Revisiting “The Stowaway”: New Evidence, New Conclusion

In a previous article, “The Stowaway,” I explored the possibility that my husband’s ancestor, Karl Kowallis, may have entered the United States as a stowaway. Although Karl appeared on the US Customs passenger list as a second-cabin passenger, I proposed that if Karl were a stowaway, this listing may have been created after departure to avoid the ship company having to eat the cost of a return trip to Europe.

In 1995, Karl’s second-oldest daughter, Adeline, told the story. It was documented by Richard, his youngest son.

“Lacking sufficient money for passage, Karl managed to board the ship and stow away undetected. After some time at sea, either a crew member apprehended him or he turned himself in to the captain. Whichever reason it was, the captain gave Karl the opportunity to work off his fare doing work on board ship.”

The assumption had always been that he was a stowaway across the Atlantic. However, evidence shows that this could not have been the case.

I recently looked at Liverpool's outgoing passenger lists and found Karl’s name on the manifest, confirming that shipping officials knew he was on board before the vessel ever left port.1

The outgoing passenger list below shows that Karl left Liverpool, having purchased ticket number 434.2 This shows that Karl Kowallis was definitely NOT a stowaway on the ship from Liverpool to America.

Elements of Truth?

I often say that family stories usually fall into one of two categories: they either contain an element of truth, or they were created to hide the truth. While some stories are simply invented, I suspect this one fits into one of the first two categories.

When stories are passed down through generations, details often change. Parts of the story may be forgotten, timelines may become distorted, and events involving different people may be combined into a single narrative. Sometimes stories are accurate, and other times, like this, they do not seem quite true. However, I often expect family traditions to preserve at least a kernel of truth, even if the details are no longer accurate.

The other option, that the story was told to hide the truth, does not seem especially convincing. It is difficult to see what types of facts a false immigration story would be used to conceal. It is also possible that the story developed from a misunderstanding or faulty memory. Karl arrived in New York in 1893, and the story was told in 1995, more than 100 years later, by his 91-year-old daughter.

In this case, the story may contain some truth. Although Karl Kowallis does not appear to have been a stowaway on a voyage from England to New York, it is possible that he traveled as a stowaway from Germany to England. To date, I have not found a passenger list documenting Karl’s departure from Germany. However, I have found passenger records for other family members who traveled from Germany to Liverpool. The absence of Karl’s name on a list for this part of the journey leaves open the possibility he was a stowaway between Germany and Liverpool even if he was not a stowaway from England to New York. However, we might uncover a record in the future that also disproves this theory.

Interesting differences in information

The incoming New York passenger lists for 1893 burned in the 1897 fire on Ellis Island. The Customs Lists, used for tax purposes, have survived. They also listed the names of all passengers.

The Customs Lists have differing information from the outgoing Liverpool lists. First, the order of passengers differs between the customs list and the outgoing passenger list. Second, some of the people on the list have differing names, ages, or occupations on the two documents.

Karl’s name was the seventh name on the page of the Customs List. The table below shows the first ten people on the Customs list, plus the last one on the previous page, to compare with the Outgoing Liverpool Passenger List. On the US Customs List, Karl Kowallis is listed as a 19-year-old German man with an occupation as a printer. The outgoing Liverpool list has him as a 20-year-old English farmer. The outgoing list also identified other Germans as Englishmen.

Customs List (New York) Outgoing Liverpool Passenger List
Dnl Lewis, 20, Engineer [Prev. Page] Harriet Compton, 24, Spinster
Harriet Compton, 24, None Rosa Stalder, 24, Spinster
Jacob Main, 53, Clerk Jacob Wain, 53, Gent
Elizabeth Main, 53, Wife Eliz “, 54, Wife
Jos Schwarz, 34, Photographer Joseph Schwarz, 34, Farmer
Mary “, 34, Wife Mary “, 34, Farmer
Louisa, “, 11[11/12], Inft Louisa “, Infant
Karl Kowallis, 19, Printer Karl Kowallis, 20, Farmer
Fred Farthmann, 29, [blank] Jno Farthman, 36, Farmer
Adelaide Harkert, 21, None Emma Harkert, 20, Spinster
Martin Anderson, 39, Clerk Martin Anderson, 39, Joiner

The differences between the two passenger lists show that the New York Customs Lists were not simply copied from the Liverpool outgoing passenger lists. Instead, the records appear to have been created independently, based on different sources of information. In Karl’s case, the Customs List accurately describes him as a 19-year-old German printer, while the Liverpool list records him as a 20-year-old English farmer. Differences such as these suggest that the information recorded in New York likely came from the passengers themselves or from information collected during the voyage or on arrival. The Liverpool lists, by contrast, may reflect information recorded when passage was purchased.

Those responsible for recording information during the voyage were concerned with documenting passengers in a way that would meet immigration requirements, while those issuing tickets were primarily concerned with selling passage. This difference in purpose may help explain why some passengers appear with different names, ages, or occupations on the two lists.

Conclusion

While there is sufficient evidence to conclude that Karl Kowallis was not a stowaway from Liverpool to New York, it is possible that he was a stowaway from Germany to New York. Perhaps he was even able to work extra for the captain to earn enough money for his voyage to America. There is definitely more to the story that we don’t know and may never find out.

  1. I’m not sure when these records came online, but I don’t think they were online when I wrote the Stowaway article, but I guess it is possible I didn’t think to check them. ↩

  2. “Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and Successors: Outwards Passenger Lists,” passenger list for the Alaska, Liverpool to New York, 14 October 1893, entry for Karl Kawallis [Kowallis]; online database, Findmypast (www.findmypast.com: accessed 28 February 2026); citing The National Archives (Kew, Surrey, England), Series BT 27, Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890–1960. ↩

Comments

Comments powered by Talkyard.