Nordfriesische Seeleute in der Handelsfahrt von Amsterdam, Hamburg, Altona und Kopenhagen 1750-1840

Abstract

The article discusses regional networks of North Frisian sailors involved in maritime trade in the period from about 1750 to 1840. For the North Frisians who earned their livelihoods in maritime trade, a heyday began in the 1760s and continued until the Napoleonic Wars, after which the number of North Frisians employed in that business never again reached as high a level. In the eighteenth century, ocean navigation was already a "globalized" sector of the economy with an international employment market and international trade cycles which the sailors had to take into account. For the North Frisians, the four large Northern European ports - Amsterdam, Hamburg, Altona and Copenhagen - were particularly important. There have been numerous studies on whaling and how the North Frisians were involved in it, but hardly any investigations have been carried out on the degree of North Frisian involvement in maritime trade and the significance of the individual ports within that context. The signing-on records of the harbour authorities serve as a source since they permit differentiation according to the seamen's origins in the various North Frisian islands. The study begins with a quantitative analysis of the presence of North Frisians in the individual ports, and the share accounted for by each individual North Frisian island in the total number of North Frisians employed in maritime trade. This analysis provides an impression of the changing significance of the ports and the individual islands. Subsequently the regional connections between the captain and the sailors, and particularly between the captain and the mate is investigated in some detail. Close regional connections are indicative of regional networks, in which context differentiations are again made according to the individual ports and islands. A look at the totals shows that Amsterdam was the most important port between 1770 and 1789, but never really recovered from the slumps that came about in 1790-1794 and 1807-1814. In the early 1790s, Altona became the distinctly predominant commercial port for the North Frisian sailors, and thus took over Amsterdam's role in that respect. The individual North Frisian islands each had their own preferences with regard to their maritime activities (whaling, maritime trade, shoal navigation). This went hand in hand with preferences in the ports from which the seamen entered maritime trade. An analysis of the islands from which the captains recruited their sailors reveals that, here as well, there were regional interdependencies. The North Frisian sailors generally liked to sail with captains from their own island or, if that was not possible, a neighbouring island, and the captains recruited their crews on the basis of similar considerations. These preferences were facilitated in part by the geographical conditions and the division of the shallows into sub-regions. The regional relationships are particularly distinct with regard to the mates. Regional networks formed above all in places where sailors of the same origins met in significant numbers. The use of networks for finding employment was only possible in places where there was a sufficient number of sailors of the same origins. On the other hand, however, this system made it difficult to react to crises, since a sailor lacked a network of his own in other locations, and it was difficult for him to gain admittance to an already existing network of sailors of other origins. The presence of North Frisian captains was especially important, since they were most likely to sign on mates and sailors from their native region.