After the 1734 immigrants from Siegen, more exactly from Trupbach, no more additions were made to the First Colony in Virginia for four years. The two groups, in 1713/14, and in 1734, traveled in years when there was little traffic on the Atlantic Ocean. The First Colony came a few years after the mass exodus from Germany, in 1709, which had left an unfavorable taste in the British public life, and German immigration after 1709 was discouraged. So, the First Colony came in a period of relative quiet. The group in 1734 also came during a quiet time, as only two ships docked at Philadelphia from Germany (Rotterdam) in that year.
In 1738, a large contingent left the Siegen area, from the Freudenberg parish. This group was larger than either of the two earlier groups. And in this year, many Germans decided to emigrate, which strained the ability of the shippers to handle the crowd. The 1738 group left Freudenberg early, on March 13. At Rotterdam they found a ship that had been chartered by a Society that was taking Swiss emigrants to Virginia for a colonization project of Byrd. This well suited the needs of the Freudenberg group, as they wanted to go to Virginia. Thus, they joined the ship Oliver at Rotterdam.
The passengers on board the Oliver should have paid more attention to the actions of Captain Walker. After leaving port and encountering some damage from a storm, he returned to the port from which he had just departed, and said the Oliver was overloaded. He resigned as Captain. The owners merely hired another captain, who probably regretted the action. The first departure of the Oliver from port had been in late June. So, the Freudenberg contingent had probably encamped outside Rotterdam (the Dutch would not let them into town), from April until June. They never made it to any American port.
Off the coast of Virginia, a storm sank the Oliver on a sand bar. It sank far enough that many people were trapped below deck (they were probably seeking shelter from the January weather, which was bitterly cold). So, the trip had lasted more than six months. Food had been a severe problem, and the lack of nourishment led to much disease. Combined with the sinking, and the ensuing drowning, fewer than one of three of the original passengers survived. Fifty-three men, women, and children had left Freudenberg. We do not know how many of these arrived. We do know some of the men, who represented just a handful of the original group.
Had the full group arrived, it would have strengthened, or augmented, the First Colony considerably. As a result of the losses, probably some married women arrived as widows, and perhaps married into the Germanna families. And, some of the men could have done the same. Genealogically, it shows the difficulties of constructing families. We are not sure of the exact set of players.
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.