GEORGE WASHINGTON 1846arrived Port Adelaide on January 22, 1846. |
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This splendid ship, formerly an American liner, left Bremen on October 11th 1845 with Captain Matthew Probst and 210 German emigrants, and took her final departure from the Land's End on the 24th, and made the passage without touching at any intermediate port in 90 days. The voyage, was on the whole as remarkably favourable as it was short and only one death occurred - that of an infant child. The passengers comprise industrious persons from different parts of Germany, and the kingdom of Prussia, including various useful handicraftsmen - many of them evidently respectable persons in their several classes, seven miners from the Upper Harz, and a number of decent unmarried females suitable for domestic servants. Three young ladies are en route to the Chatham Islans, being Missionaries from the Berlin Missionary Society. There is an entirely new feature in this batch of german emigrants. Some Mecklenburgers (between 70 and 80) have left their small native territory with the expectation of finding, in this province, a secure retreat from political and ecclessiastical persecution and strife, and have determined to form a separate colonial community amongst themselves, independently of those founded by any persons who may have preceded them, and they express a confident expectation that if this first effort of theirs is crowned with success, they will be followed by large numbers of settlers from their fatherland. All the passengers appeared much pleased with the appearance of the country, and seem to have made up their minds to be happy and contented, considering so great a change in outward circumstances. The miners, who arrived in a sort of uniform working dress, were perfectly astonished at hearing that the ores, of which such heavy samples are lying on the work, have been found either upon or near the surface of the soil, which to people who have been accustomed to work at a depth of 300 to 400 fathoms seemed almost incredible. They were much delighted with the size and richness of the lumps of ore, and with the assurances of well renumerated employment. An Emigration Permit, issued September 13, 1845, to Matthias Lange, which has been translated and published in the “Barossa Historic Bulletin” Vol. 1, No. 2, contains the family names of 64 Mecklenburgers whom Lange was “taking with him”. References to these are marked “(BHB)”. Only two persons do not appear on the shipping list. The plan of these settlers to form a separate community did not come to fruition.
Especial thanks to Eric and Rosemary Kopittke who prepared much of this work, to the Queensland Family History Society for publishing it, and to the State Library of South Australia for making it available for you to read. |
