Off to Sea!. Deutsches Kulturforum östliches Europa
reports in his diary about one such stay in the port:
On July 28, 1838 the emigrants came on board, numbering 199 souls. They had to emigrate from Prussia because of their faith and were indeed very religious. Every evening and morning, a sermon was preached, prayers were said, and hymns sung. Their singing rang out beautifully across the harbor. Whoever heard them, testified to them having a rare gift for singing. Every evening, this attracted so many people, of both upper and lower classes to join us on the ship that the boards were creaking and there was hardly any room to be found on the deck.
The voyage and the close contact with the sea was an extraordinary experience for the emigrants coming as they did from the inland regions of the country. They were not accustomed to either the conditions on deck or the vastness of the ocean, and yet despite all their difficulties in adapting to these circumstances, they had no choice but to cover the long distance to Australia on board the sailing ships. From Hamburg the ships sailed across the Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope. An intermediate stopover was sometimes spent in the English port of Plymouth, which was where Pastor Kavel joined his faithful followers on the “Prince George”.
Once the departure date was determined, the emigrants were divided into smaller groups of about 12 people, consisting of friends and relatives, in order to strengthen the sense of community and to facilitate mutual support and acclimatization to the unfamiliar environment.
Supplies and accommodation on the ships
Conditions on the ships were very difficult. The passengers were accommodated on the steerage deck, where the freight was stored, with wooden frameworks being hastily put together to serve as superimposed tiers of bunk beds. The wood was then sold off in Australia and the storage spaces filled with goods, which was the only way in which the journey paid for itself. Food rations on board were provided. In accordance with the rules, more provisions had to be taken along than was strictly necessary for the planned journey, in order to ensure sufficient supplies in case of unforeseen circumstances (going off course because of sea currents, supplies becoming wet, a need for larger portions for the sick). On board the “Zebra” the supplies for around 200 people for six months consisted of 26,674 gallons of water, 24,400 pounds of rusks, 27 barrels of pork, 27 barrels of beef, 16 barrels of herrings, 38 barrels of flour, 60 barrels of peas, 5 barrels of sugar, 50 pieces of cheese, 17 quarts of butter, 29 barrels of rice, 7 barrels of coffee, 1 barrel of lamp oil, 50 pounds of arrowroot (used to improve the digestion of children and the sick and also served in the form of a jelly), 50 pounds of tea, 25 bottles of schnapps, 5 barrels of beans, 2 barrels of plums, 2 barrels of groats, 7 barrels of vinegar, 10 barrels of salt, 8 hogsheads of sauerkraut, 1 hogshead of wine, and 50 bottles of brandy. Every adult passenger on the “Prince George” was allowed to take about twenty cubic feet of luggage with them, and there was also space available for up to four children per family under 15 years of age.
At times, the migrants did not go up on deck for days on end because of bad weather conditions. The animals that they were taking with them were also accommodated on the steerage deck, where infections often broke out and illnesses spread. Dirk M. Hahn describes in his recollections the problems caused by seasickness, unaccustomed food, and the heat:
We left the Elbe with twenty-six sick people. Then, seasickness caused all the rest, save for two elderly men, to be confined to their beds. The majority only recovered very slowly, as the elderly people who in their whole lives were accustomed to eating nothing but their own countryside fare, which mostly consisted of milk and potatoes, couldn’t get used at all to the food aboard ship. The hot conditions noticeably discomforted them. The heat was really terrible, especially in the internal areas of the ship with the crowding together of so many people. […] Sickness was rampant and seemed to increase with each day. There was a rising number of deaths that by September 24 eight bodies had to be thrown overboard.
In the early years, there was only rarely a doctor on board – unlike on the ships of English shipping companies. But even if a doctor was present, he could not really help much, but at best advise calling in at the next port so that the passengers could recover in better conditions on land. That could lead to conflicts between the doctor and the captain. The captain of the ”Zebra” writes:
We found ourselves in the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands and could easily have called in at Port de Grace, which I would have been content to do in order to spend a few days there. But to anchor off-shore there for as long as it took for all the people to be cured while on land, even if they bore the cost of it for themselves, was not something that I could agree to. Besides, we did not have any credit on these islands, and that amount of ready cash was not available on board in order to cover the cost of cleaning and disinfecting the whole ship. In addition, we had only been thirty-four days at sea. Would we have to look for a harbor every thirty-four days in order to clean up the ship? When would we eventually reach South Australia?
In order to limit the spread of illnesses, a number of different measures were taken. On the “Zebra” the healthy passengers were divided into two groups, who alternated in spending time up on deck, in order to allow more air and space for the sick who were resting below decks. The hatches were closed down and the ship was fumigated twice a day with a mixture of vinegar and juniper berries. Those who were sick with scurvy received bigger helpings of sauerkraut.
In addition to these frequently described difficulties, there was a further problem for the travelers, which is rarely mentioned. As farmers and craftsmen, they were used to hard work, and during the many long months of the journey they suffered from boredom. The enforced renunciation of their accustomed daily rhythm and contact with their familiar natural surroundings, and being crammed into this overcrowded, sticky space without anything to occupy themselves with was a real torment for them, so that some of them even fell into depression. This led to conflicts among the passengers themselves, but also between the passengers and the doctor, the crew and the captain. Little attention was also paid to how the passengers could satisfy their physical needs during the journey, which was a further cause of conflict. Most of the migrants were therefore relieved and happy to arrive at last in Port Adelaide after the long and exhausting journey. They hoped that here in their new home a better life would at last begin for them and their families. But first, there were many more difficulties to be overcome.
Arrival in Australia
As previously mentioned, South Australia was a young British colony, and the new harbor in Adelaide was not yet completed. It is indicative that the name given to this mosquito-ridden swamp, overgrown with mangroves, was Port Misery. Until the new harbor was opened in 1840, which involved digging a canal through the mangrove forest, it was not easy for the new arrivals to get ashore with all their belongings.
The water was so shallow that the ships could not get directly to the shoreline. The immigrants had to load their luggage onto smaller boats which they pulled along, and then for the last stretch they had to carry their things on to dry land themselves. Finally, there were ox-carts to bring the people and their luggage to the town of Adelaide.
In Australia the newcomers had to rebuild their lives completely from scratch. In theory, the representatives of the South Australia Company were supposed to take care of the German immigrants, but it can be seen from a letter sent by Charles Flaxman to George F. Angas on December 15, 1838 that no preparations had been made for their arrival. Flaxman, who was chief accountant to Angas, immediately began organizing the lives of the settlers himself. The problems that they encountered first and foremost were the natural conditions of their new homeland and their own lack of knowledge of the (English) language. In addition, there was a reluctance to give employment to the Lutherans because of bad experiences with previous German immigrants who were mostly tradesmen and laborers. The new arrivals from Prussia found themselves in an unknown world in every respect. Pastor Kavel wrote a letter soon after his arrival saying that even the constellations in the sky and the plants on the previously uncultivated ground – not to mention the indigenous population – were completely different from anything that they had ever known before.
After their arrival in Adelaide, the first German settlers who had arrived on the “Prince George” and the “Bengalee” lived at first in tents and temporary wooden barracks in the harbor. Their food supplies