This is the ship that Heinrich and Wilhelmina (Milhan) Rambow and their oldest two children, Friedrich and Bertha (Burgard) took from Germany to New York arriving on April 30, 1874.

THURINGIA was built by Caird & Co, Greenock in 1870 for the Hamburg America Line.

  • 3,133 gross ton ship, length 350.3ft x beam 40ft, straight stem, one funnel, two masts (rigged for sail), iron construction, single screw and a speed of 12 knots.

  • capacity for 102-1st, 136-2nd and 620-3rd class passengers.

  • one of a class of seven near-sister ships.

  • launched on May 18,1870, she sailed from Hamburg on her maiden voyage to New York on October 27,1870.

  • last Hamburg - Havre - New York voyage on May 12,1875

  • 1878 she was sold to the Russian Volunteer Fleet and renamed "Petersburg".

  • Renamed "St Petersburg" in 1892, she was transferred to the Imperial Russian Navy in 1893, renamed "Berezan", rebuilt as a minelayer and stationed in the Black Sea. Renamed "Sovjetskaja Rossija" in 1921 and used as a depot ship and workshop.

  • Bonsor states that she was still in service in 1939 and was probably lost during World War II, whereas Duncan Haws says that she was broken up in 1925.

  • [North Atlantic Seaway by N.R.P. Bonsor, vol.1, p.390] [Merchant Fleets by Duncan Haws, vol.4, Hamburg America Line, p.34] - [Posted to The ShipsList by Ted Finch - 22 July 1998]