I have spoken about the late departure of the Second Colony from their homes in Germany. Perhaps, I can put this in a better perspective.
In the year 1738, there were many ships that left Germany. I do not have the departure dates for them but I have the arrival dates for them. On the average, ten weeks at sea would be a good time for a passage over the Atlantic. A few ships made it in less time than this, but ten weeks will suffice for our present needs.
The first ship arrived at Philadelphia on September 5 so we might conclude that the ship left Rotterdam, its point of departure, in late June. The passengers on it probably left their home in early May, perhaps April even.
Two more ships arrived at Philadelphia on September 9, then one each on the 11th, 16th, 19th, and two more on the 20th of September. Backing up ten weeks from the middle of September, we see that the first ships left Rotterdam in June or perhaps in July. Again the passengers would have left their homes in April and May.
There were serious delays at Rotterdam because of the large number of emigrants in 1738. The shippers had to find additional vessels and to convert them into passenger-carrying ships. So the emigrants were delayed seriously at Rotterdam while they waiting for ships to take them. This again tends to confirm the typical early departure dates from Germany.
We have the details on one particular ship and one set of emigrants. Those from Freudenberg in 1738 left there in March and their ship, the Oliver, did not leave Rotterdam until late June. So it was three months from the time they left their homes until their ship went to sea.
In 1717, we know that many members of the Second Colony did not leave from Gemmingen until July 12. In this year, the shipping of passengers was not well developed. The emigrants had to find their way to London and then they had to find a ship to America (usually Pennsylvania). We find the members of the Second Colony in the church records in London in August and early September. So this is an unusually late time to be looking for ships to Pennsylvania.
In recent notes, we have seen that perhaps as many as 500 Germans were looking for a passage about the first of September. This included the members of the Second Colony. This was very late in the year and there was a great difficulty in finding ships.
(05 Jun 06)
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.