"Wie du noch heiter, bar der finstern Sorgen, das Glück erwartet von dem nächsten Morgen": der Unfalltod des Kadetten Werner Bolm in Sydney im Jahre 1907

Abstract

In the archives of the German Maritime Museum, filed under Classification Number III I X 12 m, is a bundle of personal papers throwing light on the events connected with the accidental death in 1907 of the school ship cadet Werner Bolm. Two years earlier Bolm had been hired as an apprentice on board the four-masted bark HERZOGIN SOPHIE CHARLOTTE of the Norddeutscher Lloyd. His first voyage took him to Honolulu and Iasted from July, 1905 until October, 1906: Serious sea damage off Cape Horn had forced the ship to dock for an extended time in Montevideo. ln mid-November, 1906 he set off on his second training voyage, this time to Australia. On March 25, 1907, in the port of Sydney, Cadet Bolm fell from the mizzenmast and was fatally injured. His superiors and comrades carried him to the grave in Sydney. Among the surviving papers are letters sent to Bolm's parents by the shipowner, the captain and the crew as well as a "Iist of effects", i.e. of Bolm's personal belongings. T his enumeration provides a complete survey of the equipment of a school ship cadet around the turn of the century. The file closes with a Ietter from the shipowner notifying Bolm's parents that half of the fees paid for the second year of apprenticeship would be refunded.