Empire’s Prodigal Sons: World Politics, Mass Mobility, and Desertion in the Wilhelmine Merchant Fleet

In the decades around 1900, Wilhelmine Germany sought to recast itself as a seafaring nation in its quest for world power status.  This endeavor extended beyond a new battle fleet construction program and the naval arms race with Britain.  A rapidly expanding merchant marine emerged as the leading edge of Germany’s world power and imperial aspirations in a maritime competition between Germany and Britain that was both civilian and military.  German ships and their crews became tools of empire, ensuring access to far-flung colonies, spheres of influence, and global markets.  In this context, a broad cross-section of state and society began to view the maritime workforce as a vital extension of empire on and over the seas.  The global mobility of maritime labor, however, tempered nationalist views of seafarers.  Sailors had increasing access to casual and transitory jobs in a network of cosmopolitan port cities such as Hamburg, Liverpool, New York, Buenos Aires, and Hong Kong.  While overseas, merchant sailors often resorted to desertion whenever it suited their needs, a practice that greatly alarmed authorities in the years before World War I.       

This paper examines maritime desertion and the political response it garnered in Germany.  It argues that jumping ship provided individual mariners with greater freedom of choice among working conditions, pay, and country of residence.  By contrast, Reich officials and social reform organizations, inspired in part by British debates, began to perceive desertion as a direct threat to national and imperial projects.  Technically a criminal offense, jumping ship was difficult to police overseas.  Instead, authorities created new public and private programs to prevent desertion or track offenders. Despite such efforts, desertions continued and even increased.  Ultimately, the mass mobility characteristic of this era outstripped diplomatic, legal, and social reform efforts to channel flows of maritime labor for empire.