Page - 81 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 1/2015

Until the middle of the 19th century, voyages across the Atlantic were done by sailing ships. These overseas voyages were very dangerous, and people only undertook them if they really had to. This article introduces two personal journals of voyagers who sailed from Bremen to Baltimore. The first journal belongs to caroline von Aschen, who started her travel from Bremen in March 1801 in company of a merchant’s wife. The two women met their ship “Batavia” near Brake, where big sailing ships had to wait for cargo. Bremerhaven, the port of Bremen, did not yet exist. The second journal was written by the emigrating siblings charlotte and Ludwig Schreiber, and it dates back to the year 1852. The journal concerns the same route, but other than caroline von Aschen, the travelers embarked in Bremerhaven, on a big emigrant sailing ship. This made their voyage considerably easier. While the Schreibers left their hometown Quakenbrück and their parents to start a new life in America, caroline von Aschen was supposed to stay in Baltimore only for some time. Genealogical studies show that, shortly after her return to Bremen in 1802 she had married a shipping agent. This suggests that the marriage had already been arranged, but could not take place during the mourning period for caroline’s father who had died in November 1800. When starting her journey, caroline was in a desperate condition. The voyage across the Atlantic is discussed here as a turning point between the past and the present. The personal journals from board were letters that the authors had sent back home to their relatives and friends. Thus, the journals document the travelers’ irritations, fears and hopes regarding their future. They also reflect their strategies to cope with feelings of doubt, homesickness and – as for the fate of caroline von Aschen – desperation about her separation from home and relatives she never had wanted to leave. The first question ‘What did the travelers expect from America?’ can only be answered in connection with gender. The women, caroline von Aschen and charlotte Schreiber, did not express their own ideas of how they wanted to live in the New World. They had no choice. Only nine days before her travel began, caroline had been persuaded to live in Baltimore for a while as a guest of a Bremen merchant’s family. She “gave her word”, but her journal, that she had addressed to her sisters, never specifies for what. Did she mean her travel or her marriage, or both? however, caroline obviously surrendered into her fate. As a women of 31 years, there was only a slim chance for her to get supported by marriage. Thus she had to take any adequate opportunity that was presented her. Mobile culture Studies. The Journal, Vol. 1 2015, 81-83 Double blind reviewed article Open Access: content is licensed under cc BY 3.0 Sea travel experiences from two travel diaries of the 19th century Extended summary Ursula feldkamp