Supplement: The Major Reybold

The steamship Major Reybold saw service on the Delaware River for the Salem Line between Philadelphia and Salem, N. J., from 1853 to the mid 1930’s; she was sold off in 1938. She was noted for two things:  1) a ship’s bell with particularly deep tones, unique to the Delaware Bay, that probably was due to a large quantity of silver that was added to the the metal during casting, and 2) a run-in with a violent tornado on August 3, 1885, in which the steamship was heavily damaged, the pilot house torn off and thrown into the river, along with the captain, the pilot, and that same ship’s bell. The captain was rescued; the pilot was presumed drowned, his body never recovered; and the bell was never found, despite a substantial reward offered by the steamship company for its recovery from the Delaware River bottom.