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  Members
of the Getty family made several trips across the
Atlantic Ocean before the entire family was finally
together in America. First, the eldest son, William
John Getty, Sr. made the trip in 1848 at the age of
16. His father,
James A. Getty, Sr. (right) followed him to America in 1850
where they both lived
with a friend, Peter McGinley, on a farm in Groveland, New York.
In
early 1851, William returned to Ireland to accompany the rest of the
family on their trip. Although he was only 18 years old, William
gave his age as 30 so he could act as the "adult" taking care of the
others while on the ship. He, his mother, Matilda, and the other six
children who had been born in Ireland arrived at the port of New York on October
2, 1852 aboard the SS William Rathbone.
They were passengers
number
294 to 301 on the voyage which took nearly four
weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship, which
was built in Mystic, Connecticut in 1849, sailed the
Liverpool to New York route. It held 470 passengers,
most of them in the "between
decks" aka steerage, area of the ship.
 So
far, we have not been able to find the names of the first two ships
used by William in 1851 and his father in 1848.
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 Packets were the predecessors of the twentieth-century ocean liner
and were the first to sail between American and European ports on
regular schedules. The first company began operating 1 January 1818,
offering a monthly service between New York and Liverpool with four
ships. By 1825, vessels were
advertised as leaving New York on the 8th and leaving Liverpool on
the 24th of every month. Their actual schedules eventually
varied, sometimes wildly, due to weather and other conditions.
SS William Rathbone was first
launched in December, 1849 from Portsmouth, England. There had been
an earlier ship with that named which was built in 1809 but it sank
on one of its voyages. The 1849 ship was built at Mystic,
Connecticut. It too was wrecked near the Hillboro Inlet at Pompano
Beach, Florida on October 11, 1878. |
