The Fehmarn Cousins Newsletter

Issue #16, April, 2001

If stones could speak

[This is an excerpt from that book by: Pastor Trede in Burg, on the island Fehmarn, then a part of Denmark, now it belongs to Germany.]

Translation into English by: Else Bügge-Wood, Columbus, OH-USA

1804 - 1831: The counselor of justice and book- keeper of the royal court of Denmark [Justizrat und königlicher Landschreiber]: Johann Fr. Mau, son of Andreas Jac. Friedr. Mau, Pastor in Altenkrempe, and his mother a nee: Lange. He in his Ioo [1. marriage] married  Auguste Car. Schmidt, a daughter of the wine-merchant: Joh. Nik. Schmidt in Meldorf and Elisabeth.

They had 11 (eleven) children: 7 (seven) sons and 4 (four) daughters. They were well represented. The oldest daughter Louise Car. Mau married Matthäus Mackeprang,[at that time the owner of the AStaberhof@ estate, - the second Nic. Müller in Krempe, a toll administrator [Zollverwalter]. -

The son Friedr. was, during the death of his father a "candidate for the ministry", - Anna Henriette Amalia became the second wife to the afore mentioned Matth. Mackeprang, Staberhof. -

Mr. Mau's first wife died: 9.FEB.1817, 39 years old. - A few month later followed her in death, the 22 year-old daughter Soph. Charl. Amalia Mau. Mau's second wife was also  a Schmidt. - Daughter of Dr. med. Aug. Schmidt in Wilster/Holstein and wife Anna Dor. Wulffen. - She died  21.APR.1870, 88 years old. - Her biological son was Otto Gustav, commonly called judge Mau [Richter Mau], - he was the father of aunt Dorette [Tante Dorette], who got to be almost 104 years old, and father of aunt Emmeli [Tante Emmelie], the good-hearted Mrs. Bügge [Frau Bügge]. - Counselor Mau was called [in death] 25.MAR.1831 "to his people", at the age of 66 years.

Three Children of Georg Kammann perish in Fire

Translation from the Landkirchen church books by

died 1808, February 19, buried 1808, February 23
“Hans, Catharina and Ernst Ludewig Kammann, three children of the
farm-servant Georg Ludwig Kammann who is now absent for soldier in Rendsburg, and his wife Catharina Elisabeth, born Wilken. All these children had to perish because of their mother’s carelessness and imprudence, as she had put a pot in the middle of the room, containing fire, coal, and more inflammable things, had hung a couple things like washed linen and clothings above it, and had left her sleeping children and her home to go for a chat at the neighborhood. When she returned around 10 o’clock, the fire had seized the clothes. The room was filled with smoke, and had killed all the children additional to the poisonous vapor. Except this they  have not become brought outside fast enough, because in the mad idea that they were still sleeping, the time became spent with mourning. After this sad incident had dutifully been reported, the necessary autopsy of these children’s corpses, who had been very healthy before, took place, and their mother will get the punishment she
deserves. The oldest child was aged 4 years and 8 months, the second one 3 years and 4 months, and the youngest 7 months. They have became buried quite silently at the churchyard. 

Captain Pött

From the original low German by: Claus Groth, born 1819 in Heide/Holstein Germany. He was a teacher, later professor in Kiel, Germany - where he died in 1899. Low German Poet of (“Der Quickborn”).

High German and English translation by: E. Bügge-Wood.

“From Ystadt you came?” asked an ‘old captain’,
- that’s what they called him and he looked like one;
we met him in the ferry boathouse over a drink “grogg”- “From Ystadt! - You! - Sir, an educated man from Sweden! “And with a steamship!, - for scientific research! - Is it possible? Without any freight?, -
and from Ystadt!”

He rested his glass on the table in amazement. “Fishing for salmon, maybe?” he said, deliberately -

He wouldn’t believe what I told him about research, the entire Baltic Sea and it’s coast lines, “that could bring no profit”, we found out nothing with research, -  what the sea hides, is a secret.

“We can catch what lives below,” said I.

“Salmon catching, as I said is a thing,” were his words, “salmon you can catch near Ystadt, is the right place, they’re there, that’s clear to me.”

And agreed on it. 

But his broad face, weather beaten and full of deep smallpox scars, said more I thought than: “I don’t believe you, don’t fool me,” but friendly was he,

thoughtfully the ‘old captain’ finished his drink and looked out the window over the Baltic Sea, as if he saw something, toward north west, far over the horizon, saying to himself: “Ystadt!”

Have you been there, Captain?, I started up again asking, - about Sweden, and Stockholm - this interested  him little, - but from Ystadt only - do you know the harbor, Captain Pött?

