Henry Lynn

Henry Lynn was born in Prussia and would go to sea when he was 16/17 years of age. He served on merchantman ships for 37 years, and sixteen of those years were under the U.S. Flag. Lynn’s last place of residence was the Sailors Home of New York. On November 16, 1850, Lynn would enter Sailors Snug Harbor. He would stay at the Harbor for 12 years, four months, and 17 days, dying on April 3, 1873. Henry Lynn is buried in Plot 2, Row 2, grave 20, which gives him a grave number of 837 according to the cemetery map. When Lynn died, he was a bachelor but left behind a nephew in Prussia.

Henry Lynn’s last ship that he served on before entering Sailors Snug Harbor was a packet ship called Sir Robert Peel in 1850. The Peel was on the Red Swallowtail Line. This line sailed from the port of New York to London. In June of 1851, Lynn left Sailors Snug Harbor of his own accord and rejoined the Red Swallowtail Line . This time he would serve on the Ship Cornelius Grinnell and would not return to Sailors Snug Harbor until October of 1851.

A tribute to the Packet Ships and the Sailors of the New York Line from the New York Herald in the 19th Century

The safety, sturdiness, dependability, and efficiency of the New York transatlantic sailing packets can be gathered from the tribute of the New York Herald to a retiring packet, a ship that experienced every conceivable kind of weather and seas in by far the most difficult trade route of the globe: “For twenty-nine years she battled with the Atlantic gales, making 116 round passages without losing a seaman, a sail, or a spar. She brought thirty thousand passengers to this country from Europe, and her cabins have witnessed fifteen hundred births and two hundred marriages.” Enthusiasm aside, it was also said that “it took a man every inch a seaman to reach an American port from Europe with spars and sails intact and keep his ship off the Long Island and New Jersey coasts in midwinter gales of thick snow and sleet.”4 (Charles). From Michael Charles Carolan Page - URI: https://michaelcharlescarolan.com/an-irish-passenger-an-american-family-and-their-time/#a_passenger

New York from Brooklyn Heights. Artist: Unknown, Medium: Black and White print 9-1/4 x 12-3/8", Date created: 1872, Published by D. Appleton and Co., New York. Print originally came from Picturesque America; Or The Land We Live In, Edited by William Cullen Bryant, Location: Private Collection North Haven Connecticut, USA.

Sailors Home - 190 Cherry Street between Market and Pike Streets - Erected by American Seamens Friend Society, Artist: Thompson and P.L.Glover, Medium: Black and White Lithograph, 38.3 by 31cm, Published by Cornelius B. Hulsart, circa 1842, Library of Congress, URI: https://www.loc.gov/resource/pga.08440/ .

Fairburn, William Armstrong. Merchant Sail Volume 2 - The Red Swallowtail Line, pgs. 1196-1197, Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, 1955, Lovell Maine URI: https://books.google.com/books?id=p3jVAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Henry Lynn Register Page - SSHRegisterA_Inmate46_Lynn_Henry.jp2. Date Created: August 3 1869, Place: New York (State)--New York--Staten Island, Publisher: The Trustees of Sailors' Snug Harbor, The collection is on permanent loan at the Stephen B. Luce Library of SUNY Maritime College. The. Sailors' Snug Harbor records are the Property of the Trustees of the Sailors’ Snug Harbor. URI: https://maritimedigitalcollections.com/Detail/objects/7361

Lubbock, Basil. The Western Ocean Packets, Boston, Charles E. Lauriat and Co. Publishers, 1925, URI: https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=cZRDAAAAIAAJ&pg=GBS.PR2&hl=en .

New York American Line-Ship, "Cornelius Grinnell". Illustration in The Illustrated London News, 31 August 1850, URI: https://njscuba.net/dive-sites/new-jersey-dive-sites/new-jersey-coast-chart/cornelius-grinnell

For Further Research on the Sailors Home New York - Mystic Seaport Records, URI: https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll158/ .

Henry Lynn

1795/1796 - April 3, 1873