Introduction: lands in the east – storms in the west

Brandenburg-Prussia is a long way from the Atlantic, particularly by late eighteenth-century standards. The journey from Berlin to La Rochelle would have taken some two weeks around 1770, provided that the weather was fair and the road conditions were good. After arriving on the French Atlantic coast, a traveler could embark on a transatlantic journey from La Rochelle to French Saint-Domingue or Guiana. Whatever the destination, the journey across the Atlantic would have taken around four to six weeks, again largely depending on weather conditions. Given the long distance and the perils of an overseas voyage – not to mention the turmoil the French empire experienced overseas after the Seven Years’ War – not many Prussian travelers ever made such a journey across the Atlantic. Around 1770, there were not many direct connections between Brandenburg and Guiana. Yet there were some links.

Between the later 1760s and the early 1770s, newspapers across the German lands reported repeatedly about the distant transatlantic world. Some of these were weather reports – and not good ones. In February 1769, the Münchner Zeitung informed its readers that a storm in mid October the previous year had devastated large parts of Spanish Cuba. Havana was hit particularly hard, as ‘96 noble houses’ and ‘4,048 common houses’ had been destroyed. The article conveyed that the Spanish monarch had given orders for financial support, and that measures would be taken to rebuild Havana and to support the suffering population. Overall, the damage was estimated at around ‘six million piasters’. This excluded the loss of ships.

The importance of the latter might easily be overlooked by a reader in landlocked Berlin. The wooden ships that crossed the Atlantic were highly specialized and very precious vessels. And so was the cargo, including cotton, sugar, grain, and tobacco. Not to mention the human loss: slaves, normally around 200 per vessel, plus the crew of some 30 to 50 men – carpenters, navigators, sailmakers, botanists. These ships were the arteries of transatlantic trade, commerce, and thus overseas empires. They were not only very costly, but also highly vulnerable in storms, before coal-powered steamships – and the weather was severe.