Hamburg America Line
Spellings: Hamburg-American Packet Company / Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfarhrt Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) / Hamburg-American Line / Hamburg-Amerika Linie
Formed in 1847, the Packet Company sailed from Hamburg to New York via Southampton. In the early years sailing time was about 40 days, Hamburg to New York. In 1875 the company took over the Adler Line, and in 1886, amalgamated with the Carr-Union Line. They assumed control of the passenger management of Hamburg-South America Line, German East Africa Line and Hansa Line's Canadian service in 1888. The five vessels of the Eagle Line were purchased when that company collapsed and, about 1890, they took over the Hansa Line. In 1930 Hapag Lloyd Union was formed with North German Lloyd, and in 1972, the company combined with North German Lloyd to become Hapag-Lloyd AG.
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By 1872 the company was making weekly passages to New York and had extended their service to include Baltimore, the West Indies, Mexico, South American, China, Japan and Australia. Service was extended about 1873 to include routes from Hamburg, Antwerp and Montreal in the summer and Hamburg, Antwerp and Boston in the winter.
To avoid competition in the Mediterranean the Hamburg-American and the North German Lloyd Line agreed to run a joint service in that area. They sailed from Algiers, Naples and Genoa to New York.
Many thanks to Ted Finch for his assistance in collecting this data. The following list was extracted from various sources. This is not an all inclusive list but should only be used as a guide. If you would like to know more about a vessel, visit the Ship Descriptions (onsite) or Immigrant Ship web site.
Routes:
North Atlantic
1847-1939, 1970-1980 Hamburg - New York
1847-1869 Hamburg - Southampton - New York
1856-1939 Hamburg - Quebec - Montreal
1869-1889 Hamburg - Havre - New York - Plymouth - Cherbourg - Hamburg
1869-1932 Hamburg and Cuxhaven - Boston
1889-1939 Hamburg - Baltimore
1889-1939 Hamburg - Southampton (Cherbourg 1895) - New York
1897-1905 Genoa - Naples - New York
1898-1939 Hamburg - Philadelphia
1902-1906 Hamburg - Boulogne - Dover - New York
1902-1939 Passenger sailings from Cuxhaven in place of Hamburg.
Mid Atlantic
1867-1980 Hamburg - New Orleans
1870-1939 Hamburg - (Grimsby 1871) - West Indies plus intercolonial service in Caribbean.
1899-1980 Hamburg - Brazil - Amazon ports.
1900-1980 Hamburg - Mexico
1901-1914 West Indies - New York
South America
1870-1980 Hamburg - Antwerp - Salvador - Rio de Janeiro - Santos - Buenos Aires - Punta Arenas - Chacabuco - Castro - Puerto Monti - Valparaiso - Antofagasta - Arica - Callao - Guayaquil - Buenaventura.
1870-1934 Passenger service on above route.
1896- ? New York - Brazil
1897-1905 Genoa - Naples - Brazil - Uruguay - Argentina
1922-1980 Hamburg - Bremen - Amsterdam - Antwerp - Panama Canal - Buenaventura - Guayaquil - Callao - Arica - Antofagasta - Valparaiso
1922-1939 Passenger service on above route.
Far East and Australia
1898-1903 Hamburg - Far East passenger service
1898-1934 Hamburg - South Africa - Far East
1898-1980 Hamburg - Far East cargo service.
1898-1980 Hamburg - Suez or Cape Town - Australia Pacific Coast of North America
1903-1914 Hamburg - Straits of Magellan - South American ports - US Pacific ports - Vancouver.
1922-1980 Hamburg - Panama Canal - US Pacific ports - Vancouver
Miscellaneous
1866-1935 Hamburg - Heligoland - Isle of Sylt
1866-1946 Hamburg - Baltic feeder service and Travemunde - Baltic ferry service.
1886-1887, 1893-1914 (Scandia Line) Stettin - Gothenburg - New York
1891-1914 Winter Mediterranean cruises.
1893-1914 New York - Gibraltar - Palermo - Naples - Genoa or Trieste
18??-1934 Hamburg - Antwerp - Lisbon - Mediterranean ports - Istanbul.
Between 1914-1921 and 1939-1946 most services ceased to operate.
Source: theshiplist.com