Here is a possible reason immigrants might not have made it to America.  While visiting Glasgow in 1997 I attended Rosh Hashanah services there.  I was told by my host family, which had been in Scotland since the 1880s, that unscrupulous ship’s captains had dropped off immigrants telling them they were in the U.S. 
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Sam Lorber
researching LORBER GOODMAN RUDMAN HAUFT