FEEDING THE PALATINES: SHIPBOARD DIET IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY *
By KLAUS WUST
Throughout the eighteenth century no aspect of shipboard life found such
universal and consistant criticism as the food for crews and passengers. Even
on swift voyages in uncrowded vessels, travelers considered the ship's provisions
less than agreeable. Compared to most contemporary diets on shore, they were
simply atrocious. A ship's fare consisted mainly of items that would keep rea-
sonably well for months such as hardtack, flour, peas, beans, rice, preserved
meats and aged cheese. If the provisions taken aboard were fresh and securely
stored, and the trip was uneventful, a healthy passenger could subsist on such
a fare though its lack of balance and its heavy salt content made even strong
individuals susceptible to a variety of illnesses. Moreover, seasickness, especial-
ly during the first days of the voyage, prevented many passengers from eating
regularly while supplies were still fresh. After two or three weeks at sea, water
turned increasingly putrid, beer became sour, and grain products humid and
alive with varmin.
Vessels filled to capacity with emigrants and operated for hard-headed mer-
chants more often than not were unable to provide at all times the minimum of
the monotonous and salty fare stipulated in the passage contracts. If delays
in port and weather conditions at sea extended the trip beyond the anticipated
term, there was a real threat of starvation. It was customary to provision emi-
grant ships for twelve weeks which was reasonable in view of the fact that most
Atlantic crossings were accomplished in much less time. But monetary con-
siderations tempted shippers and captains to take on, at bargain prices, sup-
plies left over from other ships.
In the beginning of the century, the wholly uninitiated landsman heading for
America had only scarce information available to prepare himself for the ship-
board diet. The early accounts were all written by men who had booked indi-
vidual passages. Yet even Francis Daniel Pastorius recalled in his Beschrei-
bung in 1700 that "our entertainment in food and drink was almost bad."
After enumerating rations for a mess of ten passengers, he warned: "One has
to save every time so much at the midday meal as to have something to eat
at night."¹ Daniel Falckner's pious admonitions for the Pennsylvania-bound
traveler, also written in 1700, were scarely of practical use: "Give unto the
body its proper food, and so far as possible beware of unclean drinking vessels,
bedding and company." ²
*The above article is in a sense a by-product of an overall study of the actual process of
emigration from Central Europe during the eighteenth century, covering all North Ameri-
can colonies from Nova Scotia to Louisiana.
[32]
Franz Louis Michel of Bern, who crossed on the spacious ship Nassau on his
first exploratory trip to Virginia in 1702, gave a more realistic report to his
friends back home. The passengers had to group themselves in messes of five
persons each. A mess received daily four pounds of biscuit, one quart of beer
and two quarts of water. On five days of the week each mess was given two
pieces of beef or pork, weighing six pounds. This meat was sometimes replaced
by "fresh and large beans." On Sundays and Wednesdays, the passengers re-
ceived a pudding which Michel describes as "a good dish." Two pounds of
flour, half a pound of lard and grape juice were worked into a thick paste and
cooked in a linen sack. He concludes his comments: "The food was often, on
account of the heat and because it is not salted sufficiently, like the water of
such bad taste that we suffered considerably, especially because the large num-
ber of mice spoiled our bread altogether."³
In his Americanischer Wegweiser of 1711, John Rudolph Ochs advises emi-
grants to insist that the daily fare be specified in their passage agreements to
know "how much in weight and what kind of food the person should receive
daily and that they should not be old and stale but fresh victuals."
4
In his
appeal to Mennonites to come to Pennsylvania, Ochs suggests six years later
as a minimum for the voyage "twenty-four pounds of smoked meat, fifteen
pounds of cheese and 8¼ pounds of butter " per person.
5
As the emigrant transport business became more seasoned, shipping mer-
chants included a detailed bill of fare in their contracts. When Jörg Peter
Hillegas of Eppingen in the Kraichgau and 39 fellow travelers agreed in 1722
with Thomas Pillans of Rotterdam for their passage on the ship Greyhound,
they were promised:
"five dayes a Weak, Hash one pound a day for every Person, also one pound
bread, one english quarter beere & one quarter Water for every Person; two dayes
in each Weak Fish and butter with bread;
further bread and chease and other conveniences thereto belonging every day &
that the said Master shall allow said Passengers convenient firering every day if
Wind and Weather does permit it."
