As the Germans arrived at Rotterdam, the shippers made belated preparations for them. They sent word for their ships to come as soon as possible and they chartered additional ships. In addition they made plans to load the ships to the maximum. Bedsteads were crowded in as they could be. Some emigrant chests were refused or broken up. These preparations were time consuming and living conditions in the holding area were marginal and crowded. Already sickness was spreading.
The shipping firm of the Hopes had five ships ready on June 22, which was probably about two months after the first emigrants had arrived outside Rotterdam. A violent storm played havoc with the heavily loaded ships. They spent three to five weeks in reaching a port in England, just across the channel.
Captain William Walker of the "Oliver" (one of the initial ships) felt that his ship was overloaded and he returned to Holland and resigned his commission. The owners assigned a new captain and the "Oliver" was underway once more in July. It reached Cowes readily in two days, but spent six weeks there to unload, reload, and to wait for favorable winds. The extension of time meant that the passengers had been living in close quarters for many weeks and had not left the English Channel yet.
Demand for space was heavy and the shippers paid little attention to where the emigrants wanted to go. Some of the Philadelphia bound people were assigned instead to the "Oliver" which was going to Virginia. Departures continued until August.
The "Winter," which had been in the initial vanguard, reached Philadelphia first. Though the trip had been nothing unusual except for the initial delay in the Channel, the ship and passengers came through relatively unscathed. However, the passengers were able to report on the terrible conditions in Holland.
Captain Walter Goodman wrote home from America on October 19th,
"On the 4th of July last I sailed out of Dover in England and arrived here on this river on the 9th of September with crew and passengers in good health but on the way I had many sick people, yet, since not more than 18 died, we lost by far the least of all the ships arrived to-date. We were the third ship to arrive. I sailed in company with four of the skippers who together had 425 deaths, one had 140, one 115, one 90, and one 80."
Christopher Sauer of Germantown estimated on October 18 that 1,600 people had died on the fifteen ships which arrived so far. By November 20th, the estimates ranged up to 2,000 deaths and not all of the ships were in port yet.
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.