State Library of SA

Table of Contents: 

1. 1. Where is the Isle of Sylt?
   2.  How does The Pioneer Women's Walk' fit in with a story about Captain Hahn.?
   3. How does Captain Hahn deal with the death of 4 children while still on the Elbe River? 
   4. What happened to Captain Hahn after South Australia?
   5. Where is Captain Hahn buried?

1.   Where is the Isle of Sylt   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylt

The Danish Captain Hahn was born and died on the Isle of Sylt, 6kms off the coast where the Danish & German borders meet on the Wadden Sea which is part of the North Sea.  

The only way that you can reach the island now is via a ferry from Germany or to drive your car onto a train (100 trains/day) at Niebüll (& Klanxbüll) and travel within your vehicle for 10 minutes into the city of  Westerland.  The island is 13kms in width and 38kms in length.  The railway causeway was built in 1927and is known as the Hindenburg Dam. 

Apparently 'during the 17th & 18th century whaling, fishing and oyster breeding increased the wealth of the population' perhaps Dirk learnt his seamanship through these endeavours.  'Sylt is a part of the Frisian Islands. It has its own local dialect, 'Söl'ring', which is the indigenous speech of Sylt.  

These 3 maps below illustrate the island's position within the unique Wadden Sea, the 2nd map shows a vague outline of the railway causeway enroute to Westerland, and the final map shows the mudflat and tidal waters of the east coast with the train causeway.

https://www.deutsche-leuchtfeuer.de/binnen/elbe/juelssand.html. Merchant sailors once only sailed here during the day when visibility was good.  They avoided the dangers of a night trip in the winding, narrow fairway of the tidal river.  From 1839, Hamburg placed small lightships in the most dangerous places.   https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julssand. Julssand or Juelssand was an island in the Lower Elbe at the Hetlinger Schanze. It was continuously inhabited form 1704 until the 1990's. Due to sand deposits and changes in the riverbed, the oxbow of the Lower Elbe has silted up, so that the former island is now directly connected to the Hetlinger Schanze.  It is 30kms along the river from Hamburg.  The light house was built in  1896.

2.   How does The Pioneer Women's Walk' fit in with a story about Captain Hahn?

This photograph, taken 20 April 1980, is of participants on the first National Trust public walk, along what is now called 'The Pioneer Women's Trail' which honours the early women of Hahndorf who walked more than 35km to sell or exchange their agricultural produce.   Leading, and holding the flag of the Isle of Sylt ,  (where Captain Hahn of the Zebra lived), is historian Reg BUTLER.  This history surrounding this walk by the descendants of the Zebra are described in this book by Elizabeth SIMPSON  "The Hahndorf Walkers and the Beaumont Connection."

Alongside Lyndell Davidge, volunteer coordinator at the Hahndorf Academy the first to walk the https://localwiki.org/adelaide-hills/Pioneer_Women%27s_Trail_-_History were, 'Rodney Allen, Anni Luur Fox, Claire Ferguson & John Storey.'  

'Historian Reg Butler flanked by other direct descendents of the Hahndorf women in period dress, led the throng with a flag sent him by citizens of Westerland, the birthplace of Captain Hahn who had been so influential in the founding of Hahndorf.

Extract from the National Trust of SA historical overview

'The Pioneer Women's Trail honours the early European settlers from Hahndorf who supplied Adelaide with fresh produce at a tie when most foodstuffs had to be imported into South Australia. This British colony was barely two years old when three sailing ships arrived in 1838 carrying Lutheran refugees from Prussia eager to build new lives free from persecution.  The sympathetic captain of the 'Zebra', Dirk Meinertz HAHN, helped fifty-four Lutheran families establish farms in the picturesque Onkaparinga River Valley near Mount Barker. 

Within weeks the women and girls carrying baskets of vegetables and dairy products on their backs or on yokes across their shoulders, left the village at midnight to walk the rough bush track to Adelaide 35kms away.  At about 4.00 am the women reached a stream in the foothills near Beaumont which became a favourite place to rest, wash their sore feet and tidy themselves before walking into Adelaide to hawk their wares.  Their load on the homeward journey contained sewing thread, needles, sugar, tea, some tobacco for the menfolk.  

In 1979 six members of the Hahndorf Branch, National Trust of South Australia followed a map produced on 18 June 1841 by surveyor F R NIXON showing this Trail.'  That is how it started.  

