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Grenaa og omegn for og nu - A translation from Danish by Erik Madsen 2003 Grenaa and Surroundings - Before and Now From Grenaa to Tasmania in 1871- an Emigrant-History by: lb Asmussen (click text links to open link; use back button to return) |
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Introduction: Ib Asmussen has for many years been researching his family tree, which has led him over great distances. Here he is writing about some of his predecessors who emigrated from Grenaa to the island Tasmania, south of the Australian mainland during the early 1870’s. His article is an example on how the Internet is an important tool in genealogists’ efforts to gain information about their families throughout the world. Further information on this at the end of this article. The Voyage to Tasmania. Four brothers by the name of Appeldorff emigrated during the early 1870’s from Grenaa to Australia. Two of them traveled on the German emigrant ship Eugenie, which on a cold autumn day, October 2Oth 1871, departed from Hamburg. Five months later, on Palm Sunday, March 27th 1872, the ship arrived in Hobart, Capital City on the Island of Tasmania, which at that time was an independent state. It had been a long arduous and dramatic voyage. It is unknown how the two brothers and other families from Djursland traveled to Hamburg. As for the sailing trip on the Eugenie we have very good information. Because of the substantial problems on the ship during the voyage a maritime inquiry was instigated by the Tasmanian authorities whilst the ship lay outside the port of Hobart after the voyage. The inquiry was in regards Page 01 |
to conditions and happenings onboard during the voyage. The Tasmanian newspaper, “The Mercury” followed the case unfolding with eager and critical reporting over a period of about one and a half month after the arrival of the Eugenie. These articles, which are available today, give us a very good insight into the harsh travel conditions endured by the emigrants of that era. The ship was a full-rigged iron frigate, a sailing ship built in Hamburg during 1865. For a comparison, it was not unlike the Danish Frigate “Jylland” which was built about the same time, although this was made from timber. Eugenie was a bit smaller and employed about 20 different sails, never-the-less, a proud sight with all sails set. It was later re-rigged to a Barquentine and sold to Norway. The ship kept sailing until World War II, at which time it was sunk by the British Navy at Narvik (Northern Norway). Eugenie was under the command of Captain L. Voss from Hamburg and the passenger manifest counted 362 persons, most of whom were Germans but there were also a number of emigrants from the Scandinavian countries as well as some from Alsace in France. There were in all 34 Danish families on the ship and of these, 23 people were from the eastern part of Djursland. As part of this group were the brothers Jacob Peter and Hans Henrik Appeldorff with their families. There was also a woman from Søllerød, who later would be their sister in law.
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