Heinrich Yoachum & Family's 78 Day Voyage on the De Beaver :: FamilyTreeCircles.com Genealogy
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Heinrich Yoachum & Family's 78 Day Voyage on the De Beaver

Journal by justducky

Heinrich Jochem (Yoacum) was born in germany and with his wife, Geertje (Gertrude), son Mathias and daughters Ann and Jane, of palatinate German descent, immigrated from Hamburg, Germany. they left on May 9, 1661 to New Amsterdam (New York State) on the English ship "De Beaver". having left a depressed area of Germany to try to make a new life in a new and growing land.

The fare for the journey was 36 florins for an adult, 18 florins for children and suckling infants travelled free. The accounts list 51 people with debit entries, Heinrich & Gertrude Jochem (Yoacum) were on this list .

A journal of the voyage, kept by an unknown author, is summarised in an article by Dr Kenneth Scott in 'De Halve Maen' of January 1968 (dHM 42-4(1968) pages 7,8,10,15) The original journal, in Dutch, is held by the New York Historical Society. More details of the voyage can be found on the De Bever Sources page. The Journal mentions that 99 souls were on board which must have included around 30 crew members, 15-20 passengers who paid in advance & the 51 people with debit entries that made arragements to pay in New Amsterdam..

The section of the journal dealing with the voyage of De Bever can be divided into seven stages

1. Preparations for sailing 9 May to 11 May
The journal writer travels from Amsterdam to Texel with an overnight stay at Den Helder. The final accounts for the journey and a letter to Pieter Stuyvesant from the Directors of the West India Company bear a date of 9 May, indicating that he was carrying the last administrative paperwork for the voyage. De Bever and the St Jan Baptist were both at Texel by this time, passengers, provisions and goods having been brought up by smaller boat.

2. Texel to Buchan Ness 12 May to 19 May.
The ships set out on 12 May, with a favourable wind, intending to sail around the northern coast of Scotland. The Netherlands were at war with Portugal at this time so this northern route was probably safer than that through the English Channel. The route to the Orkneys would have been very familiar to Dutch navigators. This part of the journey was uneventful and they were in sight of Buchan Ness, near Peterhead, by the morning of 19 May. Distance travelled about 400 miles (approx 60 miles per day)

3. Caught in a storm in the Moray Firth 19 May to 21 May
In the evening of the 19 May, the wind changed to NE and the ships found that they were too close to the coast to clear the Orkneys. During the night the weather worsened and they were forced further westward into the Moray Firth until the wind changed on the night of the 21 May and they were able to sail eastwards away from the coast. At some point, the two ships lost contact and completed the journey independently.

4. Searching for the St Jan Baptist 22 May to 28 May
On the morning of the 22 May, De Bever encountered three escort vessels, waiting for ships returning from the East Indies and spent several days searching for her companion in the waters SE of the Orkneys before abandoning the search and heading NW between Orkney and Fair Isle in dark and foggy weather. At noon on the 28 May, they reached the most northerly point of the journey, some 30 miles west of Shetland and then took a WSW/SW course which would take them to the west of Ireland.


5. Shetland to Azores 28 May to 12 June
Favourable winds enabled De Bever to cover around 1800 miles in a 15 day period, an average of about 120 miles per day. The weather was mixed with some good days and rain and the occasional squall on others. On the 12 June they were in sight of the island of Corvo, the most north-westerly member of the Azores and a much-used and distinctive navigational marker.

6. Azores to Bermuda 13 June to 16 July
After an early setback, De Bever set a course for Bermuda, some 2100 miles away, a route pioneered by Sir Samuel Argall in 1609. This was much shorter than the traditional southern route via the Caribbean and avoided possible contact with hostile ships. However, the winds were much less reliable and De Bever spent several days in light winds and calm, accompanied by ?unbearable? heat. Their course took them westwards along the 30degree north latitude, finally sighting the island of Bermuda on 16 July. Distance travelled 2100 miles (approx 63 miles per day)

7. Bermuda to Manhattan 17 July to 29 July
The final part of the journey was straightforward, covering the 760 miles from Bermuda to Sandy Hook, NJ around 10 days, and sighting the American coast at Barnegat on the 27 July. However, after leaving Sandy Hook, De Bever ran aground on the West Bank, some 10 miles short of Manhattan. A distress signal was fired and smaller boats were dispatched from Nieuw Amsterdam to take off the passengers and some of the cargo. De Bever was refloated the following day and reached Manhattan to a salute from the guns of the fort.

The whole trip had taken 78 days and had covered a distance of around 5600 miles

Surnames: JOCHEM YOACUM YOCUM
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by justducky Profile | Research | Contact | Subscribe | Block this user
on 2012-07-28 13:47:07

Philibert - Stallions - Mobley - Harris - Yoakum or Yocum - Jenkins - Starnater -Ortes = Barada = Zeh - Early - Morris - Bush - Perry - Boone - Jenkins - Walton

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