HENRY CONRAD BROTE COLLECTION

 

 

(Mss 195)

 

 

Inventory

 

 

Earl K. Long Library

University of New Orleans

 

January 1988

 

 

Contents

 

 

Summary

 

Biographical Note

 

Container List

 

Index Terms

 

Procedures for Requesting Special Collections Materials

 

 

 

Summary

 

 

Size:                          7 linear feet

 

Geographic

locations:                 Mainly New Orleans and other Gulf Coast ports and ports in the West Indies and on the east coast of South America; also San Francisco, Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver, New York, Newport, Savona, Italy, and ports on the west coast of Central and South America and Africa; also Guantanamo Naval Base.

 

Inclusive dates:      1914-1960

 

Summary:                Records and manuscripts created and/or compiled by Henry Conrad Brote (1894-1984), a United States merchant marine officer.  Includes correspondence, logs, voyage narratives, navigation work books, night orders, cargo plans, financial statements, reports, photographs.

 

Source:                     Gift, January 1988

 

Access:                     No restrictions

 

Copyright:                Physical rights are retained by the Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans.

 

Citation:                    Henry Conrad Brote Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans

 

 

 

Biographical Note

 

 

            Born on March 2, 1894 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Henry Conrad Brote began his seafaring career in July 1914 by enlisting in the United States Navy where he served as a seaman on various ships including the battleship Wyoming, until late 1918.  Following his discharge from the navy he worked as a merchant marine deck officer, first on vessels of the U.S. Shipping Board and later the French American Line until June of 1921.  A year later, in June 1922, he entered the employ of the Mississippi Shipping Company; he would remain an employee of that firm, first as a deck officer and later as a master, for the remainder of his seafaring career.

 

            Although Brote's almost half century career at sea took him to many parts of the globe, the bulk of the records forming this collection pertain to voyages between New Orleans and ports in the West Indies and on the east coast of South America.  Brote died on December 15 or 16, 1984 in St. Tammany Parish (death notices in the New Orleans Times-Picayune gives conflicting dates).

 

 

 

Container List

 

 

195-23            Bell Book, S.S. Del Monte, voyages 13 and 14 (one bound volume with detailed record by Brote of arrivals and departures from Texas ports, New Orleans, St. Thomas, and West African ports), June  22, 1949 – November 17, 1949.

 

195-29            Chief Officer's log, S.S. Faith, voyages 1-3 (one bound volume with record of arrivals and departures, shipboard activities, equipment use and condition, cargo disposition, weather and sea conditions on voyages from San Francisco to ports in Washington State and British Columbia, and thereafter to ports on the west coast of Mexico and South America, Panama, New Orleans, Cuba, and New York; Brote was not a member of the crew on these voyages), May 16, 1918 – February 14, 1919.

 

195-28            Deck Work Book, S.S. Del Norte (one bound volume with record by Brote of arrivals and departures and general ship maintenance on voyages to and from New Orleans and other Gulf Coast ports and ports on the east coast of South America), January 28, 1932 – October 16, 1933.

 

195-25            The Delta Twenty-Fivers, The Membership and By-Laws (printed loose­leaf booklet listing Delta Line employees with twenty-five or more years of tenure), n.p., n.d.

 

                        Diary three bound volumes of personal diary of Brote while serving as a blacksmith on the battleship U.S.S. Wyoming), February 13, 1917 – July 11, 1918

 

195-21                        February 13 – July 31, 1917

 

195-22                        August 1, 1917 – January 15, 1918

 

195-27                        January 16 – July 11, 1918

 

                        Miscellany unrelated to specific vessels or  voyages (company instructions, regulations, wage scales, transportation reimbursement scales, flag signal charts, rosters of foreign agents, tables of distances and steaming times, etc.); also personal miscellany.  n.d., 1931, 1936, 1949, 1953 – 1956, 1959.

 

195-30                        n.d.

 

195-31                        1931, 1936, 1949, 1953 – 1956, 1959

 

                        Naval Reserve file compiled by Brote (mainly form letters issued by the United States Navy concerning Naval Reserve training programs in seamanship; includes correspondence to and from Brote regarding his participation in such programs; also includes Naval Reserve fitness reports on Brote), n.d., 1929 – 1940.

 

195-32                        n.d.

 

195-33                        1929 – 1936

 

195-34                        1937

 

195-35                        1938

 

195-36                        1939

 

195-37                        1940

 

                        Navigation Work Books (seven bound volumes of navigational computations by Brote while serving on various vessels), 1919 – 1920, 1931 – 1934, 1940 – 1941.

 

195-1              S.S. Faith (voyages from New York to Savona, Italy with return to New Orleans, and then to Gulfport, Miss., Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and Montevideo; includes record of daily weather conditions), one bound volume, October 7, 1919 – March 13, 1920; laid in are loose papers relating to S.S. Faith for same general period.

 

                        S.S. Del Norte (voyages to and from New Orleans and other Gulf Coast ports and ports on the east coast of South America), four bound volumes, 1931 – 1934.