3.   How does Captain Hahn deal with the death of 4 children before the Zebra even leaves the Elbe River?

Emigrants to Hahndorf a Remarkable Voyage by Captain Hahn of the 'Zebra' 1838, page 27-30.

'... was buried on Juelssand'"Setting out.  A steam launch towed us away from the city at six o'clock on Sunday morning, 12 August 1838. Numbers of people were standing on the shore to watch us leave.  

And so we began this difficult voyage.  On 17 August another child died and was buried on Juelssand.  

On 19 August we reached Krautsand.  Another child died on that day.  As we were now so close to Glückstadt, I did not want to bury this child in the sand of the shore as well, and anyway it would have been against the law to do so.

I asked the doctor from Schleswig, named Mathiesen, who had been engaged for the emigrants, to give me a certificate with details of the illness the child had died from, and I went of to Glückstadt.  There I approached Rector Quenzel  and showed him the certificate, asking him to allow this four-year-old child to be buried in the graveyard.

 I described to him the situation of the people and the cause of their emigration, and he promised to grant my request.  However, the body could not be buried less than three times 24 hours after the death had occurred.  

As I could not keep the dead child onboard board for so long, he suggested that until that time had expired, we could leave it in the quarantine hospital, which was empty anyway.  But he said in conclusion: I cannot decide to give permission for this on my own, President Fabricius's approval is also required.

I went off to see the President, put the circumstances to him in a similar fashion, and told him that I had already discussed everything with Consistorial Counsellor Quenzal and had his permission.  

'Yes, I will allow you to bring the body on shore here,' was his answer.

'That means there will be no charges?' I asked then.

'Well, no, not without charge,' he replied, and continued: 'The total cost will be, first, two species to the district medical officer for the post-mortem, and then one species rent a day for the hospital, that is, three species, making a total of five species altogether.  Counsellor Quenzal will be able to give you more precise details of the additional costs for the burial.'

I said: 'I have enough information already.  The body will not be buried here.  Two children died in Altona and - as they were very poor - were buried in the graveyard at no charge.   As a Dane I thought that that would also be the case here; otherwise I would not have come over here.  These are not my dead, and I have already told you that the parents of this child are penniless.  If the whole of Glückstadt (Authors Note: Glückstadt is Danish Territory) cannot take in one poor dead Prussian emigrant, then why should I, just one man, pay the charges?'  He answered: 'You must try to recover the money.'  'I can't imagine how' I said.

'What do you want to do with the body then?' he asked.  'You are not allowed to bury it on our shore'.  I said  'The child died on the water.  I will abandon it to the water, if it can't be buried on dry land.  Whoever finds it on the shore can then do with it what he pleases.'

On the following morning I went ashore at Krautsand and spoke about the matter to the pastor there, a very courteous man called BEENSS.  He had a boy take me to the elder of the place, so that I could ask the latter to get permission from the head of the district to bury the body in the graveyard.

Where is Krautsand? 

Author's note:  the child was eventually buried at Krautsand and not on the Danish territory of Glückstadt & on the 21 August they 'sailed out of the Elbe into the open sea', 10 days after leaving Hamburg.

The elder immediately went off to see this man who was about two hours' ride away.  At two o'clock he returned with the permit.  We were to bring the body ashore, and it would be buried in the graveyard at once.  I paid twelve shillings otherwise the man who dug the grave.

Let him who reads this judge how the Danes treat foreigners.  It is my intention only to describe the events that occurred on my voyage.  

Pastor BEENSS, who I've mentioned above, had never been on a ship.  When I thanked him for being so helpful, he told me of his wife's wish, shared by her sister-in-law, to see my ship and the emigrants.

​I was pleased that I could return a favour.  So he and his family were on board with me until late in the evening, and they enjoyed themselves greatly.  We promised to meet again on my return, and I took leave of these good people.

4.   What happened to Captain Hahn after South Australia?

Emigrants to Hahndorf a remarkable voyage.  Page 140  'Thus the path of this 34-year-old captain from Sylt cross that of the history of the Old-Lutheran migrants from the Province of Brandenburg, and the report of the voyage that he wrote in the memoirs of his life begins at this point.  On 12 August 1838 he left the harbour at Altona in the Zebra, and he reached Port Adelaide on 2 January 1839.  When he sailed away from this continent on 12 February, it was a final farewell; he never again set foot on Australian soil.  He sailed back to Hamburg by way of Batavia, arriving back on 11 September 1839, 13 months after his departure. 

