Following Peter Benson Lutge Around the World
In November 1860, the Danish sailing ship Hindoo arrived in Sydney from Chile. Among her crew was a young Danish seaman recorded as P. B. Lutje . I believe he was my great-great-grandfather, Peter Benson Lutge , born in Aabenraa in 1837. There was just one problem. When Peter applied for naturalisation in New South Wales in 1869, he stated that he had arrived in Australia aboard the Hindoo in 1862 . How could he have arrived in 1862 if he was already here two years earlier? It was a question that remained unanswered until I discovered another Hindoo crew list, containing a name so badly transcribed that I had almost overlooked it. And as I followed the evidence, I found that Peter's travels may have begun much earlier than I had imagined. A young man from a seafaring town Peter was born on 16 May 1837 in Aabenraa, a maritime town in the Danish duchy of Schleswig. His christening record gives his name as Peter Bensen...