“Wether I know it you mean, young Sir?”, was then his reply, and he turned around, as if returning from an awakened dream -:
“Here, like my hand” - and while he showed me his left hand, that was colored like bark from an oak tree and the size of a large shovel – “so well do I know Ystadt! T’was my first trip.”  And now, like a sluice lock opening up, the conversation began:

“That was my first trip, yes, it was different than going with a steamer! My first one it was, the worst, that I can remember, and also my best trip, going to Ystadt,- after years, when I brought my best freight home from there, that was my beloved wife. - How long ago can it be? - How long is she gone already?.... What I went through then was even worse,” said the Captain, while remembering way back, it wasn’t without grief, no, he laughed at last and said: “I can’t think of that trip without remembering the smell of plums, dried prunes, you understand, mixed with the salt water. I still smell and taste that when I think about it. I will never forget it, no matter how old I get.

My old man was a shipper, real old timer, and - that I had to become a shipper, yes, that was well understood, we all became shipper here near the Baltic Sea. It was alright with me. As soon as I was confirmed.

There was just the question of charter-party and pay as well as the captain who was chosen. My old man was well known in each harbor all along the Baltic Sea, knew all the ship builders and the shippers. For him it was easy to find a charter, a shipper to hire me, and also a good Captain, and, what was important to him was to find a good trip. Down to Lübeck or up toward Kiel, that he meant was a joy ride for ladies, and not for a person who wanted to call himself a real shipper, and who would know what was really going on in the world.

That’s how I got hired as a young boy, of course - with a Captain from Fehmarn, he had a spanking brand new ship, built in Sweden, a schooner going to Ystadt, picking up freight, a load of salmon and herring, and taking it down to the Mediterranean Sea and later going to Triest.

Myself and another comrade, an ordinary seaman and a carpenter, a man from the Faeroe islands, I forgot his name, Kross was the name of the other fellow, the ordinary seaman - we three went with the “Captain Unbehauen”, on his ship one morning out to sea. It was in May, we had an eastern breeze and sailed the course north northwest, right in line to Ystadt, Sweden, then Schonen. Three days it would take, thought Shipper Unbehauen at the most it would take four days, for this ship was a sailboat, he told us and among others a real master piece, built by the old Conradis, and now the sons have taken over the large shipyard near the castle in Kiel, close behind the Kattendor. Yes, those were the real masters! And this was a yacht like they don’t make them anymore.

We sailed like running a race. And we, the other three, were already on the lookout for Ystadt and then Schonen. - But it all changed! The wind changed course, first the sails hung but then they started to flap, vision became foggy, the sea turned rough and gray: then it came, a real northwestern storm, you may know of it, when hail drifts, like needles coming down and our poor yacht, started hopping like dancing to music. 

That is sad entertainment, Sir, that kind of dance is hard if you’ve never experienced it, and the salt water in and out, salted herring, out and in, for our poor stomach turned inside out, yes I can still smell it, when I just think about it - and it turned so cold it drove you to despair, we had to

cross, and Unbehauen, frozen to a blue point, called out his command like Gabriel blowing his horn: cross over!

He had an ugly poodle with him on board, a fierce hound, a real man hater, his hut was near the speaking tube, made of boards. The beast howled and barked, I couldn’t understand how he endured the twenty-three days! And when a storm came - he went into his hut!, whining and growling, as soon as it was over he came out barking. God forgive me, it was a trip through Hell!

Even at night!, I hated to think of drowning in your sleep, that must be awful! Then came the hunger in our young stomach, we acted like young wolves! Eating halve cooked peas, and rancid bacon, moldy bread and anything else we could eat - it all went down like death overcomes a sinner.

But soon we ran out of food, and Unbehauen kept, what he called food, locked up. Food was rationed, a portion as big as a thimble from the cooler. No, the way we felt, we could eat shoe soles and mistake them for beefsteak

I, as the youngest, laid down most of the time. I dragged around on ship, crawled into my bunk, sniffed, hoping to find food. I could have eaten rats if they were to be found. Suddenly a smell came toward me, like the one I smelled in the store when I was there, - sure enough it was that smell - I could smell prunes! - Just like the mouse who smells the bacon, that=s how I found the sack, I laid down on it, like a fly sits near the sirup, the seam was easy to open, and I ate, - I filled up on plums, can’t even describe it!, nothing ever tasted any better as long as I can remember! And if I had, - of course it never happened, - a sack full of money - this sack of prunes I wouldn’t trade for purest Gold.

Well, everything comes to an end, we finally landed, halve alive with our ship in Ystadt. But before we landed, I crawled into the room - and filled my pockets full of prunes, since then I have such a taste for them. Then we three wandered off with our knapsack, said good bye to the shipper Unbehauen, straight into Ystadt to our quarters - I must tell you, what a small house with a stable in the rear, and in the stable a whole in the wall, that was ours. The carpenter threw his sack down and took off his boots, and what do you know, Sir?, - his boots were filled with prunes, just like my pockets! He also developed a taste for prunes, just like me.

