BELGIUM-ROOTS ProjectEmigration port Antwerp (Belgium)A Port for all nationalities |
Het Land van Beveren, Jaargang XXXIX, 1996 [ LvB] published a rather interesting statistics of the emigration via the Port of Antwerp in the 1840s:
Destination 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 Total New York 2,143 3,658 7,583 12,776 8,894 9,154 44,208 New Orleans 303 184 1,204 1,413 1,911 1,106 6,122 Baltimore 125 125 Boston 105 105 Galveston 127 1,367 2,274 213 3,981 Charleston 98 98 Rio de Janeiro 51 1,661 1,712 Rio Grande 95 152 55 302 Guatemala 48 48 Santo Thomas 337 11 28 376 St. Catherine 52 52 Algeria 119 119 London 292 292 Portsmouth 525 525 Lissabon 58 58 Total 2,961 5,221 13,178 15,430 11,073 10,260 58,123
These first emigrants probably were mainly Germans. There is an interesting article in Het Land van Beveren, Jaargang XXXIX, 1996 relating the ordeal of passengers on board a vessel on which the bubonic plague had broken out.
I take it that the patient researcher will find quite a few foreigners in the registrations of death of the city of Antwerp for this Era.
Antwerp was one of the main transit ports in Europe. Some official reports have come to us, and I have a copy of the one of 1903. I am trying to find the ones that must exist for other years as well.
In 1903, 72,486 passengers left from the port of Antwerp, including:
Direct Sailings: 64,254 passengers of which: 0 to North America, Canada 62,847 to North America, other countries 345 to South America 11 to Asia 26 to Africa 1,025 to Australia - Russians 19.448 - Hungarians 18.115 - Austrians 9.859 - Germans 5.646 - Belgians 3.343 - Italians 2.720 - English 1.029 - Greeks 954 - Americans 678 - Swiss 621 - Romanians 460 - Dutch 375 - French 366 - Luxemburgers 302 - Bulgarians 129 - Macedonians 81 - Turks 73 - Montenegrians 16 - Argentinians 14 - Norwegians 8 - Serbs 6 - Brazilians 5 - Danes 2 - Spaniards 1 - Swedes 1 - Transvalers 1 Indirect Sailings: 8,232 passengers of which 5,986 to North America, Canada 2,049 to North America, other countries 114 to South America 0 to Asia 83 to Africa 0 to Australia - Belgians 774 - Foreigners 7.758
The statistics give a division by sex and by age (under/above 16), and by profession.
In the same year, 13,261 passengers arrived in Antwerp, for which no further details are given.
As for the destinations, the report states that out of the 62,847 "heads" who sailed directly from Antwerp to the United States 55,272 went to New York, 7,574 to Philadelphia and 1 to ... Mexico [apparently the government official had his own vision]. The details he gives are as follows:
North America New York 55,271 Philadelphia 7,574 Havana 2 ------> 62,847 South America Brazil Santos 13 São Francisco 1 São Paulo 1 Rio de Janeiro 15 Uruguay Montevideo 6 Argentinia Buenos Aires 308 Chili Valparaiso 1 ------> 345 Asia Colombo 9 Singapore 1 Manilla 1 ------> 11 Africa Beira 7 Delagoa-Bay 6 Chinde 1 Cape Town 6 Zanzibar 1 Tanga 4 Durban 1 ------> 26 Australia AUS Fremantle 267 AUS Adelaïde 18 AUS Melbourne 142 AUS Sydney 375 NZL Auckland 63 NZL Wellington 43 NZL Lyttleton 15 AUS Brisbane 50 AUS Townsville 19 NZL Port Chalmers 9 AUS Maryborough 1 AUS Rockhampton 1 AUS Launceston 1 NZL Dunedin 2 AUS Bundaberg 6 NZL Napier 4 AUS Hobart 3 NZL Taranaki 2 NZL Bluff 1 AUS Port Mackay 1 NZL Wanganui 1 NZL Gisborne 1 ------> 1,025 Grand Total ------> 64,254
- Note: the report don't make a distinction between New Zealand and Australia; therefore I have included the labels AUS for Australia (including Tasmania) and NZL for New Zealand.
The report further states that out of the 5,986 emigrants for Canada, 486 were Belgians and 5,500 foreigners. All of them left via another port [it is not stated which one].
It also states that, towards the end of March, a direct service between Antwerp had been inaugurated by the Canadian Pacific Railway. [Note: the report does clearly say that this was a direct service, but in the report are only indirect passengers listed; since the report was made on 14 April 1904, I take it that the Canadian Pacific Railway started their direct service in March 1904 only, and not in 1903].
The report is very detailed as far as the origin and destination of the Belgians is concerned, and there is a separate report giving their identity and final destinations.
In 1903 an American "medical delegate" was present at the embarkation in the port of Antwerp.
*** Some sources claim that a passenger would have to spend 18 days in Antwerp before leaving, I cannot but guess that the travel agent did have an agreement with an Antwerp hotel. Business as usual? There were some formalities to cope with, but as far as I understood, they would never take more than a couple of days. It is a well known fact however that the Antwerp economy was thriving in those times. I wish we could start over the entire thing.
The Competition
From the few references I have, I can still add to this that people leaving from Antwerp sometimes left via Liverpool, and Southampton. The Titanic (1912) had 22 Belgian passengers on board.
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