9/24/2008:
September marks the anniversary of two journeys made by a Norwegian immigrant to the US. Although different, both are united by danger and hardship.
Emigration was and is a bold choice. For many it meant giving up home, family, and every sense of familiarity for an alien and often isolating land. In 1825 the “Restauration”set sail, making it the first of the Norwegian immigrant ships bound for the United States. The fourteen week journey began in July and ended in October. The sloop battled rough waves, close quarters, and harsh weather. The Restauration’s journey marked the beginning of a large migration of Norwegians to America, reaching its height in the 1860s and again peaking at the turn of the century.
Compared to the Restauration, the cross-Atlantic journey became much shorter and easier in the1860s with the birth of the steamship, however it was still no cruise. Gabriel Malmin describes his first journey from Stavanger Norway to Philadelphia in 1901, “It was crowded; men were on one end and women and children were on another, bunks to sleep on, one over the other, the food was terrible-the soups and coffee were awful.”
However, in 1914, even with modern luxuries, aboard modern ships, the immigrant journey remained life threatening. This was true for Malmin who journeyed across the Atlantic a second time with his new wife, aboard the SS Andania in September of 1914. Although there were no threats of disease, discomfort, or bad coffee aboard the luxury Cunard line, the threat of German submarines made any time at sea perilous. The Great War was beginning.
For safety, the Andania had taken a more northern course by 300 miles. Malmin recalls floating in the dark, icy waters of the northern Atlantic, feeling the frigid, looming tension of hiding. At midnight the ship came to a sudden halt and fear of attack brought passengers running to the deck. It was an iceberg that caused the commotion, a less aggressive, but no less deadly force.
Despite icebergs and German u-boats, the SS Andania reached its destination without disaster in 1914. However, in the spring of the next year a similar, more infamous Cunard Ship, the Lusitania, perished by a German torpedo. After four years of service as a troop ship, the Andania was also hit and sunk by a German torpedo.
The Malmins journey from Norway eventually ended in Griggs county, North Dakota, where he and his family lived fully the rest of their lives.
WPA Historical Data Project, Ethnic Group Files
http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacunithistories/andania.htm
[podcast]http://www.prairiepublic.org/media/dakotadatebook/2008/Sept/24.mp3[/podcast]
September marks the anniversary of two journeys made by a Norwegian immigrant to the US. Although different, both are united by danger and hardship.
Emigration was and is a bold choice. For many it meant giving up home, family, and every sense of familiarity for an alien and often isolating land. In 1825 the “Restauration”set sail, making it the first of the Norwegian immigrant ships bound for the United States. The fourteen week journey began in July and ended in October. The sloop battled rough waves, close quarters, and harsh weather. The Restauration’s journey marked the beginning of a large migration of Norwegians to America, reaching its height in the 1860s and again peaking at the turn of the century.
Compared to the Restauration, the cross-Atlantic journey became much shorter and easier in the1860s with the birth of the steamship, however it was still no cruise. Gabriel Malmin describes his first journey from Stavanger Norway to Philadelphia in 1901, “It was crowded; men were on one end and women and children were on another, bunks to sleep on, one over the other, the food was terrible-the soups and coffee were awful.”
However, in 1914, even with modern luxuries, aboard modern ships, the immigrant journey remained life threatening. This was true for Malmin who journeyed across the Atlantic a second time with his new wife, aboard the SS Andania in September of 1914. Although there were no threats of disease, discomfort, or bad coffee aboard the luxury Cunard line, the threat of German submarines made any time at sea perilous. The Great War was beginning.
For safety, the Andania had taken a more northern course by 300 miles. Malmin recalls floating in the dark, icy waters of the northern Atlantic, feeling the frigid, looming tension of hiding. At midnight the ship came to a sudden halt and fear of attack brought passengers running to the deck. It was an iceberg that caused the commotion, a less aggressive, but no less deadly force.
Despite icebergs and German u-boats, the SS Andania reached its destination without disaster in 1914. However, in the spring of the next year a similar, more infamous Cunard Ship, the Lusitania, perished by a German torpedo. After four years of service as a troop ship, the Andania was also hit and sunk by a German torpedo.
The Malmins journey from Norway eventually ended in Griggs county, North Dakota, where he and his family lived fully the rest of their lives.
WPA Historical Data Project, Ethnic Group Files
http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cacunithistories/andania.htm