Collections
Details of model
This model is currently on display in the Emigration gallery in the basement of Merseyside Maritime Museum.
Transatlantic passenger liner, Red Star Line, Antwerp
'Friesland' was built in 1889 by J and G Thomson of Glasgow for Red Star. At the time the company's emigrant trade from Antwerp to New York was becoming extremely successful. She was the only ship laid down for the company to have a clipper stem. She was also the last to carry square sails and the first with triple expansion engines. From October 1885 she was employed with the 'Southwark', 'Kensington', 'Westernland', 'Noordland' and sometimes the 'Berlin' on the company's new weekly service from New York to Antwerp. 'Friesland' and her consorts helped the company to carry over 41,000 passengers from Antwerp to New York in 1891, a figure beaten only by two British and two German lines.
The completion in 1901-2 of four large steamers for Red Star's Antwerp-New York service led to the transfer of five older, smaller and slower ships to other companies and routes. 'Friesland' was one of these, being transferred on long-term charter in 1903 to the American Line for its Philadelphia-Liverpool service. At this time the vessel's passenger capacity was changed to 300 second class and 600 third. In 1911, after eight years on this service and well past her prime, she was sold to Italian owners and renamed 'La Plata'. Her masts were reduced to two. She was scrapped in 1912