Having decided to go to the Island, or Carolina, or Pennsylvania (the names were used almost interchangeably as synonyms for the New World), a departure was usually made in the spring of the year. For the first two Germanna Colonies, it was well into summer before they left. The trip was made almost exclusively by water. The First Colony people went down the Sieg, the Second Colony went down the Neckar, and in both cases they went to the Rhine, which they took then on to Rotterdam. Some of the Second Colony people were near enough to the Rhine that they may have started on it.
Gottlieb Mittelberger made the trip in 1750, when emigration had reached the size that the operation was becoming better "organized". He wrote a small book which described the trip and his life in America.
"I took the usual route down the Neckar (from Heilbronn) and the Rhine Rivers to Rotterdam in Holland. The trip from home to Rotterdam, including the sojourn there, took fully seven weeks because of the many delays encountered on the Rhine and in Holland. The reason for this (seven weeks) is that the Rhine boats must pass by thirty-six different customs houses between Heilbronn and Holland. At each of these all the ships must be examined and these examinations take place at the convenience of the customs officials which hold up ships for long times. This involves a great deal of expense for the passengers and it means that the trip down the Rhine takes from four to six weeks.
"When the boats with their passengers arrive in Holland they are held up once again from five to six weeks. Everything is expensive in Holland and the poor people must spend nearly all they own during this period.
"In Rotterdam, the people are packed as closely as herring, so to speak, into the big boats. The bedstead of one person is hardly two feet across and six feet long, since many of the boats carry from four to six hundred passengers."
The Germanna colonists had a variation to the basic pattern being described here. They had to catch a boat in Rotterdam to London, and there they had to find another boat to cross the Atlantic. By 1750, the ships which were to carry the people across the Atlantic were calling at Rotterdam to find the passengers.
Herr Mittelberger notes that it took from eight days to four weeks to cross to the final port in England, where stores were taken on. During time in port everyone had to spend his money and consume the provisions that he meant for the ocean voyage.
"When the ship weighs anchor for the last time, then the long sea voyage and misery begin in earnest", Mittelberg writes "This portion of the trip takes from eight to twelve weeks to cross the ocean to Philadelphia. The voyage from Rotterdam to Philadelphia took fifteen weeks."
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.