The Three Masted Schooner Heinrich of Geestemunde 1910

[david macdiarmid]

Hi again,a new day a new dilemma.Whilst in my head scratching mode of wondering what to do next.I decided to look back on some research unearthed a couple of years ago,God knows how i did not think of this before,their is so much work where i have only just scratched the surface.Any way i have tried a few German and American sites with no success to either finding the Schooner or the Captain,Friedrich Niehus or Nishus.His life was saved by my Grandfather,so it would be nice to have some info on him and the Heidrich,can anyone point me in the right direction,David

[Currie]

Hello David,

I couldn’t find anything in particular about the ship or its captain. There’s a list of ships on this site http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz/ship/list but there’s a number of ships by that name and if it’s listed there may not be enough to link it to yours. There are scattered references to Schooners by name of Heinrich in 19th Century British Library Newspapers but nothing I could see post 1880 to link to Geestemunde, and the captain would have been pretty young at that time.

The incident and the award of the gold watches by the German Emperor were reported in the London Times. You sound as if you have these reports but if you don’t please let me know by PM. The Times - Jan 03, 1910 and Sep 06, 1910. Also in The Scotsman - 3rd January 1910, 6th January 1910 and 6th September 1910.

There would have been an enquiry into the death of the two German seamen, Wilhelm Eckert (Gekert) and Willy Dreckler (Drecklar), who drowned. I don’t know whether more information about the captain or ship would have surfaced there or whether such records would still exist. Their death records on SP may be of interest.

Hope this is useful,
Alan

[Currie]

It seems also there was a report in the Weekly Scotsman on 8th January 1910. This and the gilded story of one of the crew of the Heinrich are presented on this page.
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin ... dbh&id=I11

The transcription there of the Weekly Scotsman article is as follows:

"CAPSIZED BOAT"
"TWO LIVES LOST AT LEITH"
"Two lives were lost and a third imperilled by the capsizing of a small ship's boat off Leith on Saturday. The men (Friedrich Niehus, thirty-six years of age, master of the schooner Heinrich, of Geesttemünde; Wilhelm Eckert, twenty-one, and Willy Dreckler, eighteen, seamen) all belonged to Germany, and arrived in Leith Roads on Friday with the schooner from Great Yarmouth. Anchor was dropped about a mile north of Leith pierhead.
"On Saturday morning Captain Niehus was rowed to Leith by the two seamen to transact some business. He dispatched a telegram to the owners of the schooner, and expecting a reply, waited ashore all afternoon. As the reply had not arrived by three o'clock, he decided to return to his vessel before darkness fell. The captain and the two sailors embarked on their small boat, and the seamen took the oars,
"Afterwards the sail was hoisted, but before it was adjusted a violent gust of wind struck the craft and it capsized, throwing the occupants into the water. Keeping their presence of mind, the three sailors clambered on to the keel of the boat. The boat turned round again and again. The unfortunate men tried their best to right it, and after half an hour had been spent in this way Eckert was struck by the boat suddenly heeling over, and he disappeared underneath the water. Dreckler's strength soon gave way, and although in an exhausted state himself with the awful exposure to the cold, Captain Niehus assisted his young companion in distress by supporting him. By this time it was dusk.
"A RESCUE PARTY"
"The occurrence had been observed from Leith Pierhead, and a telephone message was sent to the police. Detective Hugh M'Kay immediately ran towards the pierhead in the expectation of meeting some boatmen. He overtook Robert Sutherland, a young boatman who resides at the Shore, Leith, The services were also requisitioned of Alex M'Gregor, boatowner and boatman, Commercial Street, Leith, and the three men hastily jumped into one of M'Gregor's small boats and set sail for the scene of the accident.
"When about two miles out from the pierhead the rescuers came upon the seamen, and at the time the master mariner was supporting Dreckler on the keel of the boat. Captain Niehus could easily have been taken off first, but he shouted 'No!' and pointed to Dreckler. With no little difficulty the men were taken into the boats. The steamer Fingal stood by, and Captain Dawson sent his stewart with a bottle of brandy. All efforts to restore Dreckler failed, but Captain Niehus is progressing favorably."

Alan

[Currie]

Hello David,

I sent you a PM a while ago but it’s still in my Outbox and I suspect it may be caught up in the works. If you can't see it there maybe your Inbox is 100% full or something like that.

All the best,
Alan

[david macdiarmid]

Hi Alan,Tried to find the two Willy's tonight on SP,used the names you suggested but nae luck.I have studied Heinrich Huppert's life story many times and for the life of me,i cannot understand why an upstanding gentleman would say he was aboard the Heinrich 1st Jan 1910 when it would appear he wasn't.Do you think a Schooner of this size could have had a crew of just three?travelling across the North Sea at this time of year must of been daunting.What do you think?David

[LesleyB]

Hi David

Do you think a Schooner of this size could have had a crew of just three?

I'm maybe getting the wrong end of the stick here, but my reading of the article above suggests that the three men left the Schooner in a smaller rowing boat to go to Leith. The article says nothing about the rest of the crew left on the Schooner, so there are no clues as to how many the toal crew number was.