What we didn’t like was their tast of speech, nobody understood us, and we didn’t understand them. It sounded as if they sang one melody, our thought and speech was just about hunger and nothing else. But we got food, even if it was plain; and no taste to it. We ate everything in sight, we swallowed the fish with the bones, the cheese with the rind, even the bacon rind, until it was all gone and we returned to our lodging,  the whole in the wall, a corner in the stable.

The carpenter said, when he tried the door,- oh, no, robbers, - we have no key! Here with people who can’t speak but only sing, we can’t understand them. Then he took his switch blade knife and locked the door with it, nobody could enter, only with extreme force. The three of us laid ourselves to rest, yes we slept just as if angles sang us to sleep, the loudest trumpet could not wake us up.

And yet, while we were sleeping like badgers, - what was that,- who knocked and pounded on our door? We all jumped to our feet, naturally we thought they were robbers; these people were different, they sang instead of speaking, in fear we grabbed hold of just anything. We heard it knocking and a voice yelled that sounded like: open up!, it seemed like the law or the police!,

So we decided it necessary to open up, the carpenter pulled the switch blade knife, the door opened, and in the morning mist?, - what stood in front of the door? - Dear God, yes such a fright for us young boys, in a foreign land, where nobody could understand us! If they would have been robbers it couldn’t have been any worse, - soldiers stood outside, rifles in their hands, and the people behind them, nosy and sleepy headed.

We were commanded with words and signs to get out!, - the poor carpenter in front, holding his switch blade still in his hand, out of sheer fear, - and led us into the yard, to enter the stable in front, dear lord, there laid a woman dead in her own blood, the carpenter stood there with his knife in his hand, and the people stood around whispering - we could imagine what they were thinking of us foreigners, there is the murder and we were his helpers, these starving boys!

I never knew what fainting was like, as long as I lived, but if it meant that your blood stops flowing, then I was close to it. - Suddenly we heard a voice calling - it was a blond girl, still a child, I hear her still, and I saw her eyes, full of fear and tears - she pointed to my face and called out in low German:  “This is not the person who did it, impossible, the poor boy.”

Now we were free and immediately well known in Ystadt, yes, we were fed and well taken care of, better than at home. Naturally, the little girl became my girlfriend, she was from Schleswig, an orphaned child, living here with relatives. And as long as we didn’t sail, I visited daily, spoke German and about home with her.

Yes sir; and when we finally were sailing again, steering southward through the Kattegat, the North Sea, the channel and so on, further down, to the Mediterranean, you can guess, how often I thought about Ystadt, - as much, as I thought of home.

To keep this short, it took several more years, but when I had finished and owned my own schooner, I named my ship Marie, then I decided to steer northwest, sailing toward Ystadt, and fetch the real Marie, my little blonde, then my beloved wife. Yet with our trip to the Mediterranean harbor, my first trip to Ystadt, as I already told you, loaded with salmon and herring, we experienced many adventures.-

We sailed through the Adriatic Sea, toward Triest, to receive a new load of freight. That was at a time, well, long ago, you know at the time when Napoleon, the great thief, who escaped from Elba, now that has been already sixty years. Then we were in the harbor of Triest. And then?, well, it was really none of our concern and yet it was, yes Sir, in those days it was different! The whole world was concerned about Napoleon. And when he escaped, the whole world was sympathetic with him and trying to follow him. And - we were stuck in Triest, we could not move, the harbor was locked.

And we laid there for about hundred [100] days, until they imprisoned Napoleon again. We were resting there like lazy bones, with nothing to do. There we bummed around, my comrade and I, my buddy from Fehmarn, Kross, we two stupid boys and full of mischief did our share of tricks. It isn’t good for boys when they have no work, that I have learned, laziness leads to trouble.

What we were up to was nothing but trouble, that irritated us, like what oats does to horses. We didn’t really do any evil but at the same time nothing any good. To do anything real bad, we luckily had not enough money. We just had enough Lyres to buy some oranges and then only the cheap kind, we preferred the half rotten ones, of those we filled our pockets, with the skins. What we did with the left overs was nothing but mischief. I don’t want to tell it all, I don’t really remember it all. Just think, we naturally were free to go back to sea, and slowly turned back to normal, and as I said, I became captain and had my own ship, as well as wife and kids - they had been looking and waiting for us.

It wasn’t very long, just a few years, when things happened again in Schleswig Holstein, I was going up to Kiel, it was in 1864, when the Germans came and our duke. That’s when we marched through the streets, singing our Psalm, “Schleswig-Holstein” loud and proud, we were not allowed to sing it for a long time. We were all drinking and full of pride, even us older men were along, but with respect.

