George and Suzanne Moravian Missionaries

George and Susanne Partsch were and are fine representatives of the early Moravians. Allow me to tell you something about them.   

Susanne Luise Eller was born in Budingen, Germany in the year 1722. Her father, Johann, died before she was born.

Susanne’s troubles began when her mother married a violent man, before she turned seven years of age. The court removed her from her mother and step-father to be placed with the Bailiff Schubert and his wife in Meerholz. Susanne remained with the Schuberts until she was eighteen. 

Having left home she was employed as a cook for a government official. It was at this time in her life that she came to know the Christian Moravians at nearby Herrnhut. In due course she was received into the congregation in 1744. 

Within the year, she married her husband, twenty-five year old George Partsch, a fellow Christian and Moravian. They were joined in wedlock on the same day as were twenty-three other Moravian couples from the congregation. 

George and Susanne joined the Second Sea Congregation, which included as passengers the other twenty-three newly married couples. They set sail on the ship “Little Strength” to New York on November 26, 1744. The voyage took eighty-seven days and ended successfully when the ship anchored safely off Staten Island.

The group arrived in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on December 6, 1744. 

In January of the next year, Susanne and George were assigned to the Moravian community in Nazareth. 

Now meet another couple Samuel and Mary (click here)

Samuel and Mary Moravian Missionaries

Samuel and Mary were American Indian converts to Christ and the Moravian Church. They too were passengers, on "Little Strength" in 1744. They set sail from New York with the expectation of arriving at Amsterdam. They were destined to never reach that port.

"About 10 o'clock in the morning of May 1st," writes Mate John Cook,13, in his narrative of her capture by Spanish pirates, "when in the chops of the English Channel, we sighted a vessel under full sail bearing down on us. Suspecting her of being a privateer, Bishop Nitschmann ordered Captain Garrison to crowd on all sail, but she gained on us so rapidly, that by three o'clock she was only a mile astern. She then fired a shot and hoisted English colors, whereupon we lowered our flag in token of submission and resigned ourselves to our fate. 

When she came up with us, she hauled down the English and hoisted the Spanish flag. She then sent on board of us a prize crew of nineteen seamen, armed with pistols and cutlasses. On board they stripped us of our cloths, and gave us the rags on their backs in exchange. The chests on deck were then rifled. The pirates, having thus disposed of us … sailed away.

"Early on the morning of the 7th we signaled for a pilot, after which the captain entered the cabin, demanded the keys of our chests, money and watches, and told us that we could only take with us what clothing we wore. At 3 o'clock we anchored off St. Sebastian, and later the brethren were confined in the prison (a stinking place), but Bro. Garrison secured lodgings for the sisters in the town. The following day we were examined by the naval officer and set at liberty." The Little Strength proved a total loss to the Moravian Church. 

The Good Ship "Little Strength" 3/4

An 18th Century Snow Ship

Little Strength, was a Moravian ship that carried congregation members back and forth between Europe and the colonies. In sailing lingo this ship and several other Moravian ships were “Snow Ships”.  Snow ships were square rigged vessels with two masts, complemented by a snow- or trysail-mast.  The word 'snow' comes from 'snauw' which is an old Dutch word for beak; a reference to the characteristic sharp bow of the vessel. One such snow ship is pictured above. 

Though the mission of Little Strength and other similar ships was peace they carried armament of two to four cannons and small arms.