A ship which played an important role in Germanna history was the bilander "Oliver." A bilander is a small, two masted ship used mostly for coastal trading or on the canals of Holland. The Oliver, built in 1720 in Boston, found its way into transatlantic trade. In 1738, the Hope shipping firm, named for the Scottish Quaker father and two sons which ran it, chartered the Oliver to a Swiss society which was recruiting emigrants for William Byrd in Virginia. A number of Palatines were added to the Swiss for settlement on Byrd's lands.
The Oliver was the only ship to go to Virginia, as almost all ships were slated to go to Philadelphia. Eighteen family units (some of them were bachelors), wanting to go to Virginia from the Nassau-Siegen area, were at Rotterdam at this time. These people signed on with the Oliver. The ship left Rotterdam toward the end of June. The weather was adverse and the ship returned to the harbor. The captain of the ship said that it was overloaded (there were more than 300 passengers on this ship of 100 tons) and he resigned his post. Another captain was appointed.
The ship called at Cowes in England and stayed in port for about six weeks. On leaving Cowes, the ship encountered such heavy seas that it put in to Plymouth for safety and repairs. About six weeks were consumed there. In September, the trip resumed and went well for a while but the weather and winds turned very adverse. The Oliver lost a mast and the captain died and was replaced. Much time was consumed and it wasn't until the beginning of January that the Oliver appeared off the coast of Virginia. By then, all food and drink had been exhausted.
Some of the passengers forced the captain, at gunpoint, to take them ashore in search of food and drink. The weather was very bad and cold. No food or drink was found and the boat taking the search party ashore could not make it back to the ship. These people were cold and wet and several did not survive the ordeal. Meanwhile, the ship drug its anchors and was blown onto the shoals where its bottom was opened. The ship sank partially, but deep enough to trap many people below the deck where they drowned.
Of the original 300 plus passengers, less than 100 made it to Virginia. In one family of twelve, only one person made it to Virginia. Of the eighteen family units from Freudenberg, only six male heads of families made it. These were John Frederick Miller, Harmon Critz, George Wayman, Herman Back, Herman Miller, and John Hoffman. Had the other twelve family units made it to Virginia, it would have been a substantial addition to the Germanna people.
Starting with the January issue of Beyond Germanna, a number of articles, mostly by Klaus Wust, have been appearing on the disastrous shipping season of 1738. In general, one of every three persons who left Germany for the New World in 1738 did not make it.
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.