Jacob Staub Family

A few years ago I heard from Ken Leuthold with information on the Germania. The Jacob Staub family sailed from Le Havre, France to New York on that ship in 1868, the same year as the accident. Here's Ken's information about the Germania.


I was writing up a little information on Emma and looked up the ship she came over on, the Germania, to see whether it was a sailing ship or a steamer.  In the process I learned that it collided with and sank a dutch sailing ship off Dungeness in the English Channel in the early night of April 16, 1868.  I had not seen that comment in any of the write-ups of the Staub voyage; perhaps because the Germania received minor damage and just kept going at full speed (@11 knots).  There was a later admiralty lawsuit which found the dutch bark at fault for lack of lights; however, on appeal the court found both ships at fault for the collision and chastized the Germania for not stopping.  Most of this can be googled under Germania-1860 and Pauline Constance Eleonore (the bark's name).

On reflection; the likely reason nothing is mentioned is because they had not yet boarded.  The Germania had a Hamburg-New York route and though it initially had a Southampton stop that was later changed to Havre.  If that change was effective in 1868 (my records show the 1867 stop at Southampton and the 1869 stop at Havre), most of the Swiss would have boarded there and the Germania would have already cleared the English Channel and had its accident before they came on board.  It might, however, have been a subject of discussion among the passengers and added to the anxiety of a family with seven young children about to make their first sea voyage.  People of that day knew of the dangers of ship travel.  The Germania herself ran aground the next year (August 7, 1869) and sank off Cape Race Newfoundland, though there was no loss of life.

Thanks for the information, Ken!