The previous note, this one, and some yet to come, owe a lot to Klaus Wust as they represent man-years of research by him. He has an article in the current issue of Beyond Germanna (v.10, n.1), which is a shorter version of a longer article which appeared in "The Report, A Journal of German-American History," vol. 40, published in 1986 by the Society of the History of Germans in Maryland. In Beyond Germanna, the article is entitled "The Year of the Destroying Angels - 1738."
Two factors in 1738 were extremely bad for transportation. The number of people who decided to emigrate was large. The weather was adverse also.
The six thousand plus emigrants for North America exceeded all years except the very unusual year of 1709. In 1738 though, there was no colonization scheme of any government or proprietor. The emigrants decided individually they wanted to come. Usually a group, many times related and often living in the same village, banded together and set out for Rotterdam (primary), or Amsterdam (secondary), where they expected to find British ships to take them on to America. Passengers were taken aboard after signing a contract to pay their fares within a designated time after arrival. In this redemptioner system, payment could be made by the passengers in cash, from the sale of goods brought along for that purpose, by friends and relatives in America, or by contracts of indenture.
Most of the shippers in 1738 were planning on Philadelphia as the destination port. Traffic to Pennsylvania was growing and it was the most reliable market. In the three years prior to 1738, the number of people to Philadelphia was 268, 736, and 1,528 for the 3 years 1735 to 1737, respectively. But the shippers were not prepared for the number of people that arrived in the Dutch ports and especially they were not prepared for the early arrival of the people.
Some emigrants set out in March and the first contingents reached the Rotterdam area before the shippers were ready for them. According to the Freudenberg pastor in Nassau-Siegen, fifty-three men, women, and children left on March 13th (some of our Germanna people were in this group). To the south, in Canton Basel, the authorities processed numerous departure petitions in March.
With the shippers not ready at this early date, the emigrants had to wait in Holland. After the 1709 experience, the Dutch passed a law to the effect that transients could not come into the cities such as Rotterdam. The people had to camp outside the city in meadows and pastures. No preparations had been made. By May, probably a month after the first arrivals, the citizens in the holding area were petitioning the States of Holland to either have the Palatines sent home or moved on speedily to America. The citizens were especially worried that the death of parents would leave orphans on their hands.
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.