Hendrik Jan Wilterdink

wedding to first wife https://www.wiewaswie.nl/personen-zoeken/zoeken/document/a2apersoni...

wedding to second wife https://www.wiewaswie.nl/personen-zoeken/zoeken/document/a2apersoni...

Link to grave http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=22148631&ref=wvr

One of only a handful of survivors of the Phoenix shipwreak.

Hendrik Jan Wilterdink, his second wife, their two sons, and three children from his late first wife (Janna Berendina Brevink) boarded the SS France in Rotterdam with nearly 170 fellow Dutch Immigrants. The day of arrival in the new world had come when on the 26th of October in 1847 they set foot on American soil in New York. From there the Propeller Phoenix would deliver them to their new home, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the land of fulfilled dreams, religious freedom, and verbetering van bestaan (amelioration of existence).

In the early Sunday morning hours of 21 November, 1847 within site of its destination, the boilers caught fire burning the ship to the water line. Of the approximate 250 passengers and crew, less than 45 survived. After years of planning, months of selling property and belongings, and weeks of travel covering nearly 4000 miles, less than 25 Dutch immigrants were spared.

Hendrik Jan Wilterdink was one. His wife, Janna Willemina Mennink, and all five children perished.