Johan Cesar VI Godeffroy ( shown at left ) controlled the Godeffroy Company , in Hamburg , during its years of rapid expansion as the leading trading organisation in the Pacific .
It had been established by his father ( pictured below ), but Johan , born in 1813 , built it into a dynamic enterprise that , at its peak had 27 ships plying the Pacific and the route to Germany . Though the Pacific business was very profitable , company investments in Europe forced Godeffroy ’ s into bankruptcy in 1879 and its Pacific operation was restructured as the DH & PG .
J . C . Godeffroy died in 1885 .
“ Einhundert Jahre Australienfahrt 1886-1986 ,” Otto J . Seiler , Hapag-Lloyd
“ Der Kampf um Deutsch-Samoa : Erinnerungen eines Hamburger Kaufmanns ,” Otto Riedel , Deutscher Verlag , Berlin , 1938 .
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