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Children of Charles
& Louise Nowasky
Children of Lawrence
& Amelia Leier
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S. S. FRISIA
Built in 1872 by Caird & Co. in Greenock, Scotland, and originally launched as the Alsatia, the Frisia was owned by the German Hamburg-American Line. It had room for 820 passengers, 600 of which were steerage class, plus a crew of 125. Between 1872 and 1885, the Frisia brought nearly 47,000 immigrants to the United States.
The Frisia had a sister ship, the S.S. Cimbria. By some ironic twist of fate, The Cimbria is the ship that brought Carl Nowasky Sr. to America in 1879. It may have been just a matter of timing or fate, but two months after the Frisia brought Louisa and the children to join Carl in New York, the Cimbria collided with another ship near the island of Borkum, off the northern coast of Germany. The Cimbria rapidly sank with the loss of 389 lives and although seven lifeboats got away, only 133 people were saved. Nearly all of the 72 women and 87 children on board were lost.
Louisa and her children boarded the ship at the German city of Hamburg, sailed up the Elbe River to the North Sea, then headed west through the English Channel to stop at the French port of Le Havre, before continuing on to New York. Rigged for both sail and steam power, the Frisia could normally make the Atlantic crossing in about 12 days. For whatever reason, it took the family nearly twice that. They departed Hamburg on October 18, 1882 and arrived in New York three weeks later on November 8, 1882.
The ship was one of the last iron steamships of its era. Shortly afterwards, steel-hulled ships became standard. Following its run as an immigrant ship, the Frisia was renamed and sold to Italian owners who converted it into a coal carrier. In 1902, the SS Frisia, then known as the Arno, was scrapped in Italy.
