Photo above: Port of New Orleans Where the Queen Victoria Arrived July 10, 1843
There are only a few more feet to go to get into comparative safety. She has obviously run in before the gale with only a close-reefed fore topsail set and that split up the centre. The starboard anchor is at the cathead ready for dropping. She is presumably the ship built at Bath, Maine, in 1828 of 711 tons. She occasionally sailed for the ‘Old Line’ of packets and also in the New York to Orleans service. This painting is signed: ‘Smartly, 1843’ (Peabody Museum, Salem)
These files include a painting of the sailing ship Queen Victoria, built in 1838 at Bath Maine.
Also included:
– Copy of the original ship’s passenger list when it arrived at New Orleans on 10 July, 1843
– A painting of the New Orleans harbor in the 1850s
– A painting of a typical steerage compartment on a packet ship; this most likely illustrates the conditions in which John Floersch’s family travelled to America.
– Copies of 6 different ship’s registries for the Queen Victoria, including the first registry filed after the QV was completed, dated 26 Oct. 1838.
The ship’s registry had to be refiled each time ownership changed, and each register cancelled the previous one. In addition to naming the owners, it includes a description of the ship.
Register # 345, dated 15th October, 1839, cancels the first (temporary) register # 38, dated 26 October, 1838.
Register # 741, dated 25th November, 1854, cancels register # 319, dated July 12, 1847. Register #319 could not be found in the National Archives, and is believed to have been destroyed in a fire. Unfortunately, this leaves a gap in the sequence of ownership from Oct.1839 (Register #345) to 25 Nov. 1854, when Register # 741 was filed; this leaves us without information about the owners of the ship in 1843, when John Floersch and his family boarded the ship for America.
Register #741 and the three subsequent Registers, #436, #687, and #730, covering a period from 25 Nov, 1854 to 4 Dec 1856, all show a Charles H. Ranlett as a 1/8th owner.
Since a Chas. A. Ranlett was the Captain of the Queen Victoria when it arrived in New Orleans in 1843, it seems fair to speculate that he was a relative of the owner, and that Charles H. Ranlett’s part-ownership was first reflected in missing Register #319.
No information has been found regarding the fate of the QV after 1856.