That’s when I truely ran into Captain Kross, my old comrad from home, [Fehmarn]. I knew him right away, he had a nose that never changed much, although I hadn’t seen him for fifty [50] years.

I said: Good day, captain! He said: “Good day!” Don’t you know me, Kross? “No, said he, no!” Don’t you know me, your old buddy? - Think of the trip with Captain Unbehauen on his new ship to Ystadt! “No, said he, no!” - I said, think of the plums! But it didn’t help. I said, think of the trip, und our mischief we did in Triest! The rotten oranges! - I have no idea said he.

We went along the walk, through the back row, there hung a picture, very ugly, they told us it was the God mother, it made us mad, and nearby burned an oil lamp night and day, don’t you remember? We both stood behind the corner and shot with our blow gun into the lamp, until we hit it?

Do you, Sir, believe, that a normal man at the age of seventy [70], can forget halve the world and his own life?, that he can forget all the mischief of his youth, when he was free and had nothing else to do, but live a lazy life in insolence, and happily relives the moments, and enjoys it again as if it was a heroic deed? Well, it’s alright! -

“Yes!, he recalled, “boy, Poett”!, - is it you, old man? - Surely, that’s you! Yes, I do remember now,- then we were young!”

And so it was, Sir, but when I really remember, would I go through all that again?, - I really don’t know.

            - The End -

Translated: E. Bügge-Wood
Bügge-Wood Translation
3096-1A Maryland Ave.
Columbus, OH 43209

Martin Pechlin - the feared pirate from Fehmarn

Excerpt from the FT, March 27, 1982
Translated to English: E. Buegge-Wood       

He was killed 1526, in his last battle near Norway.

The Fehmarn Dailey newspaper stated on March 23, 1892 in a historical report concerning the pirate Pechlin and his death.

In the cemetery in Rysoe, Norway, 10 German sailors are buried, who on the "All Saints Day" in the year of 1526 died in the glorious battle against the Holstein pirate Martin Pechlin. Pechlin was born on the island Fehmarn, he was of a wild nature, who then ran his blossoming pirate business by himself and gave the ships going to Bergen much trouble. He had 80 men on board of his well equipped ship, his men were mostly from Schleswig-Holstein. In summer that same year he attacked 12 ships while on their way to Sweden, robbed them all in one day, stole their goods and burnt the ships; at the same time, in his cruelty threw 150 captured men over board.

The following autumn their fate changed. Around St. Michaelis day, three Hanseatic merchant ships disembarked from Bergen, to return to their home destination in Lübeck; one ship, under the command of "Michel Herrn" from Rostock, the other commander from Wismar, by the name of "Claus Wendt", the third was captained by "Karsten Thode", belonging to Lübeck. Since all three ships carried cargo intended for the Trave city [Lübeck], the captains agreed to stay together, to avoid any attack at sea, and in such case, if necessary, act united. During a four-day storm in the waters of the Skaggerak the ship from Wismar disappeared out of sight of the other two ships, they decided to wait out the storm and stopped in the small harbor of Sysoe, which specialized in timber delivery. There they found a ship, called a "Kraier", appearing very suspicious to them; soon enough they learned from the farmers on land, that the three-master was the pirate ship belonging to Martin Pechlin.

Immediately they prepared themselves for the battle, the cannons were taken to the side where they were facing the enemy, the "crow's nests" were filled with boulders, the square sails braced, and the pennants hoisted. The following day Pechlin made his attack. In front of his ship he had a lighter barge filled with combustibles, urging it on to attack the Hanseatic ships as to burn them in battle. Luckily the sails on the barge, which was steering toward the merchant ships caught on fire, so that the barge went seaward and passed on, without causing any damage to the Hanseatic ships.

Pechlin had the leeward side of his ship strongly fortified, also had transferred all his munition to that side, then he approached his enemy with hoisted sails aloft.

A salvo from both of the attacked ships brought such a confusion among the pirates, that they missed the chance that moment, to strike the lower foresail - their ship lost it's correct stability and veered off toward the disadvantaged side - luckily for the Hanseatic merchant ships -. A wild battle ensued; captain Thode und Wendt blasted their canons as fast as they could, from the "crow's nest" the boulders were flying, on deck of the pirates their supply of fire power increased while the stoves in the cook's galleys were demolished.

When Pechlin was killed, the rest of the crew lost their courage and fled into their rowboats. Some were captured by the crew of the Wismar ship, that was beginning to catch up with the others. The captured crew was thrown over board, nine men were caught on land, eight of them were executed by the ninth man, who received his pardon because of it.

The Hanseatic merchant ships had lost 10 crew men but on the pirate ship they found rich loot and two captains from Hamburg who had been kept prisoner for five weeks below deck. On the 24^th of November they reached their own home destination at the mouth of the Trave river.

       - End -

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