How to Find Information on a Ship in 1852

Anna asked

I am searching for information about the ship Empire State that arrived in New York from Liverpool, England on July 9. 1852. My great grandparents were on that voyage. I would greatly appreciate any information you have about the ship.

Olive Tree Answer: Hi Anna, You didn't specify if you were looking for a ships passenger list or a drawing or technical information about the ship (size, type of ship etc) or who owned and captained it....

To find the passenger list for this ship you may want to search Ancestry.com complete database for arrivals in New York. You can also try other sites with ships passenger lists for New York to see if anyone has transcribed it for free. Finding the passenger list images on Ancestry will provide you with answers such as the name of the Captain, the size of the ship etc. That is found on the first page of the manifest.

It's fun to look for these ships in the New York Times newspaper Archives. You can find out when the ship arrived in port and sometimes other details especially if they encountered bad weather en route. For example look at this entry for a voyage that this ship made

New York Times, 19 July 1854

Ship Empire State, Briggs, Liverpool, June 3, with mdse. and 655 passengers to D. & A. Kingsland & Co. Had 2 deaths and 1 birth on passage. Lat. 43, lon. 49 to 51, saw large islands of ice." cleared 6 April 1854