6
The description of the daily fare aboard became a firm part of all passenger
contracts. As the solicitation of emigrants was intensified in the 1740's and
50's, shipping houses included the full text in their promotional literature to
soften apprehensions. A certain standardization but also, at least on paper,
some improvement ensued from the intense competition for emigrants as re-
turn freight on vessels in the colonial export trade. Isaac and Zachary Hope
of Rotterdam promised in their circulars "good bread, beef, pork, flour, rice,
barley, peas, syrup, butter, cheese, beer, good, fresh water and other neces-
saries."
7
The rations offered per whole freight (one adult passenger) that
evolved over the years were pretty much the same with all major "Palatine"
merchants, as shippers of German and Swiss emigrants were called through
much of the century:
[33]
HOPE BROTHERS (1752)
7
JOHN DICK (1751)
8
DANIEL HARVART
(1753)
9
SUNDAY— 1 lb. of Beef boiled
with Rice.
1 lb. Boiled Beef with
as much boiled Rice as
they can eat.
1 lb. of meat with peas,
rice or beans.
MONDAY— Barley and Syrup.
Barly or Grout Boiled
which they eat with
Treacle as much as
will.
1 lb. of flour.
TUESDAY— 1 lb. of Wheat Flour.
1 lb. Boiled Beeff with
as much boiled Rice as
they can eat.
½
lb. of bacon with
peas, rice or beans.
WEDNESDAY— 1 lb. of Bacon with
Peas.
Barley or Rice boiled as
on Mondays.
1 lb of flour.
THURSDAY— 1 lb of Beef boiled
with Rice.
½ lb. Porks and a
pound of Flower.
1 lb. of meat with peas,
rice or beans.
FRIDAY— 1 lb. of Wheat Flour
and 1 lb. of Butter.
As much Stock Fish
Boiled as they choise
and one pound of
Butter.
1 lb of butter & ½ lb. of
stockfish with peas, rice
or beans.
SATURDAY— 1 lb. of Bacon, 1 lb.
of Cheese and 6 lbs.
of Bread for the
whole Week.
Boiled Pease and 1 lb.
of Cheese, 6 lbs. of
Bread per week.
6 lbs. of bread, 1 lb. of
cheese and pea soup.
Every day a quart of
Bear (so long as it
remains drinkable)
and two quarts of
water.
Whoever desires
Brandy, shall receive
the same every
morning.
With a measure of
Beer every day so long
as it keeps good, and
2 measures of Water,
to which I have added
Geneva (which agrees
with them better than
Brandy) to be dis-
tributed as the Capt.
shall see prudent.
Furthermore a measure
(quart) so long as it re-
mains good, besides a
measure of water, after-
wards, however, two
measures of water per
day. Brandy for sick
persons only.
The menus developed by the Hope Firm remained more or less the guidelines
for sea contracts during the second half of the century.
10
That such victualling
schemes were considered quite adequate becomes evident when compared to
the special provisioning which the Georgia Trustees negotiated for the trans-
ports of Salzburgers with Peter Simonds, owner of the ship Purysburg: "The
Daily Allowance to the Passengers was 4 Days in the week Beef and Pudding
2 Days Pork and Peas 1 Day Fish and Butter with 14 Ounces of Bread and 3
or 4 Qts. of Water or Beer to each Person daily which is a larger Allowance than
is given in our Man of War where the Sailors never Complain." Henry Newman
of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge suggested one change to
Simonds: "I told him that as they are great Lovers of Bread more than Eng-
lish People it would be reasonable to indulge them to have as much as they
can eat and more than the Value would be saved in other Articles."
