To America

At some time close to her 21st birthday, Caroline Feige decided to leave her family and emigrate to America. Why she wanted to do so and why she chose New Orleans may never be known.

For whatever reasons, Caroline left her home in the summer of 1868, knowing that she almost certainly would never again see her parents or siblings. The first part of her journey would have been the 110 miles from Bentheim to Bremen. By 1868, railroads may have been in place to make this part of the trip easier. From Bremen she would have traveled to the port of Bremerhaven and would have been there by 8 September 1868, the approximate date the ship she was scheduled to take, the Christel, sailed for New Orleans.


Detail from passenger list of ship Christel. The Bremen ship Christel was built at Burg, near Bremen, by Gebrüder Bosse for the Bremen firm of E. C. Schramm & Company, and was launched on 20 February 1864. Her length was about 158 feet, with a beam (width) of about 33 feet. When Caroline Feige sailed on the Christel, Franz Friedrichs was the commander.

Before the Christel left Bremen, a list of passengers was prepared. Included in it was No. 17: "Caroline Freige" [sic], age 23 [sic]. Her "Last Legal Residence" was given as Bentheim. A copy of this page of the passenger list can be found here: page 1.


Forty-eight days after setting sail, the Christel completed the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean and reached the mouth of the Mississippi River. After being brought up the river by the towboat Tillie C. Jewitt, the ship docked in New Orleans on 26 October 1868. The "Marine News" in the New Orleans Bee of 28 October, reported the following in the "Arrived Yesterday" section:
     Ship Christel, (Bremen) Friedrichs. 48 days from Bre-
          men, in ballast, to Mummy, Luling & co.

On the same day,  the "Marine News" reported that the Christel arrived with 150 passengers.
 "Marine News" from the New Orleans Bee.


Caroline Feige walked down the gangway from the ship Christel to the New Orleans waterfront, ready to make the city her new home.


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