Anchor Line Direct Steam Communication Between Granton, Norway, and Sweden

Anchor Line Direct Steam Communication Between Granton, Norway, and Sweden

Anchor Steamship Line Schedule

Steamboats--Florida

Advertisement for the Anchor Line of the Henderson Brothers steamship company. The Anchor Line first appeared in advertisements in 1852 for N and R Handyside and Company. Overseen by Captain Thomas Henderson, who first proposed a line between Scotland and America, the Anchor Line began steamship service from Glasgow, Scotland, to New York City, New York, in 1856. At the same time, Henderson formed a partnership with the Handyside brothers, thus creating Handyside and Henderson. Though the company started slowly, by 1866 it had expanded and was offering regular sailings to the Mediterranean, Calcutta, Bombay, and Scandinavia, as well as its transatlantic line to the United States.

At its height, the Anchor Line became a major carrier of European emigrants traveling to the United States. This particular advertisement advertises a line between Scotland, or Scotia, and several Scandinavian cities, including Gothenburg, Sweden, and Christianssand, Norway. It is unclear what connection the Anchor Line had to Henry Shelton Sanford, though it is possible that the Anchor Line was the shipping company used to transport a group of Swedish immigrants hired by Sanford to provide manual labor on his Florida properties, particularly his two citrus groves, St. Gertrude's and Belair. This possibility is made more plausible by the fact that, as the advertisement indicated, the company had an office located in Gothenburg, a major port city linked to sea-based shipping and travel. In May of 1871, Sanford brought 33 migrants from Sweden to work in Sanford. The Swedish workers, 26 men and 7 women, cost Sanford $75 each. According to the work contracts, Sanford was to provide housing and rations for each worker as well as a parcel of land for those satisfactorily completing their one-year contracts, Sanford hired an additional 20 Swedes later that year, in November of 1871.

Original advertisement: box 52, folder 1, subfolder 52.1.4, Henry Shelton Sanford Papers, General Henry S. Sanford Memorial Library, Sanford Museum, Sanford, Florida.

Henderson Brothers

ca. 1870-1871

Digital reproduction of original advertisement.

Henry Shelton Sanford Papers, General Henry S. Sanford Memorial Library, Sanford Museum, Sanford, Florida.

Henry Shelton Sanford Papers Collection, RICHES of Central Florida.

image/jpg

190 KB

1-page printed advertisement

eng

Text

Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

Granton, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Kristiansand, Norway

Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark

Gothenburg, Sweden

Donation

History Teacher

Economics Teacher

Originally created by Henderson Brothers.

Donated to the Connecticut Historical Society after 1901.

Loaned to the Tennessee State Library and Archives for processing until June 1, 1960.

Acquired by the General Henry S. Sanford Memorial Library, Sanford Museum in 1960.

The displayed collection item is housed at the General Henry S. Sanford Memorial Library, Sanford Museum in Sanford, Florida. Rights to this item belong to the said institution, and therefore inquiries about the item should be directed there. RICHES of Central Florida has obtained permission from the Sanford Museum to display this item for educational purposes only.

Fedorka, Drew M.

Stephen, Alexander & Sons. A shipbuilding history, 1750-1932: a record of the business founded, about 1750, by Alexander Stephen at Burghead, and subsequently carried on at Aberdeen, Arbroath, Dundee and Glasgow. London: E. J. Burrow & Company, 1932.

Bellamy, Martin and Bill Spalding. The Golden Age of the Anchor Line. Catrine, Ayrshire: Stenlake Publishing in association with Glasgow Museums, 2011.

Fry, Joseph A. Henry S. Sanford: Diplomacy and Business in Nineteenth-Century America. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1982.