11
[34]
John Dick, who handled the recruiting and transportation of settlers for
Nova Scotia, urged the Board of Trade to consider departures from their pro-
posed fare so heavy on salt meat, "however Agreeable it might suit with the
Constitutions of Britons, Experience has Evinced the Contrary with these sort
of Palatines, Especially where there are Women & Children, as their Chief Diet
at home is upon Vegitables, Flower, Oatmeal, Eggs, Fish, Butter, Cheese & c."
In order to forestall complaints, Dick even allowed a few selected passengers to
inspect the provisions to be taken aboard at Rotterdam.
12
In 1756, the Hope
Brothers announced improvements in their fare: "Inasmuch as we, as experi-
enced merchants, who have been transporting people twenty or more years al-
ready, have found that bacon and meat are very heavily salted, giving rise to
scurvy and other complaints, and, moreover, the High Germans being brought
up more on fresh than on salted provisions, we are ready to give two or three
fresh meals weekly."
13
The experience the Hopes boast of here included brushes with the authorities
on account of harsh complaints by some of their passengers in the past. The
most conspicuous case occurred in August 1737. During the obligatory stopover
for customs inspection at Cowes, the passengers of the Three Sisters decided to
act. Theobald Kieffer and three fellow travelers went straight to Hampton
Court "Praying to His Majesty for Relief " and stating in their petition: "Con-
trary to the agreement . . . they suffered very much from hunger on board of
the said Ship which had taken on little or no Provisions in Holland." The en-
suing investigation revealed that provisions taken from Rotterdam were in-
deed bad. The report cites "stinking" water in improperly cleaned, former
wine casks and India rice of poor quality, "musty, and good-for-nothing," but
with new supplies now on board there should be no more reason for complaint,
the investigators stated.
14
Despite the special care taken on behalf of the Salzburgers, the diary of the
two Lutheran pastors aboard, Johann Martin Bolzius and Israel Christian
Gronau, cites their dismay on the Purysburg in 1733 over "the very miserable
fare." "The meat is very salty and tough, and the peas that are cooked with
it are also bad. Drink is likewise sour. We too partake of such fare—may God
let it agree with us," the clergymen wrote on the second day at sea.
15
Seven
weeks later it was much the same: "Because the dear Salzburgers get only one
meal a day—and poor and scanty at that—and the hard ship's biscuit is so dry
that they can't put it in their stomachs, they buy cheese from the helmsman, a
pound for six stivers, whereupon they show themselves as grateful as if it
were given to them."
16
Letters from emigrants who had experienced the ship's fare contained the
ever recurrent advice to future wayfarers to supply themselves with supple-
mentary foodstuffs. In 1711, Hans Rüegsegger wrote home from New Bern,
North Carolina: "On the sea provide yourself with some food and drink be-
sides what is offered on the ship, for by hunger and thirst one must not save."
17
His fellow emigrant, Christen Jansen, was more specific: "The journey can be
endured if you are properly provided with aged cheese, dried meat, dried fruit,
[35]
vinegar, wine, beer, water, butter, biscuits—altogether what is good to eat and
easy to carry; also a kettle, narrow on the top and wide on the bottom, for
when the sea is rough, the ship tilts to one side and all is spilled."
18
Christopher Sauer sent rather favorable letters home about his trip in 1724
yet he too listed a few "troubles":
"1—that we had not taken an extra ration of water along, instead of believing the
captain so fully that he would give us as much as wanted....,
2—the meat was overly salted,
3—the cod-fish was soaked in fresh water, to be sure, but boiled in the same water
in which it was soaked."
Sauer admonished friends who were to follow to Pennsylvania: ". . . see to it
that, apart from the ship's fare, you provide yourself with such food as you are
accustomed to, dry bread, sausages, flour, butter, dried fruit, and something to
move the bowels, because one easily gets constipated on shipboard."
19
Hans
Jacob Thommen who traveled on the Princess Augusta in 1736 was blunt
enough: "Eating and drinking is no pleasure. And the ship people do not keep
what they promise. You have to provide yourself with bread, wine, flour, dried
things and sugar."
20
That such additional provisioning was not without pit-
falls is borne out by the remarks of Johannes Naas, a passenger on John Sted-
man's Pennsylvania Merchant in 1733: "And since the voyage owing to many
changes of wind turned out a little longer, and most people had consumed the
foodstuffs they brought along, counting on six weeks from land to land, they
merrily devoured and gulped down everything from morning into the night.