 

195-2                          November 24, 1931 – June 30, 1932

 

195-3                          December 9, 1932 – August 6, 1933

 

195-4                          August 13, 1933 – February 10, 1934

 

195-5                          September 3, 1934 – November 2, 1934

 

                        S.S. Del Rio (voyages to and from New Orleans and other Gulf Coast ports and ports in the West Indies and on the east coast of South America), two bound volumes, 1939 – 1941.

 

195-6                          February 18, 1939 – July 17, 1939

 

195-7                          October 3, 1940 – June 17, 1941

 

                        Night Orders (eight bound volumes of navigational orders to the night watch by Brote while master of the S.S.  Del Rio on voyages between New Orleans and other Gulf Coast ports and ports in the West Indies and on the east coast of South America), December 23, 1936 – October 31, 1937; April 3, 1938 – July 12 [11?] 1939; December 19, 1939 – April 8, 1941.

 

195-12                        December 23, 1936 – May 25, 1937

 

195-13                        May 26, 1939 [sic, 1937] – October 31, 1937

 

195-14                        April 3, 1938 – September 10, 1938

 

195-15                        September 11, 1938 – February 25, 1939

 

195-16                        February 26, 1939 – July 12 [11?], 1939

 

195-17                        December 19, 1939 – May 18 [19?], 1940

 

195-18                        May 19, 1940 – September 16, 1940

 

195-19                        September 17, 1940 – April 8, 1941

 

                              See also 195-40.

 

195-40            Night orders (one bound volume, mainly of navigational orders to the night watch by Captains H. D. Goodbody and W. D. Harper, and a third captain with undecipherable signature; vessel unidentified; ports of call in West Indies and east coast of South America May 3, 1958 – September 19, 1961.

 

                              See also 195-12 – 195-19.

 

195-26            Notebook (one bound volume of notations by Brote on purchase of tung tree groves in St. Tammany Parish; miscellaneous expenses; fish caught on voyages of S.S. Del Rio), 1935 – 1939.

 

                        Photographs (snapshot and commercial prints of Brote and/or other individuals, including sailors and officers with whom he served during World War I; of ports visited; of naval and commercial vessels on which he served or with which he came in contact), 179 items, ca.  1913 – 1960.

 

195-38                        Loose prints (mainly of Brote and/or associates, and commercial vessels on which he served; includes one print of fire on board battleship U.S.S. Wyoming), 43 items, ca. 1913 – 1960.

 

195-39                        Oversize prints (Brote as a young sailor, battleship U.S.S. Wyoming, cargo vessel Faith), 3 items, ca. 1918.

 

195-24                        Prints removed from album (mainly relating to Brote's career during World War I; includes views of Guantanamo Bay and Naval Base, New York Navy Yard, Newport, R. I. Naval Base; Scapa Flow, Scotland), 139 items, ca. 1914 – 1918.

 

                        Unbound voyage records compiled by Brote (correspondence, cargo plans, financial statements, logs, reports, voyage narratives, and related miscellany produced by or directed to Brote as a Master or Chief Mate; documents' original order of arrangement by ship's voyage number/chronology maintained; some records contain conflicting dates for voyages), n.d., 1928 – 1946, 1954 – 1959.

 

195-8                          S.S. Afel, voyages 20 – 25 (n.d., January 1935 – September 1936)

 

195-8                          S.S. Del Aires, voyages 1 – 17, 35 (n.d., September 1942 – February 1946, February, March 1955)

 

195-9                          S.S. Del Alba, voyage 32 (October 1954); also dates April, August, September 1955 without voyage numbers

 

195-9                          S.S. Del Campo, voyage 36 (August, September 1956)

 

195-9                          S.S. Casey, voyage 76 (October 1928)

 

195-9                          S.S. Del Monte, voyages 31, 32, 40 – 48 (November 1954, February – May 1955, January 1957 – January 1959)

 

195-9                          S.S. Del Mundo, voyage 37 (December 1954)

 

195-9                          S.S. Del Norte, voyages 2--14 (ca.  late 1931 – October 1934)

 

195-9                          S.S. Del Oro, voyage 36 (March 1956)

 

195-10                        S.S. Del Rio, voyages 1 – 19, 21 – 26, 28 – 30 (September 1936 – December 1940, February 1941 – July 1942, April – November 1954)

 

195-10                        S.S. Del Santos, voyages 30, 31, 35 (January, March, April 1954, March, June 1955)

 

195-10                        S.S. Del Sol, voyage 35 (ca. 1958)

 

195-10                        S.S. Del Valle, voyages 38, 39, 49, 50, (February, March 1954, July – December 1956); also date January 1958 without voyage number

 

195-10                        S.S. Del Viento, voyages 25, 26, 28, 29 (April, May 1954, January, February 1955)

 

195-11                        S.S. West Corum, voyages 1 – 6 (October 1929 – September 1931); also undated and dates February, April 1929 and September – November 1931 without voyage numbers

 

 

 

Index Terms

 

 

Brote, Henry Conrad

Mississippi Shipping Co.