| A' mhuir tha i ciùin | The sea is calm |
| Tha i fiadhaich, tha i farsuing | It is wild, it is vast |
| Tha i àlainn, tha i diamhair | It is beautiful, it is mysterious |
| Tha i gamhlasach is domhainn | It is vengeful and deep |
| O ach sinn, tha sinn dall | Oh but we, we are blind |
| 'S chan eil againn ach beatha | And all we have is life |
| Tog an seòl, tog an ràmh | Raise the sail, lift the oars |
| 'Gus am faigh sinn astar ann | 'Til we get up speed |
"Cearcall A' Chuain" by Calum MacDonald & Rory MacDonald | |
On July 25, 1853 - 162 years ago today - my 4th-great-grandparents Heinrich "Henry" and Sophia Campen arrived in Baltimore City, Maryland on the Neptune. According to the ship's passenger list, Henry was a 60-year-old merchant, and his wife Sophia was 58 years old - certainly past middle age for their day. Traveling with them were two of their adult children, Catharine and Eduard. The Neptune had departed from Bremen, but the Campens reported their last legal residence as Emden.
They were joining my 3rd-great-grandfather, John Campen, who had arrived in the U.S. about five years prior. Henry and Sophia arrived just in time for the birth of their grandson, John's first son, Henry Cornelius Campen, on September 25, 1853.
Unfortunately, Henry only got the chance to enjoy life in his new country for two years. The exact date of his death is unknown, but the records of the Baltimore Cemetery indicate that he was interred there on Christmas Eve in 1855. This time, Henry just missed the birth of a grandson: John's second son, my 2nd-great-grandfather, Louis W. Campen, was born the following month, in January of 1856.
Sophia Campen survived her husband by 17 years, passing away at the age of 88 on January 28, 1873.
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| CAMPEN - On the 28th of January, at three o'clk P. M., SOPHIA CAMPEN, aged 88 years, wife of the late Henry Campen, born in Emden Ost Friesland, kingdom of Hanover, but for the last twenty years a resident of Baltimore. | Mrs. Sophie Campen died yesterday, our good, elderly mother, grand- and great-grandmother, widow of the late Heinrich Campen, of old age in her 88th year of life. The grieving family asks for quiet sympathy. |