Little is known at present about the subsequent course of Hahn's life.  After the voyage to Australia, which he himself described as the 'most remarkable event in my career', he continued sailing for 12 more years.  He remained the captain of the Zebra til 1840, and then sailed on a schooner Calle Apollo from 1841 to 1842, and from 1842 to 1851 on the brig Zodiacus.  Two more daughters were born in the years 1840 and 1842.  When Captain Hahn retired to Sylt after 31 years of seafaring, he began writing his 'Most Remarkable events of My Life up to My 48th Year.'   However, he was granted only a few years of happiness and rest with his family.  His wife and three young daughters had provided him with support and a stable environment, but his wife died on 26 July 1854.  He turned more and more to wine as a source of consolation, and when Westerland was developed as a seaside resort in 1857, and as a consequence many friendly and educated resort guests visited the much-travelled captain to listen to his stories of his voyages and experiences of a glass of good wine, they unwittingly fuelled this old passion. 'He sank' - his friend and contemporary, the Sylt Chronicler C.P. HANSEN described his end thus - 'deeper and deeper into this vice, and this man - who had formerly been so admirable and industrious - fell victim to this vice and to his own hospitality.  He died of alcoholic dementia n 4 August 1860, aged 56 years six months and six days.'

​

5.   Captain HAHN is buried at St Niels, Westerland, Sylt.

Wikipedia viewed January 2025 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Niels

'St Niels is a Lutheran church in Westerland, a seaside resort on the German island of Sylt.  Built in 1634 and consecrated in 1637 it is the city's oldest building and home to a congregation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany.  The church is dedicated to Saint Nicholas, on Sylt called Niels.'

On the island where he was born and died, his gravestone is propped up against the rear wall of the church 'and on it you can read the words (here in English translation):

Dust it is, what we are and what we will be,  And alas! he became dust too early. His memory lives on earth,  For the good never die'.  Frank Rainer HUCK

'Dust it is, what we are and will be, And he (turned) became it, Oh! too soon; But his memory lives on earth, For his good works never die'

The Church, the headstone & the coin collection

The Church, the headstone & the coin collection

Opening hours, the front and the right hand side of the church

Down the side of the, a sunblock & headstone and looking back at the front of the church

Wikipedia

January 2024,

"St Niels' gothic carved triptych shows the coronation of Virgin Mary in its middle shrine accompanied by the bishops Nicholas of Severin on its right and Dionysius on its left side.

The alter wings contain figures of the apostles.

"

Information Related to Captain Hahn by Janis Haynes author of the online 'Zebra-Project'.

In 2023 we cycled from Amsterdam to Copenhagen via Cuxhaven where we caught a ferry to the Isle of Sylt to visit Captain Hahn's birthplace.  

Andrealawlor64 of Boysen/Jannen family Tree

Parents: Mother Inken Peter ANDRESSEN b 1772, d20 October 1849 Westernland

Dirk Meinert Hahn b29.1.1804, Westerland, Nordfriesland, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, d 5 August 1860 same address.

Married 24 December 1831: Hedwig Jens NICOLAISEN b1801. d26 July  1854 Westerland.

The son mentioned in his manuscript, Dirk Dirksen HAHN b15 June 1834 Westerland. (d1860)

2nd child Margaretha Dirk HAHN, b30 December 1837, Westerland. (d unknown)

3rd child Inken Dirksen HAHN b27 January 1840, Westerland (d1894)

4th child Brigitta Dirk HAHN b30 April 1842, Westerland (d1935)

References

(Extracts from: Dirk M. Hahn. Emigrants to Hahndorf (English-language edition of Die Reise mit Auswanderern von Altona nach Port Adelaide Süd-Australien 1838). German transcription by Frank Rainer Huck, transcription revised by and translated by Lee Kersten. Lutheran Publishing House (now Openbook Publishers), Adelaide 1989. Reproduction kindly permitted by publishers. Originally written by Dirk Hahn in a large notebook entitled: Die merkwürdigsten Begebenheiten / meines Lebens. / Von meinem 35ten Lebensjahr bis zum 48ten Jahr / meines Alters. <The most remarkable events / of my life. / From my 35th year to the 48th year / of my life.>)

Additional Information

Additional Information concerning Captain Hahn is available from Captain Dirk Hahn (1804-1860)