SS City of New York

A reader wants to know how many ships were named “City of New York” during the 1800s.

After a day of digging, we found:

SS City of New York

Several ships and a few steamships were named City of New York; one was a packet launched in 1854 for the D. & A. Kingsland line. Another, the ship City of New York of 1811 tons of Train’s Line (Enoch Train of Boston).

In 1851, Mailler & Lord, had the little steamship City of New York, registering 574 tons, ready to put into their Boston-Richmond line to supplement their sailing service when it was decided to send her to Chagres instead.

In 1853, this City of New York was taken off the Chagres line to sail between Boston and Philadelphia. Boston agent Phineas Sprague assured the public that the steamers would leave T Wharf every Saturday, “full or not full.” (Source: Queens Of The Western Ocean, The Story Of American’s Mail And Passenger Sailing Lines. Carl C. Cutler. 1961)

The Inman Line operated three steamers named “City of New York” from 1850 until 1893. The owner of the company, William Inman was born in England 1825 and died in his home in Cheshire in July 1881, just after the launching of the S/S City of Rome. Inman was thus spared the disappointment regarding the low performance of the ship, which was returned to her builders after only 6 round voyages for the company. They were three different vessels; each was added to the line after its predecessor was wrecked.

• 1861. Launched in Glasgow April 12. 336 feet. Sailed September 11 1861 from Liverpool to Queenstown, Ireland, and then to New York in September 1861.
  

  New York Times, June 23, 1863
  The steamship City of New-York, which arrived here yesterday, (Sunday) will, on account of her rapid passage and at the request of the Post-office authorities, be dispatched from here on Saturday next, 27th inst., carrying the mails.

  New York Times, November 6, 1861
  It is scarcely more than a month ago that we had occasion to speak in terms of merited compliment of the trial trip of the City of New-York, belonging to the Liverpool, New-York, and Philadelphia Steamship Company. In a few hours’ run down the Bay, she displayed qualities of speed which seemed to place her at the head of the screw steam fleet belonging to the commercial world. In every other respect she seemed to be the equal of any vessel that leaves our port to cross the Atlantic. Since then theCity of New-York has made an eastern and a western passage, both of so remarkable a character that the best expectations excited on the occasion we have referred to were more than realized. She left her dock at Pier No. 44 North River on the 5th of August, and after being detained several hours by the tide, crossed the bar at 4 1/2 o’clock, P.M. Nine days and fourteen hours afterwards she was in the harbor of Queenstown, beating the Persia, which followed three days later, by several hours. During this passage, and the one just completed, the vessel was not allowed to run at her full pressure of steam, owing to the newness of the engines, which might easily have become heated. Hence it is reasonable to expect that in a more favorable period of the year, and when the motive power can be used to its fullest capacity, the vessel will exceed her best running this season. And yet it will be seen by the following extract from the log that the western trip was one of the most remarkable ever made, having been accomplished in the space of nine days and four hours. The storm prevented the vessel from reaching her dock on Saturday, and, indeed, she was compelled to put to sea during the most violent portion of it. The following is the official account of the run westward:

  The British steamship City of New-York, Capt. PETRIE, from Liverpool Oct. 23, via Queenstown 24th, at twenty-five minutes past four P.M. arrived at Sandy Hook at half-past eight P.M. on the 2d of November. Oct. 30, at 7 P.M., Cape Race light bore north, distant six miles, but she could not approach, in consequence of the heavy southeast sea.

• The Illustrated London News, vol. 44, no. 1252, p. 349. April 9, 1864
  The steam-ship City of New York, one of the ships belonging to the Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia Steam-ship Company, usually called the Inman line, remains still fixed upon Daunt’s Rock, at the entrance of Cork or Queenstown harbour, where she struck on the morning of Tuesday week. The first of the two Engravings, from sketches taken expressly for this Journal, shows the position of the ship last Saturday, when she presented no external appearance of injury; the tug-boats were alongside removing her cargo, and there was another large steamer, which is seen on the right.Below from The Illustrated London News, April 9, 1864. Reprints available by clicking on images.

• 1865: Launched at Glasgow in 1865 as the Delaware for owners Richardson, Spence & Co. of Liverpool. Purchased in 1865 by the Inman Line and renamed City of New York. Her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Queenstown, Ireland, thence to New York in June 1865. Ran between Liverpool and New York until 1873 when she was chartered by the American Line and renamed the City of Bristol.

• Liverpool and Queenstown to New York,  26 June 1866
  DISTRICT OF NEW YORK – PORT OF NEW YORK
  I, Robert Leitch, master of the S. S. “City of New York” do solemnly, sincerely, and truly (missing word) that the following List or Manifest, subscribed by me, and now delivered by me to the Collector of Customs of the Collection District of New York, is a full and perfect List of all the passengers taken on board the said City of New York Liverpool and Queenstown from which ports the said City of New York has now arrived; and that on said list is truly designated the age, the sex, and the occupation of each of said pasengers, the part of the vessel occupied by each during the passage, the country to which each belongs, and also the country of which it is intended by each to become an inhabitant; and that said List or Manifest truly sets forth the number of said Passengers who have died on said Voyage, and the names and ages of those who died. (Passengers are noted on the Immigrant Ships List.)
• 1888: Inman’s final City of New York was launched at Clydebank, Scotland. This 560-foot-long twin-screw express steamship became the first ship apart from the Great Eastern to exceed 10,000 tons. It had a capacity of just under 2000 passengers and from August 1892 to May 1893 it held the eastbound Atlantic speed record with an average speed of just over 20 kts.  It was large for its day checking in at 17,240 tons and it and its sister ship, SS City of Paris, were the first express ocean liners to feature twin screws.  In February 1893, the Inman Line was folded into the American Line with the ship becoming American flagged and renamed the SS New York.  The ship was used by the US government during the Spanish American war and returned to transatlantic service in January 1899.

On May 22, 1874, the Lebanon Daily News, Lebanon Pennsylvania reported:

CHEAP TRANSPORTATION — The New York Herald, commenting on the successful trip of the City of New York up the Erie Canal says: Success has at last attended the efforts to apply steam to canal transportation. It would be difficuilt to overrate the value of this new achievement of science, and yet it leaves very much to be accomplished before the transport question can be looked upon as solved. It will considerably shorten the time between the terminal on the lakes and New York, but the main question of cheap and rapid transport for Western produce remains unsolved.And this question of cheap transportation for the produce of the great West is essentially a popular question. It means cheap food for the East and cheap goods for the West. Every section of the country is interested in it.

(Editor’s Note: It is unclear as to which City of New York this might be. Given the number of steamers named City of New York, it could be a smaller steamer designated as a river steamer and not others mentioned herein.)

In 1875, Roach in Chester, PA built The SS City of New York,an iron, 3,019 gross ton, screw propulsion steamer with a speed of 14 knots. She was built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. and sailed on her first voyage from San Francisco to Kandavau (Fiji) and Sydney on 24th April 1876. On 26th October 1893 she was wrecked on Point Bonita, San Francisco Bay.(Ad right: Daily Alta California, April 13, 1877)

The company ran a service between San Francisco, Fiji, Honolulu and Australia, New Zealand ports, and from 1879, advertised in the London Times “An overland route from Britain to Australia, New Zealand, China, etc, via New York and San Francisco in connection with the Anchor Line from London or Glasgow to New York. Through tickets are available.”