Now, at last, they found it hard to live on the ship's fare alone so that most of
them lost courage altogether and never expected to set foot on land again."
21
Naas attributed the excessive eating in the early stages of the trip to the en-
forced idleness and close confinement of normally active people. While the
ship's fare was still palatable, they tossed it overboard and depleted their own
supply. By the time their own resources ran out, the ship's fare had suffered
from being so long in the pickle of salt and the water had become foul so that
rice, barley, peas and the like could no longer be boiled properly in it. Discon-
tent of the travelers often turned into turmoil. Some even resorted to stealing
food and water from more provident fellow passengers.
22
A brighter moment came when the Pennsylvania Merchant met with a ship
on its way from Rhode Island to the West Indies. Captain Stedman visited
her and returned with half a sack of apples which he distributed among the
passengers. Naas wrote to his brother in Krefeld: "That caused great rejoicing
to get such beautiful American fruit at sea. They were delicious. Those left over,
he tossed among the people who all fell in heaps over one another to grab the
nice apples." Occasionally there was fresh fish when the crew harpooned a tuna
or a dolphin and captains ordered the catch to be distributed among the pas-
sengers. Naas even recalled how Captain Stedman dispensed with gusto the
meat of a huge shark to the people's joy.
23
Georg Friedrich von Berbisdorff on
the Albany in 1728 thought the dolphins "delicious to eat, the broth tasting as
[36]
good as from a chicken." This adventurous nobleman from Berlin had plenty of
"separistic" food but some of his companions did not "because they could not
imagine that the voyage would be so long, or that the ship's food would prove
so unpalatable."
24
All passengers learned to loathe the so-called ship's bread. Eberhardina
Christiana Lotter on the brig Dispatch in 1786 gave a striking description of it:
"The biscuits deserve special mention; we received 6 pounds per week. They came
all in pieces, black, without flavor or taste, like a clod, and hard as a rock. For
quite a while I did not know how to get at them until at long last hunger and
privation brushed aside all disgust and taught me how to bite and chew. Often I
dampened them with water to soften them. I also tried them on the fire once but
the captain strictly forbade us to do so because it could bring us instant sickness,
and I noticed that the biscuit teemed with worms as soon as it was warmed up. That
resulted from the fact that the leftovers are taken along on the next trip and are
never thrown out, even if they were 100 years old. None of our food was to be
looked at by light."
25
Similar comments were evoked by the stench of the meat which became
familiar to passengers every time a cask was opened. Johann Georg Käsebier
in 1724 spoke of "meat that was 6 or 7 years in casks, and had come back
from the East Indies." For him, the "Dutch cheese was still the best food on
the ship's fare."
26
Supplying vessels of moderate size with adequate amounts of water for a full
load of passengers was mainly a problem of space. Bulky water casks had to
compete in the hold with the often considerable effects of the emigrants and
frequently also with consignments of merchandise taken on for an extra profit.
Until after the War of Independence when clearance from British ports was
no longer required, fresh water was taken on at Cowes or Gosport on the last
days before sailing. Quality and taste depended much on the degree of clean-
liness of the containers. Passengers rarely burdened themselves with extra water
and other drinkables due to their volume. Some had bought a few bottles of
wine along the Rhine which were soon exhausted, often during the long wait in
Holland and England. Only a few fastidious travelers carried on bottled water.
Some who had knowing benefactors in Holland such as the Schwenkfelders, were
provided with additional beverages. Most emigrants were wholly dependent on
the ship's supply as stipulated in the agreement. They were giving hardly any
thought to the fact that the small ration had to be used for cooking the dry
staples.
In their concern for the well-being of their future Protestant settlers, the
Georgia trustees insisted on additional water for cooking. After the first four
weeks during which beer was still expected to remain drinkable, they ordered
"a Gallon of Water (whereof Two Quarts for Drinking, and the other Two for
boiling Victuals) for each Head by the Day. . . ."
