nurses—several of whom will be male — sail for England on November 18th. Two apothecaries will also be sent. London reported that Colonel F. Henderson, late of the Second Life Guards, had been appointed chief medical officer in charge of the hospital ship USS Maine.

Masonry Makes Citizens of Three Officers from the SS Mesaba

It was a dinner given by three of the officers of the Mesaba to about twenty-five members of Montauk Lodge No. 286, F. and A. M. of Brooklyn, of which the hosts had recently become members. But the particularly interesting feature of the occasion was the bringing together of men of widely distributed places of birth on the broad platform of Masonry and the converting of them into citizens.

Captain Sydney Layland is an Englishman and, since becoming a member of Montauk Lodge, has taken out his citizenship papers of his country. Dr. Leeming Walker is a Canadian, and First Officer J. Cretchton is a native of Scotland. They will soon follow the example of their captain. These three hosts admitted that their recent Masonic affiliations induced them to become Americans. Last night was the first opportunity since the raising of the last man that allowed them to return the many courtesies they had received at the hands of the members of Montauk Lodge.

The party assembled about 7 o'clock on board the Mesaba, and a fine dinner was served in due time. Captain Layland formally welcomed the visitors, and one or two brief responses were made. Then Right Worshipful F. W. Mascord, an honorary member of Montauk Lodge, presented, on behalf of the guests, to Captain Layland, Dr. Walker, and Officer Cretchton a handsome certificate of membership, enclosed in red Morocco cases. All three officers accepted these with a word of appreciation from Dr. Walker and Mr. Creichton.

Bibliography

Excerpt from Rear Admiral Charles D. Sigsbee, USN, "Safety at Sea: In the Light of the Titanic Disaster," in The Century Magazine, Vol. LXXXIV, No. 3, July 1912, p. 462.

Excerpt from "Medical Matters in New York," in The Medical News: A Weekly Journal of Medical Science, New York: Lea Brothers & Co., Vol. LXXV, No. 21, 18 November 1899, p. 657.

"Masonry Makes Citizens," in The American Tyler: Devoted to Freemasonry -- Leading Paper of the Craft, Detroit: The Tyler Publishing Co., Vol. XIV, No. 3, 1 August 1899, p. 71.