The "La Rochelle"
The Ship That Carried My Progenitors to Kaffraria
(Picture: Lindsay Love, Queensland, Australia)
The La Rochelle (named after the French city from which the Huguenot
Godeffroy family had fled to Berlin before settling in Hamburg in 1737) was a 3-masted,
square-rigged ship, built by Godeffroy at Reiherstieg, Hamburg; Bielbrief 21 May 1855 350
Commerzlasten/738 net register tons; 52,44 x 9,22 x 6,35 meters (length x beam x depth of
hold).
Master:
- 1855-1860 - J. Meyer
- 1861-1868 - J. Junge
- 1869-1880 - H. Witt.
Voyages:
- 1855/56 - Adelaide/intermediate ports/London
- 1856 - Goteborg
- 1856/57 - Melbourne/Valparaiso/Totoral/Valdiva
- 1858/62 - East London/intermediate ports/London
- 1862/63 - Moreton Bay/intermediate ports/Callao
- 1863/64 - Moreton Bay/intermediate ports/Callao
- 1864/65 - Moreton Bay/intermediate ports/Antwerp
- 1865/66 - Moreton Bay/intermediate ports/Dordrecht
- 1867/72 - Callao/intermediate ports/Antwerp/intermediate ports/Apia
- 1872/73 - Apia
- 1873/76 - Apia/Liverpool/intermediate ports/Altona
- 1876/78 - Apia/intermediate ports/Vavao
- 1878/79 - Cape of Good Hope/Apia
- 1879/80 - Melbourne/Sydney/Apia.
The La Rochelle was sold in 1881, as part of the liquidation of the
firm's assets, apparently to Bauck of Helsingborg, Finland. I understand from Dr. C. Prange
of the Museum fur Hamburgische Geschichte that when it was sold, the La
Rochelle was renamed Saturnus.
During 1999 and 2000 I followed a number of leads in an effort to determine the fate of the
La Rochelle/Saturnus:
- I contacted the Institute of Migration in Turku, Finland
(Olavi Koivukangas), requesting information about the
La Rochelle. I received the response that the closest place name
in Finland was Helsingfors (or Helsinki in English), the capital city. Apparently there
is no Finish harbour called Helsingsborg. However, they did point me to the large Swedish
port of Helsingborg (N 56.03333º E12.70523º), just to the east of Helsingor in
Denmark. I assume that this became the La Rochelle's home
port after she was sold by the Godeffroy family.
- I also contacted the Swedish Imigrant Institute
(Johan Goddijn) in this regard.
Johan indicated that they had no information on the Larochelle / Saturnus, and pointed me
to the maritime museum in Malmö in Sweden and the maritime museum in Gothenburg, also
in Sweden.
- I am still awaiting a response from the
Maritime Museum in Malmö, Sweden (N 55.57670º E13.01112º).
- Gunnar Löwenstein,
the librarian at the Maritime Museum of Gothenburg (or Göteborg, N 57.69611º
E 11.97337º) responded in the affirmative! The museum had a picture of the Saturnus, and
knew of the ship's fate.
The museum in Gothenburg confirmed that they have a monochrome glass negative of the Saturnus
depicting a painting (probably an oil painting) of the ship. Unfortunately they do not possess
the original and have no record of who owns the painting. Gunnar Löwenstein referred me to
the museum's archivist,
Christina Lönnqvist if I was interested in buying a print of the negative. I will
definitely get an enlargement!
Gothenburg also confirmed that the Saturnus was abandoned in a sinking state in the North
Atlantic in the middle of March 1888. The crew survived and arrived at the Bermudas on
March 17 the same year.
My next step will be to reference the Lloyds lists to see what they have on the ship of my
ancestors.
Sources:
- Walter Kresse, ed., Seeschiffs-Verzeichnis der Hamburger Reedereien, 1824-1888,
Mitteilungen aus dem Museum fur Hamburgische Geschichte, N. F., Bd. 5. (Hamburg: Museum
fur Hamburgische Geschichte, 1969), vol. 1, pp. 168 and 170
- Otto J. Seiler, Australienfahrt; Linienschiffahrt der Hapag-Lloyd AG im Wandel der Zeiten
(Herford: Mittler, c1988)
- Ian Hawkins Nicholson, Log of logs : a catalogue of logs, journals, shipboard diaries,
letters, and all forms of voyage narratives, 1788 to 1988, for Australia and New Zealand
and surrounding oceans,vol. 2, Roebuck Society Publication No. 47 (Yaroomba, Qld: The
Author jointly with the Australian Association for Maritime History, 1993), p. 448,
contains references to several accounts of voyages of the La Rochelle between 1856 and
1865.
Much of the above information was originally posted to the Emigration-Ships Mailing List by
Michael Palmer of Claremont, California on February
23, 1998, and was adapted from Louis S. Alfano's "
Immigrant Ships"
website.