27
Once on the high seas, the
regular water supply was at the mercy of the elements. The continual lurching
of the ship could cause leaks in even well-made casks, not to speak of those
that had served on many a previous run. Captains were so haunted by the
[37]
thought of having to curtail water because it could lead to scuffles and outright
mutiny. Thus Captain Spurrier wrote in 1750 in response to accusations by
passengers, who had spent twelve weeks on the Ann to Halifax, how he had to
cut rations to "one pint or half measure of water about fourteen days and
should not have done that but had a great quantity of water leaked out."
28
John Stedman, in turn, won the praise of Christopher Schultz while command-
ing the St. Andrew in 1734; "On account of the heat on this day, the captain
gave us two tankards of water in addition to the allotted amount, at 5 differ-
ent times." Schultz commented, though, "it was very foul and unpalatable, but
since we had no other we had to drink it. In some tanks it was worse than others,
in the coffee it could be changed somewhat but it could be tasted in the foods."
29
Schoolmaster Christian Boerstler aboard the North America in 1784 noted in
his diary that, though food was running short after a while, there was "not
any scarcity of water but it has a nasty taste, there is some lime in every cask
to preserve it longer."
30
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg experienced a complete
lack of water shortly before reaching Charleston in 1742. The passengers sur-
vived by drinking olive oil, vinegar and other liquids. The rats aboard gnawed
off the corks on the vinegar bottles, lowered their tails into them and then
licked off the liquid. At night they licked the sweat off the faces of the agonizing
travelers. Rescue came unexpectedly from passing English warships which
transferred several casks of water.
31
The elements also brought relief to many a ship. Naas recorded such an
abundant rain that some people caught as much as 30 gallons of water from the
runoff along the sails and the captain's cabin alone.
32
Christopher Schultz also
related how "much rain water was caught for drinking and cooking. This water
was very refreshing compared to the foul-smelling ship's water."
33
The Alsatian
Johann Philip Meurer, traveling to Philadelphia in 1742 with the specially shel-
tered Moravian transport on the Catherine, told of stopping at Funchal on the
island of Madeira where the empty water casks were replenished, and "a live
ox was taken on board."
34
Live cattle, hogs or poultry for slaughtering during
the voyage were only found on specially chartered ships with plenty of room or,
like on the Moravian-owned Catherine where care was taken to accord all
members of the "sea congregation" some degree of comfort. Some America-
bound travelers could afford private quarters on swift ships but if wind and
weather did not cooperate, they fared hardly any better than the average emi-
grant. A Reformed minister, Johann Heinrich Helfferich, who booked passage
from Amsterdam to New York for himself and relatives in 1771 on Captain
Arthur Helme's Rising Sun, confided to his diary how little immune even privi-
leged passengers were from the elements. His voyage lasted from September 6,
1771 to January 14, 1772. The ship was well provided with provisions but after
two months at sea, food and water ran perilously low. During a storm in the
English Channel a lot of chickens and ducks, kept in crates on the fore-deck,
were drowned. By October 14th, Helfferich noted the loss of 86 chickens. Al-
though the captain wisely rationed food and water, the situation became criti-
cal when adverse winds forced the vessel repeatedly off course. The passengers
[38]
and the captain no longer spoke to each other. An occasional large fish brought
some relief. On December 18th the sailors caught a dolphin "weighing between
forty and fifty pounds, which was quite good." Captain Helme held back one
hog for extreme emergencies but on January 7th it was also washed overboard.
Down to a daily ration of two and a half cups of water for drinking and for
cooking, the Rising Sun with all her passengers and crew cast anchor in New
York harbor two weeks later.
35
Such prolonged sailing under similar conditions
would have been distastrous on a regular emigrant ship. The literature of the
18th century abounds with tales of tragic crossings on crowded "Palatine"
transports.
36
Space was at a premium, and with 200 and more passengers to feed at the
one mealtime per day, the open hearth in the galley was such a busy place that
only the simplest warm dishes could be prepared anyway. Generally sea con-
tracts promised the people use of a fireplace. Isaac and Zachary Hope's agree-
ments with the captains stated: "They shall have liberty in time of fair weather
to dress their victuals for themselves and their children, and for that purpose
to make use of the fire from six o'clock in the morning to six at night, and to be
on deck."
