Many of us have never been on a cruise. So let's take one with Francis Louis Michel, who apparently wrote off the cost of his cruise as a business expense. Actually, since he hoped to be in the business of settling Swiss emmigrants in the Americas, his claim was legitimate. Though events did not turn out in the way as he had expected, the Germanna Colonies were one consequence of his trips. Michel, like all good tourists, wrote letters home to his brother describing the trip. The brother was kind enough to recopy them and to save them.
On 8 October 1701 Michel engaged passage on a ship down the Rhine from Basle, Switzerland. (Michel was a citizen of Bern.) Twenty-two days later he arrived in Rotterdam. A bit of luck enabled Michel to take passage for London on the yacht of "Milord Galloway" which left Rotterdam on the evening of the 31st. Four days later the ship was in London, not far from the Tower. Before landing, the custom inspectors made their third inspection of the goods of the passengers, even the trunks of Milord.
Doing a little sightseeing in London, Michel singled out St. Paul's cathedral. This building was not entirely finished but enough of it was completed that it stood out as the outstanding building in London. Michel also mentioned two royal castles, Kensington and Grenwitsch. We know the latter as Greenwich but then Michel did not speak the lingo of the locals, so he spelled names as he heard them. For example, he spelled the name of the river which flows through London as "Tems."
To find a ship to America, Michel visited the dock areas every day looking for a ship to the West Indies. After eight days of searching, he learned that several ships would be leaving in four weeks. One ship, the Nassau, especially attracted him because of the King's liberality which allowed free passage on it. Ordinarily, the fare west bound was five to six pounds and half of that on the return trip.
With the ship selected, Michel made inquiries as to what goods could be expected to sell well in America. He purchased a mattress, linen, whiskey, ready-made clothes, hats, stockings, shoes, rifles, all kinds of household goods and implements, knives, scissors, shoe buckles, hair powder, perfumes and laces. His expectation was that he would make a minimum of fifty percent on his goods. On some goods, he claimed that one can double or even triple one's investment. The large profits are due to the fact that residents of the Western World had to order everything from England. At first, Michel thought this was because there were insufficient artisans in America but he later understood that the merchants in England had succeeded in having laws enacted which forbid the manufacture of finished goods in the Americas.
On December 15, Michel went on board the ship and found a cabin for himself. There were 140 other persons on the same deck. In spite of the anticipation of sailing soon, the ship was still in the harbor on January 14, 1702 (Michel used the new style calendar). The delay was attributed to two factors, the adverse winds and the fact that the ship was subject to military service. The owner of the ship substituted another one that he owned in place of the Nassau, so that the Nassau could be used as planned.
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.