Bear in mind that on the web site it says:
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin ... dbh&id=I11

What followed is best told in Heinrich's own words, just as he related it from time to time to friends, dinner guests and his two enthralled sons:

My personal opinion would be that the dramatic story (as outlined in the Scotsman, above) had become even more dramatic for the telling to "friends, dinner guests and his two enthralled sons"; I'd be more inclined to trust the Scotsman's report of the incident. I suspect Heinrich Huppert may have been aboard the Schooner, but not in the rowing boat. I feel fairly sure that had there been an even more dramatic story to report, the Scotsman would not have missed it out!!

The story on Rootsweb also does not state if the events related were written down at the time by Heinrich Huppert himself - it may have grown arms and legs and become a bit muddled in the re-telling through the generations since...as stories often do.

There is a Wilhelm E*kert death in Midlothian in 1910 on SP.


Best wishes
Lesley

[Currie]

Hello Lesley & David,

I agree with Lesley in that it was a story meant to entertain the children and probably grew like Topsy. Only the facts were changed to gild the lily. It seems unlikely that a whole crew would leave a schooner anchored and unoccupied unless it was sinking or something like that.

The description “Schooner” is of the sail arrangement and that being the case a schooner can be as large as you like or as small as you like. Here’s a story about a seven masted monster of a schooner that had a crew of 16 to 18 and was capable of carrying an 11,000 ton cargo. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_W._Lawson_(ship)

According to the researcher the schooner Heinrich was of 125 gross tons and three masted. That’s very much smaller than the one described above and probably smaller than average but not necessarily markedly so for the route she was travelling.

In the gilded version of the story all hands scrambled into the boat after the ship hit a rock. When the boat overturned two of the sailors sank and the other four held onto the boat. Next the captain drowned then a young apprentice and two were rescued. No other losses were mentioned and the Schooner in the story appears to have had a crew of six. No point in gilding that bit and it is probably what it was. Here’s a Google book, Graveyard of the Atlantic, that has page 135 literally littered with crew numbers of schooners and about six seems to fit nicely. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=jjZ ... dq=%22crew of%22

The death Lesley found (Wilhelm E*kert death in Midlothian in 1910) is a 21 year old registered Leith, but the one I found was a 21 year old Willi* Eck* died 1910 in Edinburgh City, but not Leith. It looks like the same person but registered under different districts under different spellings?

The other one I found on SP was an 18 year old Willy Drech* died Edinburgh Leith in 1910. According to a notice in the Scotsman of 6th January an enquiry (under the Fatal accidents etc.. Acts) into the deaths of the two seamen was set down for hearing on 13th January at the Sheriff Court House, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh. I assumed from that both deaths would have been registered.

All the best,
Alan

[david macdiarmid]

Hi Lesley and Alan, Thanks again for putting flesh on the bones of my dilemma you have both been very helpfull.After Alan sent me Herr Huppert's account of what happend,i kept thinking to myself that he must not of been on board but why would he say he was?Then when it appears he probably was,it all makes sense.With your help i found the two Willy's.Is there any way you can print off a certificate (from SP) filling an A4 page rather than it just taking up a small section?It would be easier to read.Do you both think the two Willy's are buried in Leith?I have e-mailed Heinrich Huppert's relation in USA to see if he has any more to add,This story has been very entertaining so far,My Mum and My Auntie both have copies so it will be interesting to get their reaction.This accident happened before both of them were born,David

[Currie]

Hello David,

How you print stuff varies greatly and depends on what software you have. I don’t do much printing and someone else may have a better idea but try these:

If you don’t have it get Irfanview http://www.snapfiles.com/reviews/IrfanView/irfan.html
Download the image so you have it on your computer
Open the image using Irfanview, or right click the image and send to Irfanview.
On the File Menu click Print
In the Print Preview select Landscape
Select Best Fit to Page
Type number of copies and click Print

Possible also using Microsoft Word but a lot fiddlier.
Open up a new Word document
On the insert menu click on picture/from file
Navigate to the image you want to print, select it and click insert
Click on the inserted picture, you should then see a Picture toolbar, click on rotate
Drag the corners of the picture to make it bigger and fill up more of the page
Save the document and print it

(Moving images around in a Word document can sometimes be a bit messy so if you get into trouble delete the Word document image and start again.)
You may find it easier to also reset the page margins to get the picture closer to the edges
Deselect the image and on the File menu click Page setup
Change the top, bottom, left and right margins to say about 10mm (0.4”)
Fiddle with the image corners so the image fits within the printable area

As to where they were buried I couldn’t say except that it shouldn’t be too far from where their bodies were taken after death. They would be together if the joint funeral story is correct. It will be interesting to see how the relative responds.

All the best,
Alan

[LesleyB]

Hi David

.Is there any way you can print off a certificate (from SP) filling an A4 page rather than it just taking up a small section?It would be easier to read.

If you are viewing the images on SP with the java applet viewer, then as far as I remember there is print button along the top; a click on this should bring up a "page set up" dialog box (which may differ depending on your printer) Choose the LANDSCAPE oreintation and click OK. The print dialog box should then pop up and if you click OK, it should print the page out in landscape format, which should mean the image fills more of the page and the text is larger.

Best wishes
Lesley