QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

La Rochelle

Of the 1862 departure, Georg Benfer recorded that a crowd of hundreds waved their handkerchiefs in farewell, adding that “the sails were stretched and we travelled quickly with God and a good wind through the Channel, where we saw Holland on the left and England on the right”. If unlucky enough to encounter typical Bay of Biscay weather, the passengers could easily have fallen prey to more than mere seasickness, when the battened-down hatches, cramped ventilation and change of weather could reveal any underlying frailties. As the ship approached the latitude of the Canary Islands, the generally pleasant tradewinds meant that many would have ‘found their sea-legs’ …if temporarily. Vagaries of season, weather and navigation would have dictated whether the ships had the misfortune to encounter ‘The Doldrums’. Known since the time of Columbus, this region comprises that strange part of the mid-Atlantic Ocean where the differently rotating air masses of our planet’s northern and southern hemispheres can create a windless void that empties canvas and becalms sailing ships in an enervating listless heat. “On 24th May [1862],” Georg Benfer recorded, “we were at the equator already, here we had almost no wind and it was very hot. Although we had said, and believed, in Germany that the ship would start to burn if it was not kept showered with water, this was not the case. The ship was fully showered with water each morning but only for cleaning.” Heading south, ships’ masters had the choice of skirting St Helena and then making for the Cape of Good Hope, or holding course in the general direction of the Falkland Islands. The former generally meant better weather, although seasonably variable winds, across the Indian Ocean; the latter a usually faster but rougher passage across the Southern Ocean in the latitudes of ‘The Roaring Forties’.

La Rochelle was a three-masted, wooden-hulled, square-rigger built in Reiherstieg, on one of the southside arms of Hamburg’s Elbe River, for the family firm Johann Cesar Godeffroy. Dimensions: length 52.44m* (172ft), beam 9.22m (30ft), depth of hold 6.35m (20ft 9in) Weight by cargo capacity: 350 CL^ or 738 NRT* Bielbrief (Certificate of Registration): 21 May 1855 *Parsons’ “Migrant Sailing Ships from Hamburg” (Gould, Adelaide 1993) reported dimensions of 55.5m length, 9.6m beam and 870 tons.) Records from three Australian families provide a series of snapshots of life on board the early Godeffroy emigrations to The Fifth Continent – • the Nerlichs on La Rochelle ’s maiden voyage, to Port Adelaide in 1855 • the Krauses and others on her first voyage to Moreton Bay in 1862 • the Tesches on her second voyage in 1863 to settle in Queensland Under her first master, Captain Meyer, she made four voyages to Adelaide, South Africa and South America during 1855-1860. La Rochelle slipped her moorings in the Elbe at 10am on 30 May 1855 on her maiden voyage, nine days after being granted her Bielbrief (registration certificate). “It must have been an emotional experience for Wilhelm and Rosine as the ship moved away from the docks,” observes Lyn Spriggs of the Nerlichs. “They would be contemplating the last view of the country of their birth. Emotions including nostalgia, fear, uncertainty would have engulfed them.” Joyce Krause’s view of her forebears, at a similar departure five years later, was much the same: “there was a degree of uncertainty as the ship moved slowly down the River Elbe and their loved ones slipped from view.” A soft lament – Die Heimat, Die Heimat (The Homeland, The Homeland) – may well have echoed from hundreds of throats, even as they gathered for their first roll-call on the aft deck.

An unidentified artist’s impression of life ‘zwischendeck’ – on the (be-)tween-decks, below the main deck and above the hold; conditions would have been thoroughly miserable with hatches closed and the violent motion of the ship in a heavy sea.

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