---
title: "The voyage"
url: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/history/the-voyage/
lang: en
work: "The Smud Family: A Jewish Family History from Ludza, Latvia to Entre Ríos, Argentina"
author: "Mateo Smud"
licence: CC0-1.0
summary: "From Berdyansk to Bremen overland, and from Bremen to Buenos Aires in the hold of a steamer, calling at Lisbon, the Canaries, Bahia, Rio and Montevideo."
---
# 6. The voyage

> From Berdyansk to Bremen overland, and from Bremen to Buenos Aires in the hold of a steamer, calling at Lisbon, the Canaries, Bahia, Rio and Montevideo.

In 1904 the situation was this: Felix was mobilised in the army, the war with Japan had just begun, and the family had three children —Alejandro, aged seven, Meyer, aged five, and a baby, Eide, born in the last week of July that same year in Berdyansk.

Before leaving, Malke and Felix agreed that she would travel first with the children and that he would join her once he was discharged.

## From Berdyansk to Bremen

Malke left Berdyansk in early August 1904 with the three children. They crossed southern Russia and central Europe to Germany, making for the port of [Bremen](https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/bremen/). The journey was made by cart, and probably by train for some stretch. It is hard to imagine that journey: a thirty-year-old woman, alone, with two small boys and a baby a few weeks old, crossing half a continent.

## The Borkum

In late October 1904 they sailed from Bremen on the Borkum, a medium-sized German-flagged steamer carrying both cargo and passengers. They travelled third class, housed in the ship's hold, where the only comfort was a few bunks. Food was scarce and of doubtful quality; Eide, fortunately, was breastfed.

The ship crossed the Atlantic from east to west and from north to south, calling at Lisbon, the Canary Islands, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, and finally Montevideo. At each port cargo was loaded and unloaded and passengers disembarked. Fruit bought at the ports of call —plentiful and cheap— rounded out the meals of the older children.

### The itinerary · steamer Borkum

- Berdyansk — early August 1904 (overland)
- Bremen — late October 1904 (overland)
- Lisbon (by sea)
- Canary Islands (by sea)
- Bahia (by sea)
- Rio de Janeiro (by sea)
- Montevideo (by sea)
- Buenos Aires — 23 December 1904 (by sea)

A medium-sized German-flagged steamer carrying both cargo and passengers. Some records spell the name Borkhum.

## 23 December 1904

The ship docked in the port of [Buenos Aires](https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/places/buenos-aires/) in the early hours of 23 December 1904. It was high summer, and Manuel Quintana was president of Argentina.

In that month's immigration register, among the third-class passengers, they were entered as follows:

### Birth record · Mariupol synagogue · 1899

| Field | What it says |
| --- | --- |
| Surname | Zhmud |
| Name | Meyer |
| Father | Falik |
| Paternal grandfather | Kopel |
| Mother | Ester Malka |
| Maternal grandfather | Meyer |
| Date of birth | 25 January 1899 |
| Place | Mariupol |

State Archive of Donetsk Oblast · ДАДнО, fond 211, opis 1, file 19, record M13. Fond 211 holds the records of the Mariupol synagogue, Mariupol district, Ekaterinoslav province.

The surname was written “Smud or Smod”. It is the first time it appears on an Argentine document, already in the form it would keep for good.

After customs, they were lodged in the Immigrants' Hotel. Some time later the family was renting a room in a tenement house on Calle Azcuénaga, half a block from Rivadavia, in central Buenos Aires.

## Felix arrives

In mid-1905 Felix landed in Buenos Aires and joined his family, just as he had promised his wife. To do so he had had to desert.

---

The Smud Family · genealogical research by Mateo Smud, published under CC0 1.0. Machine index: https://smud.mateosmud.xyz/en/llms.txt