Captain Johann Ludwig Burkuhl

The Burkuhl family originated as a farming family. During the 19th century, technological developments led to the emergence of more and more new professions, requiring ever more people. It is therefore logical that the Burkuhl family also encountered these new occupations. Those living around Bremen were particularly affected. Diederich Burkuhl (1810), for example, was already mentioned as a sailmaker. A brother of Diederich, Johann Ludwig Burkuhl (1822), took the plunge and tried his luck in the seafaring industry. As we shall see, this adventure did not end entirely well. No birth certificate for Johann Ludwig could be found, but his father lived in Vorburgdam near Bremen. Later, Johan Ludwig himself would live on the other side of Bremen, namely in Burg. Next to this, you see a sign-on logbook from Johan Ludwig. These ships were all sailing ships at the time, but more and more were equipped with a steam engine to allow them to continue sailing when there wasn't enough wind. The names of these ships are also listed, as well as their captain:

Johan Ludwig was born in 1822. He had already started working on a ship at the age of 15. As you can see, this was initially as a (shipping) young man, in 1837. At that time, you could advance in rank based on your good performance. You can see in the last column that this performance was usually good (Gut) and once satisfied (zufrieden). So he rose through ranks from ordinary seaman, seaman, second mate, to first mate. Below is an example of an enlistment list for the crew of the ship Apollo in 1847, where Johan Burkuhl, residing in Burg, is listed as a helmsman.

List of sailors enlisted on the Apollo in Bremen in 1847

You see above that Johan is suddenly called Burkohl, but he lives in Burg and was born in 1822. You also see that at 25, he was already a helmsman aboard the ship Apollo. At the end of his "training," he was even promoted to captain. How this came about is unknown. However, he remained unmarried. Johann Ludwig was still a first mate in 1847, so sometime in the following years he was promoted to captain.

Johan Ludwig was a brother of Diederich Burkuhl (1810). Diederich had a son named Carl Johan Ludwig Burkuhl (1844), who was apparently enthused by his uncle's stories of all his adventurous sea voyages around the world and all the exotic countries he had visited. Carl Johan Ludwig, however, was already living in Hamburg at that time. In 1862, he signed on as a (Schiffs)Junge (Ship)man on the ship Georg & Johann, see below:

Bremen muster rolls of ships, 1815-1917, Georg & Johann

Carl Burkuhl, signed on January 14, 1862, as "Junge," born in 1845, born and living in Hamburg, on the ship Georg & Johann, a barque bound for Rangoon, captained by J.L. Burkuhl. It is also stated that the barque is 225 feet long, or approximately 70 meters. At that time, a barque was a sailing ship with three masts. Later, more masts were added, with four to five masts, and also with a steam engine. They were also still wooden ships. Towards the end of the century, iron ships were increasingly common, but it was the English who first introduced them. Later, it will become clear that Captain Burkuhl died on the return voyage.

Here you see the death certificate of Johann Ludwig Burkuhl, dated December 2, 1862, on the return trip from Rangoon to Hamburg, aboard the ship Georg & Johann, born and living in Bremen-Burg, position of ship captain, aged 40.

Below you see the entry of Georg Gerdes, who also sailed on the barque "Georg & Johann" of Captain J.L. Burkuhl at the time. Georg Gerdes may also have known Carl, the captain's nephew. However, what happened during that voyage is described here. The captain was lost overboard. The further course of events is completely unknown. Whether this happened during a storm or some other misfortune, or whether he died from his injuries or drowned, is also unknown.

But this was Carl Burkuhl's first voyage, and he immediately had to deal with the traumatic event of his uncle falling overboard and dying. Further documents indicate that Carl likely wanted nothing more to do with shipping because of this traumatic event. He later became a locomotive engineer at the railways.

There are also a few Burkuhls who chose shipping, such as Reinier Boerkoel (1855) as an inland waterway skipper and Johan Boerkoel (1915) as a sailor, but no captain can be found anywhere.