The bark William Stephenson (former ship William Frothingham).
Welcome to the Packet Ship William Frothingham Website. This site is dedicated to researching and presenting the history of the packet ship William Frothingham. Built in Maine in 1851, she carried thousands of immigrants from Europe to the United States over the course of at least 11 years of Atlantic packet service. William Frothingham also made at least one prior voyage from New York to Port Philip, Australia. The ship was sold to Norway during or after 1868, at which time her name was changed to William Stephenson. Under the Norwegian flag, she was converted to a bark and hauled Canadian lumber to foreign ports until her demise in 1890.
My name is Brian Zurita, and I'm a descendant of a young couple who safely crossed the perilous Atlantic aboard the William Frothingham in 1858. I am assembling a genealogy of my children's ancestors, and in doing so, I wish to gather more than just the dates and places of people's births and deaths. I wish to tell the story of our ancestors as fully and accurately as possible. One significant event in the lives of my great great grandparents was their brave journey across the Atlantic to their new home and future in America. I am trying to understand as fully as possible their lives aboard that vessel during their 42 days at sea. Two things will potentially fulfill this goal; they comprise the Holy Grail of my project. They are the ship's logs and construction drawings. From everything I have heard, these items are extremely difficult--if not impossible--to locate for ships of that era. So while I continue my Arthurian search for them, I am also looking for personal drawings, diaries, and such that were made by passengers on any of her voyages. I am also seeking information on her builders, owners, crew, and namesake. By presenting as much information as possible on these people, I am hoping that perhaps someone who is related will stumble upon this website who has some additional piece of information to contribute. Perhaps that someone has already found my Grail.
2007-05-20: I am finally getting around to transferring this site from my Earthlink homepage area (which I will be cancelling soon). I am also taking this opportunity to update this page with a most incredible find. On 19 Nov 2006, I received the following email in response to this website.
Brian,
Are you still researching the Wm. Frothingham? I have information about the ship after it was sold to Norway. Let me know if you are still interested.
Carl Pedersen
After a couple of exchanges of emails, Carl informed me that he has a painting of the vessel after it was sold to Norway and rerigged and renamed as the bark William Stephenson. His great grandfather was a master of the bark in the 1870's in Norway and the painting was handed down through the family. Carl emailed me a photo of the painting, and it is with many thanks to Carl that I present it below.
The bark William Stephenson (former ship William Frothingham).
Please take a moment now to explore the information presented here. I would very much appreciate if you could also take a moment and e-mail me at Frothingham@Zurita.com to let me know what you think of this website, regardless of whether or not you have any relevant information to contribute. Thank you.