37
The realities of shipboard life fell far short of such promise as
Christian Boerstler's diary revealed: "In four days nothing but a little meat
could be cooked for the mess. Everybody tried to make so much coffee, tea or
Soup (with roasted flour) for himself but often you would get drenched be-
cause the water swept over the ship. ... I have to cook for my mess and have
to fight with men and women over the use of the fire."
38
Käsebier dreaded the
daily drudgery: "If you still have something to cook and go to all the trouble,
it can be spilt in a moment by the heaving of the ship, and if the smartest fel-
low thinks he is on one side of the ship, he finds himself, salvavene, on his be-
hind on the other side."
39
Käsebier also records one of the awful accidents which happened time and
again during the arduous food preparation. A woman carrying an iron kettle
with soup fell into the hold and died after four weeks of constant suffering from
her burn injuries. There was always the danger that the unaccustomed user
of the open fire, which was often an improvised stove made of the lower half
of a cask filled with sand, could set the whole ship aflame. David Scholze noted
on a stormy day how "one of the women spilled butter in the fire so it was
all in a flame. Had the main sail been lying on the other rigging, it might
easily have caught fire." A few days later he recorded another incident. The
cook poured a pail of sea water on the fire to extinguish it instantly. The vapors
filled the ship in such a way that the captain and all aboard thought the ship
was on fire.
40
A similar panic broke out on the Purysburg when the captain in
jest bumped into the cabin boy who promptly spilled broth into the fire and
the ensuing steam penetrated the entire vessel. "Everybody ran to the bow
of the ship and believed to be face to face with death. It is impossible to describe
what a wretched sight this was and how miserably the old and young were
screaming," the two Lutheran pastors wrote in their common journal.
41
[39]
Slow-burning coal was mainly used for the galley fireplace but on prolonged
crossings the hunt was on for anything burnable. "Firewood is lacking, people
are dismantling the bedsteads, and that over the captain's protest. He called
for pistols. They laughed at him: 'We got rifles, too!'," Boerstler recounted and
mused: "What can a captain with 12 sailors do against 100 men? "
4²
The preoccupation with food and its preparation is reflected in almost every
letter and diary. Much of the criticism aimed at captains and merchants ac-
cused them of skimping with supplies guaranteed by the contracts. One of the
questions raised now and then concerned the rations for children. They were
charged as "half freights," and smaller ones traveled for free. Ships were pro-
visioned according to the number of paid "freights" which was not clearly un-
derstood by passengers with children. Thus, the Royal Union to Philadelphia
in 1750, for example, would have been victualled for 350 whole freights while
it actually carried 500 souls. Among the great number of youngsters up to 14
years of age must have been many with hearty appetites. Experienced and
humane masters of vessels provided whatever food was aboard rather than caus-
ing starvation. But under duress they had to enforce unpopular measures. Some
of them also labored under constraints imposed upon them by shipping mer-
chants who ultimately decided what quantities of food and water were taken
aboard and to whom the captain was answerable. Some again were whimsical
enough to play tricks on the landlubbers as did Captain Fry of the Purysburg
in 1738. He taunted his passengers "by saying that a single Salzburger gulps
down more than three Englishmen," as the accompanying pastors recorded.
The next day they had to admit that the captain gave the Salzburgers pudding
with raisins, oat groats and pork instead of beef "for such food agrees with the
people better," and the good pastors reluctantly praised "this kindness."
43
Distribution of rations was another cause for discord. Already Daniel Falck-
ner had advised the future wayfarers to be on good terms with the cook and the
steward. A little gratuity—be it a dram of brandy—proved helpful to many a
hungry soul. During the years of large emigration when merchants employed as
recruiting agents people who had lived in the New Land and for some reason
or other made return trips to Europe, many unsavory practices evolved from
personal greed and ignorance. These newlanders accompanied the emigrants on
the whole trip. Shipping merchants and captains found it convenient to let
them direct the distribution of food and favors on the ship. They also arranged
for the sale of extra items to passengers who still had cash, or most eagerly
added the inflated cost to the amount the redemptioners owed. The previously
cited investigation of conditions aboard the Three Sisters at Cowes in 1737 re-
vealed that Captain Hewitt had entrusted his "interpreter", one Anna
Maria.......
