After the financial crash of the late 1850, the firm supplemented its revenue by taking on passengers to the Australian gold rush and the California gold rush. The German imperial government utilized the Godeffroy company as part of its colonial policy in the Pacific Islands. Nevertheless, in 1878, the company went bankrupt due to speculations with German mining stocks and then emerged as "Deutsche Handels- und Plantagen Gesellschaft der Südseeinseln zu Hamburg", or DHPG, with continuity and management by Godeffroy personnel.