QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Friedeburg

Friedeburg anchored at the mouth of the Brisbane River in the evening of 20 August 1873. When Health Officer Henry Challinor boarded for his inspection the next morning, he found that the last convalescent patient had been discharged from the ship’s sick-bay only the day before, and that a death from scarlet fever had occured just over a week before the vessel arrived. He therefore declined pratique and Friedeburg was not allowed to discharge her passengers. The Health Officer submitted a letter to the Colonial Secretary, who in turn reported to the Queensland Legislative Council and its Ministers. They recommended that the ship be placed in quarantine at Peel Island, and further that James Hamilton, Superintendent of the Benevolent Asylum at Dunwich, be appointed Superintendent of Quarantine for the purposes of the Quarantine Act 1863 . Police Sub-Inspector James Wassell and two of his men accompanied the steamer Kate when it towed the Friedeburg across Moreton Bay to Peel Island. They assisted in the landing of the stores and then pitched a tent on the island for Constable Johnson, who was to enforce as far as possible the strict Wednesday and Saturday: (morning) reading and first lessons in English, (afternoon) essays. Each day also, a chapter from the bible was read to the children. During cold and stormy weather when no lessons were possible, there was singing and learning of poetry. Schoolmaster’s Report 17 boys and 13 girls took part in the lessons with a weekly average of 25 attendees. Three separate classes were held: one for those already able to read, write, and do arithmetic; one for those who had only received their elementary lessons; and one for those who had never attended classes before. School roster: Monday and Thursday: (morning) grammar and natural sciences, (afternoon) handwriting Tuesday and Friday (morning) geography and biology, (afternoon) arithmetic

With the immigrants came their families, their possessions, their skills, their hopes ... and their diseases. Many of these, such as cholera, typhus, smallpox, scarlet fever, consumption, measles, and whooping cough were highly infectious, and any outbreak could wreak havoc, afloat and ashore. The concerned New South Wales Governor asked Captain Wickham to select a site for a quarantine station for Moreton Bay Colony, where a ship’s crew and passengers could be held in isolation. He chose the tiny settlement of Dunwich on Stradbroke Island, which was officially Gazetted on 15 July 1849. In August the following year, the ship Emigrant arrived, wracked with typhus and her doctor among the 40 dead, and the little cemetery on the shore of the ‘One Mile’ anchorage quickly filled. Over the next 20 years, the shift of the quarantine station from Dunwich to Peel Island, 3km away, was gradual, but it was the arrival of the Friedeburg on 20 August 1873 which formalised the island’s role five days later. Friedeburg was another Sloman vessel, built in Glasgow by the same yard which had launched the Reichstag two years earlier. Dimensions: length 55.6m (185ft 6in), beam 9.16m (30ft 6in), depth of hold 5.69m (19ft 9in) Weight by cargo capacity: 324 CL / 769 NRT Bielbrief: (Certificate of Registration): 7 May 1869 Under the command of Captain E.C.R. Kopper, her third skipper, she slipped down the Elbe on 15 May 1873 to begin her second voyage to Australia. Jan Macintyre, whose ancestors, the Pioch and Hasse families, were passengers on that journey to Australia, contributed some of the fruits of her family history research. Amongst the findings is the ‘Schoolmaster’s Report’ from the voyage, the only known one of its kind from a German emigrant ship.

Background: Friedeburg , with lighters alongside, at an unidentified port, prepares for her next voyage. Image (digital ID 63122) courtesy State Library of Queensland

observance of the quarantine laws.

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