"the only person that could speak good English among them" with
the dispensing of food. The passengers claimed she had divided the meat un-
fairly while the investigating officers themselves had reasons "to suspect her
to be prepossed in ye' Master's ffavour."
44
Hans Wyss, a cooper from Canton
Zurich, landed a job cooking for the crew on the Priscilla in 1749 on his way
to Philadelphia, for which he received more than 30 rixdollars. His part of the
[40]
bargain was obviously not over with his arrival, for he sent a glowing report
back home: "We also had good fare on the ship, and enough at that. . . .
you can imagine that it was not bad, for one could buy a pound of butter for
two Lucerne shillings so that I got several pounds myself because people did
not have use for all of that. We have cooked every day on the ship." And then
he wrote: "Truly, our ship was so well provided with victuals that we could
not complain." In the same letter he warmly recommended to all prospective
emigrants a certain Hans Bär, a newlander in John Stedman's service. Bär, he
assured them, would personally supervise the loading of provisions in Rotter-
dam.
45
Such positive, albeit motivated, "testimony," distributed by those who
stood to profit from emigrant transports, is proof that the "Palatine" mer-
chants felt the need to dispel apprehensions about shipboard fare. For the vast
majority of 18th century trans-atlantic emigrants the food provided under pass-
age contracts was a mere subsistence diet at best.
1
Franz Daniel Pastorius, Umständige geographische Beschreibung. . . . (Frankfurt, 1700),
36.
2
Daniel Falckner's Curieuse Nachricht . . ., ed. by Julius Frederick Sachse (Lancaster.
PA, 1905), 90-1.
3
"Short Report of the American Journey," ed. by William J. Hinke, Virginia Magazine
of History and Biography XXIV (1916), 10-1.
4
Johann Rudolff Ochs, Americanischer Wegweiser (Bern, 1711), 90.
5
J. G. de Hoop Scheffer, "Vriendschapsbetrekkingen tussen de Doopgezinden hier te lande
en die in Pennsylvanie," Doopgezinde Bijtragen, Nieuwe Serie III (Leeuwarden, 1869), 15.
6
GA Rotterdam, Notarial Files, Jacob Bremer # 2316/169, pp. 309-10.
7
Massachusetts Archives, Vol. 15A, pp. 197-9.
8
Dick to Lords of Trade, 14 May 1751. The Palatine records pertaining to Nova Scotia
from the British P.R.O. were consulted on microfilm at the National Archives of Canada,
Ottawa. Special thanks are due to the staff for enabling the author to carry out research
on an all-night pass. See also Wintrop P. Bell, The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settle-
ment of Nova Scotia (Toronto, 1961), 169.
9
Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe, Pfalz-Generalia, 77/6529.6736. Available on photo-
stat at the Library of Congress.
10
For a sample contract of 1784 in English translation see Klaus Wust, Pioneers in Serv-
ice (Baltimore, 1958), 38. The German original of the Fr. Caerten sea contract appeared in
Schloezer's Staats-Anzeigen, Vol. 61, pp. 114-16 (Göttingen, 1791).
11
Newman to H. A. Butienter, 13 Dec. 1733 in George Fenwick Jones (ed), Henry New-
man's Salzburger Letterbooks (Athens, GA, 1966), 81. See also Georgia Colonial Records
III, 408-9 for complete scheme for "Mess of Five Heads."
12
Dick to Lords of Trade, 5 Apr. 1751; Bell, op. cit., 169.
13
Historischer Verein Alt-Wertheim, Printed sea contract, dated 16 Feb. 1756. Don
Yoder, Pennsylvania German Immigrants, 1709-1786 (Baltimore, 1980), 257.
14
Report on the Petition of Theobald Kieffer and Others, 9 Sep. 1737. P.R.O. SP 42-138.
