Victor DOZORETZ (born Awigdor DIZORETZ) emigrated from Kyiv Oblast (region) via the Romanian port city of Constanța (Constanza), Romania, in 1924. He boarded the Fabre Line’s SS Asia for the approximately 30-day passage through the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, and across the Atlantic.
Rather than sailing direct for New York, as so many of our Eastern European Jewish ancestors did, the SS Asia sailed for Providence, Rhode Island, where passengers disembarked for trains or steamships to New York. Why this unusual route? As described in
Aboard the Fabre Line to Providence: Immigration to Rhode Island:
“…the port of New York was experiencing extreme congestion, so the federal government asked steamship companies to transfer tonnage and traffic to other ports. One of these companies—Compagnie Française de Navigation à Vapeur, commonly known as the Fabre Line—responded to this request and, in 1911, chose Providence as the port where it would establish ancillary operations.”
Here’s a description of the Fabre Line itinerary from
Aboard the Fabre Line to Providence: Immigration to Rhode Island; I have not found a record of the SS Asia’s ports of calls in December 1924, so we’ll have to be satisfied with this more general description:
“By the early months of 1924, an eastern route had become a new sailing pattern for the Fabre Line. Vessels left Marseilles and sailed to Alexandria, Egypt; then to Lebanon, Syria, and Turkish ports; and then into the Black Sea to Constanza, Romania, about two hundred miles south of the Ukrainian seaport of Odesa. The return included calls at Greek and Italian ports, with ships sometimes calling at Algiers before clearing the Mediterranean for Lisbon and the Azores and on to Providence and New York. Fabre vessels did not regularly call at all of the eastern Mediterranean ports named here, but during a two-month period, they usually managed to visit each of them. In some of these countries, the line varied its ports of call. All sailings at this time included calls at the Azores, and most included Lisbon. Fabre steamers continued plying the older route from Marseilles, Naples, Lisbon, and the Azores to America. Still, the new and more diverse cruising pattern continued during the remainder of the line’s days at Providence.”
Passenger arrival records for the SS Asia at Providence in December 1924 are missing from the online collection “U.S., Atlantic Ports Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1959” at
Ancestry.com (
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8758/). The records may be in the National Archives microfilm publication, “T792 - Book Indexes, Providence Passenger Lists, 1911-1934.”
A tantalizing clue provides additional evidence that this description of Victor’s voyage to America is as accurate as possible:
Aboard the Fabre Line contains a table of Transatlantic Arrivals and Departures of Fabre Vessels at the Port of Providence. The table covers the period from 1911 through 1934. Beginning in 1920, the SS Asia made many stops in Providence, with her arrival and departure separated by a seven- to ten-day stay, for instance, February 14 through 22, 1921. Some entries are incomplete and are missing their arrival date; for instance, there is no corresponding arrival entry for SS Asia’s departure on November 16, 1921. Such is the case for December 1924: the table is missing the arrival date for SS Asia’s departure from Providence on December 11, 1924. Given that the departure date is usually seven to ten days after arrival, one can be reasonably confident that the arrival date for SS Asia was consistent with Victor’s December 4, 1924, arrival in the United States.
Jennings Jr., William J., Conley, Patrick T.
Aboard the Fabre Line to Providence: Immigration to Rhode Island. Arcadia Publishing Inc. Kindle Edition.