Steve's History Website
my family's journey through time
Shugaevsky Family
Part 21 Marcus's Second Trip
1923 / Second Voyage
Marcus was not back for long. He arrived in November 1922 and was soon preparing to depart on February 1923 on the SS Olympic. Officially he was headed to England, France, and Germany on business for the American Mill Owners Corp. at 52 Broadway, NYC, about one block from the New York Stock Exchange. You may recognize some of the images below from earlier in this story.
Marcus asks the passport to be sent to the 52 Broadway, address. Also of interest is one of the few residential addresses we have for Marcus, 354 Wadsworth Ave Apartment 33. This is in Manhattan, north of the George Washington Bridge.
Click on images to enlarge.
The SS Olympic was a luxury liner that was almost as large as her sister ships the Titanic and the Britannic, both of which sunk. Marcus sailed on it but not on this trip.
Image: Public Domain
Details from the 1923 passport application. Marcus gave his occupation as "salesman". Was he selling products to Russians, or buying from Russians, or both, or engaged in something entirely different?
I never confirmed that the SS Olympic departed from New York on February 10, 1923. Instead I found that on February 25, 1923 Marcus arrived in London on the SS President Adams. He lists his profession as “salesman” and his address in London as 9 New Broad Street. To the right is a postcard of the SS President Adams and a cover of a schedule from www.timetableimages,com.
Portions of the passenger list for the SS President Adams are below.
The SS President Adams. Below is cover of a sailing schedule from www.timetableimages.com .
In the 1923 passport application which is for his second trip, Marcus stated that he would be back within one year. While in Estonia, he requested a six month extension which unfortunately is not dated. His foreign address is in Reval, an old name for Tallinn, Estonia, not far from Petrograd.
From February 1918 till November 1920 Estonians fought for and won their independence from Soviet Russia (with some help from White Russian forces). Since the Baltic States were previously part of the Russian Empire Marcus would have been able to use the Russian language for his business. Estonia had many Russian expatriates so he may have been doing business with Russians there.
In the extension, he claimed to work for the American Russian Consolidated Corporation which had offices at 11 Broadway, NYC.
Application for a six month extension to Marcus's passport
Reval (Tallin) is near the bottom left and Petrograd (St. Petersburg) is near the top right. The map is from Google maps and shows current borders
For a few years after the Bolshevik Revolution, the US wouldn't allow business with Russia. To skirt this restriction, goods were shipped to Estonia and then reshipped to Russia. It is possible that Marcus was involved in this ruse.
One of the few exports from this area was lumber, so Marcus may have actually been buying lumber for the American Mill Owner's Corp.
While I don't have a date for the passport extension above, I did find Marcus on a passenger list for the SS Olympic arriving in New York on March 4, 1925.
The text below is from the cover of the passenger list
White Star Line
Alphabetical Passenger List
SS Olympic Voy.109
from Southhampton on the 25th Feb 1925
arrived New York on the 4th March 1925
SS Olympic passenger list cover