See also Elizabeth Clarke Kieffer, "The Cheese Was Good," Pennsylvania Folklife XIX
(Spring 1970), 27-9.
15
George Fenwick Jones and Marie Hahn (eds), Detailed Reports on the Salzburger
Emigrants . .. Samuel Urlsperger (Athens, GA 1972), III, 283.
16
Jones, Detailed . . ., III, 305. A stiver was 1/2 shilling sterling.
17
Letter dated 7 Apr. 1711. Leo Schelbert and Hedwig Rappolt (eds), Alles ist ganz
anders hier (Olten, 1977), 41.
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18
Letter dated 30 Apr. 1711. Schelbert, op. cit., 48.
19 1
Dec. 1724. English translation in Pennsylvania, Magazine of History and Biography
XLV (1921), 244-5, 253.
20
Dated 11 Oct. 1736. One of a series of letters intercepted by the Swiss authorities and
copied for the benefit of other governments gathering information on emigration. This letter
(and others) has survived in the Pfalz-Generalia file of the Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe.
21
To Jacob Wilhelm Naas, 17 Oct. 1733, Deutsche Pionier XII (Cincinnati, 1880), 344.
22
Ibid., 348.
23
Ibid., 344-5.
24
Auszug einiger Send=Schreiben in Pennsylvanien, worinnen die gantze Reise, von Rotter-
dam nach Pennsylvanien, fleissig aufgezeichnet . . . (s.1. 1729). See Julius F. Sachse (ed.
& trans), Diary of a Voyage from Rotterdam to Philadelphia in 1728 (Lancaster, PA, 1907),
10, 16.
25
Ms. Diary, Letter Family Papers, Stuttgart. In Paul Kapff, Schwaben in Amerika seit
der Entdeckung des Weltteils (Stuttgart, 1893), 19.
26
Käsebier to the Count of Wittgenstein, 7 Nov. 1724. Wittgenstein L (1962), 126.
27
Georgia Colonial Records, III, 409.
28
Spurrier to Dick, 21 Sep. 1750; Bell, op. cit., 153.
29
"Reisebeschreibung von Altenau bis Pennsylvanien," in Samuel K. Brecht, The Gen-
ealogical Record of the Schwenkfelder Families (New York, 1923) 48.
30
J. P. Kenkel (ed), "Tagebuch von Christian Börstler . . . auf der Reise nach Balti-
more in Amerika," Deutsch-Amerikanische Geschichtsblätter I, iii (1901), 51.
31
Theodore G. Tappert and John W. Doberstein (trans. & eds), The Journals of Henry
Melchior Muhlenberg I (Philadelphia, 1942), 55.
32
Nass, Dt. Pionier XII, 345.
33
Brecht, op. cit., 48.
34
J. P. Meurer, "From London to Philadelphia, 1742" PMBH, XXXVII (1913), 97.
35
"The Journal of Rev. Johann Heinrich Helfferich," Pennsylvania Folklife XXVIII
(Summer 1979), 19, 31, 24. For a better translation see PMHB XXXVIII (1914), 65-83.
36
See, for example, Klaus Wust, "William Byrd II and the Shipwreck of the Oliver,"
Newsletter, Swiss American Historical Society, XX, No. 2 (1984), 3-19.
37
Mass. Archives, Vol. 15A, 197-9.
.
38
Dt.-Am. Geschichtsbl, I, iii, 54.
39
Wittgenstein L (1962), 126. Salvavene (Latin): "with your permission."
40
Scholze, "Narrative of the Journey of the Schwenkfelders to Pennsylvania, 1733,
PMHB X (1886), 177.
.
41
Jones, Detailed . . ., III, 306.
42
Dt.-Am. Geschichtsbl. I, iii. 54.
43
Jones, Detailed . . ., III, 307.
44
Kieffer, "Cheese Was Good," 28-9.
45
Andreas Blacher, Die Eigenart der Zürcher Auswanderer nach Amerika, 1734-1744
(Zurich, 1976), 175. Letter dated 4 Nov. 1749.
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