Beim Ablauf gekentert - 1651: ein Emder Werft-Unglück mit Hunderten Toter

Abstract

ln the municipal diaries of the Eastern Frisian town of Emden, an entry made on September 10, 1651 reports an accident of quite unusual dimensions. A ship built to carry 70 to 80 Lasten (ca. 160 t.) capsized at its launching, dragging hundreds of people who were on board at the time into the liquid element. Two-hundred and fifty-five of them - corresponding to some 1.7% of the town's population in those days - met their death. The funeral sermon was printed in several editions and has survived to the present. From it we learn further details concerning, for example, the chaotic circumstances under which the rescue attempts were carried out - the shock was simply too great. Nothing is revealed, however, about why the ship capsized (although launching accidents did occur time and again). The weather was fine. And it can no longer be established how such large number of people could have gone on board. It is quite possible that with their movements and the resulting instability of the ship's hull, the visitors brought the catastrophe upon themselves. Because of the large number of deaths, accounts of the tragic event in the Falderndelft - i.e. in the centre of Emden, where shipbuilding no longer takes place - appeared in the "sensational press" of the time, the death toll played up to twice its actual size.