John Berech Sr. Post 5

So inside the Ellis Island website I find out more about the ship John Came across.


"Built by Barclay, Curle & Co Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland, 1908. 8,596 gross tons; 475 (bp) feet long; 57 feet wide. Steam triple expansion engines, twin screw. Service speed 16 knots. (16 knots converts to about 18mph) Two funnels and four masts. (so it's a sailing ship ) Built for Russian American Line, in 1908 and named Russia. Libau-New York service. Laid up at Kronstadt, Russia August 1914 because of World War I.

The rest of the information after this is just about who all the other owners were after the war.

So WOW! Grandpa got out just in time! 6 months later and there would be no leaving Russia.

Now for Libau. I don't know where Libau is so I do a google search to see if I can find anything. I find that Libau was a city on the Baltic Sea and Part of the Russian Empire. Today the city is called Leipaja and it is in the country of Latvia. Here's a link about the city if you are interested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liep%C4%81ja#Russian_Empire

In addition to that Minsk is no longer part of Russia either but part of Belarus. Which you already knew. But what I didn't know was where exactly is Minsk located. I've never looked it up on a map. Here is a link to Google maps and you can see where they are.

Liepaja (Libau) is on the left on the coast (Duh!) Minsk is SE of there. Not to terribly far. It's easier to find if you zoom out.

http://www.worldmapfinder.com/Map_EarthMap.php?ID=/En/Europe/Latvia


So I'm thinking Whoa.... so John is Boarding a ship, in December mind you, on the Baltic Sea, travels through the Oresund Strait and out to the Atlantic Ocean and it takes almost 2 weeks to get there. I wonder how cold it might have been. Any icebergs? Now I'm getting all Titanic on you.

Kinda neat to see the path though.