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.
Across the Atlantic: The Floersch Family’s Journey to America in 1843
On 10 July 1843, a sailing vessel named the Queen Victoria arrived in New Orleans after crossing the Atlantic from Le Havre, France.
On board were 111 passengers, among them the Floersch family.
For the family, this was more than the arrival of another immigrant ship. It marked the end of a long and uncertain journey from Europe and the beginning of a new chapter in America.
Leaving France
The passenger record tells us when the Queen Victoria reached New Orleans, but it does not appear to give us the precise day on which the ship left Le Havre.
We can, however, make a reasonable estimate.
Other voyages between Le Havre and New Orleans during the same period took roughly two months. In one particularly useful comparison, four Jesuits left Le Havre on 20 March 1843 and reached New Orleans on 18 May — a voyage of approximately 59 days.
If the Queen Victoria made a similar passage, counting backward 59 days from the documented arrival on 10 July places her departure from Le Havre at approximately 12 May 1843.
That date should be regarded as an estimate, not a proven fact. Sailing times could vary substantially depending upon winds, weather, currents, and conditions at sea. A departure sometime in early to mid-May 1843 is therefore a reasonable reconstruction, with about 10–15 May being a particularly plausible window.
Sixty days at sea
Imagine the Floersch family standing on the docks at Le Havre sometime around the middle of May 1843.
Whatever belongings they could carry with them were about to become their possessions in a new country. Behind them was France; ahead lay an ocean they would spend roughly two months crossing.
The Queen Victoria was a sailing vessel, meaning that the journey depended upon wind and weather rather than an engine capable of maintaining a predictable speed. For the passengers, there was no knowing exactly when they would arrive.
Day after day, the ship would make its way westward across the Atlantic.
Eventually, after weeks at sea, the ship reached the Gulf of Mexico and continued toward the mouth of the Mississippi River. The final destination was New Orleans, one of the great gateways through which European immigrants entered the United States during the nineteenth century.
Then, on 10 July 1843, the journey was over.
The Queen Victoria arrived in New Orleans with 111 passengers.
Among them were the Floersch family.
A journey we can almost date
Although the exact departure date remains to be discovered, the surviving records allow us to put boundaries around the journey.
Approximately 12 May 1843
Estimated departure from Le Havre
Approximately 59 days
A reasonable estimate for the Atlantic passage, based on another contemporary Le Havre–New Orleans voyage
10 July 1843
Documented arrival in New Orleans
The likely departure window is early to mid-May 1843, perhaps roughly 1–20 May.
That means that sometime in May 1843, the Floersch family left France aboard the Queen Victoria, beginning a voyage that would ultimately bring them to America.
There may still be more to discover
The story may not end with an estimate.
Contemporary newspapers and shipping records regularly reported vessels departing from Le Havre, and Queen Victoria was an established vessel on the transatlantic trade. Records also document the ship making another Le Havre-to-New Orleans voyage several years later.
A search of Le Havre shipping registers, French newspapers, port records, and contemporary American shipping reports may yet reveal the exact date on which the Queen Victoria sailed in May 1843.
For now, though, we can reasonably picture the Floersch family leaving Le Havre around the middle of May 1843 and arriving in New Orleans on 10 July, after roughly two months at sea.
More than 180 years later, the passenger list preserves the simple fact that they arrived.
The estimated departure date helps us imagine the other half of their story — the day they left France behind and set out across the Atlantic toward a new life in America.
