QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Reichstag

Reichstag was a three-masted square-rigged iron hulled barque built in Glasgow in 1867 by Alexander Stephen & Sons for Robert Sloman in Hamburg (from 1876, Rob. M. Sloman & Co.). Dimensions: length 53.1m (174ft), beam 9.17m (30ft), depth of hold 5.68m (18ft 7in) Weight by cargo capacity: 300 CL or 722 NRT (927 GRT) Bielbrief (Certificate of Registration): 26 June 1867 Sloman, like Godeffroy, was another Hamburg entrepreneur keen to capitalise on the prospects of the so-called Fifth Continent, making a first voyage to Australia in 1848 and four more the following year. Difficulties led to suspension of the route in 1859 (the year Queensland gained its independence), and it was another decade before Sloman ships returned to Australia. Reichstag was a ‘transient (general purpose) sailer’, employed originally in the New York trade. In 1870 Reichstag was moved to the Queensland route, making the first of five voyages, to Great Sandy Bay (Maryborough), in 1871. Throughout that decade, more than 60 Sloman ships set sail for Australia and New Zealand, no fewer than 30 departing Hamburg for Brisbane. A British government subsidy of £30 per head covered more than 90% of the voyage costs, and another 30 Sloman services embarked emigrants from British ports. Reichstag ’s second departure from Hamburg, on 12 April 1872, included a further three generations of Tesches among her emigrant complement of 369 souls. From the village of Flieth, a little further northwest of Angermünde, Christian and Maria, both in their mid-60s, were accompanied by the married August and Auguste, stepson Carl and stepdaughters Maria and Wilhelmine – the youngest aged six. Arrival was reported over a full week in The Brisbane Courier – such was the more sedate pace of the ‘news’ in those days! – and summarised in the 6 August 1872 edition: The German emigrant ship Reichstag left the pilot from Hamburgh on the 20th April, and had light variable winds as far as the island of Tristan d’Acunha, and from thence to Tasman’s Head strong southerly, south-westerly, and westerly gales, with very stormy weather. The passage thence to Cape Moreton occupied twelve days, the ship meeting with northerly winds; reached Cape Moreton on July 29, and took pilot on board; anchored at the bar on the 31st. The passage from pilot to pilot occupied exactly 100 days, and the Reichstag making the run to Tasman’s Head in 88 days. There was one death and seven births during the voyage. The passengers all arrived in excellent health, and were brought up to Brisbane by the Settler, and landed at the Depot at 5 o’clock p.m. on August 1.

One death and seven births during this particular voyage was a very good outcome, compared with other emigrant voyages, and an indication of why reported passsenger numbers can be so fluid in historical accounts! Note the reference to anchoring “at the bar” (that is, outside the sandbars and mudbanks at the mouth of the river) and the transfer upriver to the William Street immigration centre in North Brisbane. This was normal then, as ocean-going ships were unable to proceed upstream over the many shallows, until dredging of the cutting and lower channels was completed in 1912 – see pages 16-17. The same newspaper report continues, in language which may seem quaint to us today: They are certainly amongst the very best batches of German immigrants that have been forwarded to this colony. They look remarkably healthy, whilst their orderly conduct and the willingness they displayed in getting everything housed without delay, gave tangible indications of their usefulness. With the exception of about half a dozen, the whole of them went into the Depot, where it is not at all likely any of them will remain long on hand. The steamer Settler took about 100 to Ipswich next morning. (It is worth remembering that the settlement had been a harsh penal outpost until 1842, Queensland was scarcely 12 years old as its own Colonial entity, and much work still lay ahead to build communities and commerce in this harsh sub-tropical land.) Reichstag ’s third Australian voyage was out to Maryborough once again, arriving on 18 July 1873 after a run of 90 days from Hamburg … although 36 of the 334 immigrants aboard succumbed to dysentery (see reports next page). After leaving Queensland, she visited various ports before returning to Hamburg via Amsterdam in 1874.

Contemporary engraving of the ‘Reichstag’

A fourth voyage to Queensland, and one to New Zealand, followed. Her last recorded sailing was from Newcastle-upon-Tyne in England, on 11 August 1877, bound for Singapore, but she disappeared and was never heard of again.

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