The first time the ship Herman Roosen turned up in New York was in 1852. In 1853 the
ship Herman Rosen departed from Kragerø on May 17th and called at Flekkefjord on her way to Quebec, where she arrived on Quebec July 16th. The number of passengers embarking in Kragerø was about 250, and another 50 passengers were expected to embark at Flekkefjord. According to the newspapers many of the passengers were from Tanum. Among the passengers were several small children and a senior emigrant at the age of 85. He was unfortunate to by accident fall down in to the hold when embarking, achieving some bad bruises to his face, and would probably have a hard time ahead on the Atlantic. Because the National Archives of Canada [NAC] did not start the archiving of passenger lists before 1865, and the Norwegian emigration records did not start before 1867, there is no surviving passenger list for this voyage in any of those archives.
Timeline to records.
After the journey with emigrants for Quebec in 1853 she set sail for New York. After loading in New York she returned to Europe and Kingstown, Dublin. She departed from Dublin on November 15th, and arrived at New York again on January 22nd 1854. She spent the winter in New York and returned to Amsterdam with a load of general goods worth 7000 dollar, arrival to Amsterdam was April 1st. This time mastered by captain, Olsen. There are no good accounts for her movements through 1855 and 1856, but she was engaged in the trade between Norway – England and the Mediterranean those years. On July 3rd, 1857 she was cleared off Gibraltar from Genoa to Quebec and arrived at Quebec on August 2nd.
The ship Herman Roosen left Quebec September 7th probably with a load of timber onboard. She was abandon at 47º N 14º V in the Bay of Biscay October 25th. The captain and crew arrived Falmouth, England on the Russian ship Bernardino, Oct. 29
| Newspaper announcement from Corespondenten March 9, 1853 The ship "Herman Rosen", mastered by Capt. Krog and the brig "Alert" mastered by Capt. Olsen, are intended to depart for New York or Quebec this spring with passengers, if a sufficient number signs up before the fall of March. The mentioned Captains have experience from previous voyages to America, and this will be to the passengers advantage. Conditions are negotiated with merchant H. Houen in Skien. |
The following voyage account is part of a letter written by Anders Tønessen Skåreland. The letter was sent to his family in Norway, and was dated September 1st, 1853, Chicago Illinois.
The ship Herman Rosen departed from Kragerø on May 17th, and called at Flekkefjord on the 19th. On the 29th we sailed out from there, and by 4 o'clock we had lost sight of land. On the 4th day we passed Scotland, and for the next 6 weeks and 2 days, we saw nothing but sky and water, occasionally an other sailing ship. On a Sunday with good wind we saw St. Paul and some other islands, and 2 days after we saw the main land of America. Then everyone was joyful, and after that we had head wind every day on our way up the St. Lawrence, and 14 days later, on Saturday evening, July the 16th we anchored in Quebec, all health and well.
The entrance from the ocean to Quebec is very long, but a very beautiful countryside, specially on one of the sides, all of the houses are white. On the other , or Northern side of the St. Lawrence there was land available almost free with lots of forest. It is not settled or built on for hundreds of miles. Then all agreed that this is something else that buying expensive land back in Norway. The land looked quite the same as Norway with the cliffs and the meadows. On the flood we meet several hundred ships every day, and it was wonderful to see the huge shipping of timber. Quebec is a big town, with several enormously big steamships.
On the 18th the Captain signed a contract for the transportation of all the passengers, on the fastest and best transportation, for the cost of 8 Dollars each adult and children under 3 was to go free, as did 60 poor persons to what ever destination they wanted. Our good Captain did this, and he handed out money for the poor, we owe him a lot of thankfulness for his care for all of us.
On the 19th we went aboard the steamship, and arrived at the main station in Montreal on the 20th. From what was said there were 2-3000 of us there . At 1 o'clock midday we boarded an other huge steamship and from there we sailed through 30 locks , and every lock was about 12 feet high, as it was a channel man made out not wider than the breadth of the ship. Only on some places the ships could pass each other.
["Fra Amerika til Norge, Norske utvandrerbrev 1838 - 1857" (From America to Norway, Norwegian
emigrant letters 1838 - 1857) by Orm Øverland and Steinar Kjæheim]
