Maritime Monday: S/S Lake Superior and the May 1899 Doukhobors

S/S Lake Superior

It was 117 years ago today – 9 May 1899 – that the Lake Superior arrived at Quebec City. The steamship left Larnaca, a port in Cyprus, on 18 April 1899. On board were 1,036 Doukhobors. They were originally from the province of Tiflis in the Russian Empire, but left there in 1898 for Cyprus. [1]

These men, women and children were the third group of exiled Doukhobors to arrive in Canada. They were accompanied by a ‘voyage organizer’, medical personnel (a doctor and two nurses), and five ‘Doukhobor sympathizers’. [2]

Seventy-three different Doukhobor surnames appear on the manifest. [3] I don’t believe that any of my husband’s ancestors were part of this May contingent.

Sources:

Image credit: Photo of S/S Lake Superior (built 1884), digital image, Norway – Heritage (http://www.norwayheritage.com : accessed 8 January 2014).

1. Steve Lapshinoff & Jonathan Kalmakoff, Doukhobor Ship Passenger Lists 1898-1928 (Crescent Valley: self-published, 2001), 24; citing National Archives of Canada, microfilm reel #C-4542.

2. Lapshinoff, Doukhobor Ship Passenger Lists 1898-1928, 24.

3. Lapshinoff, Doukhobor Ship Passenger Lists 1898-1928, 24-48.

Copyright © 2015, Yvonne Demoskoff.