By Sailing Ship Haakon Adelsten to America, 1856

An account later given to Bergens Tidende by an eighty-year-old man from Strandvik provides a vivid description of an emigrant voyage from Bergen to Quebec in 1856. He had made the journey as a young man together with two of his brothers, at a time when increasing numbers of Norwegians were looking to America for new opportunities. (The narrator stated that the journey took place in 1851, but other source material indicates that the correct year was 1856.)

Leaving Home

The family consisted of nine grown brothers. Several of them had spent a couple of winters working in the spring herring fisheries, but the fishing had brought little profit. The two eldest brothers were to divide the family farm between them. Although it was large enough to support twenty-six cows, there was no place there for all the sons.

For several years, the brothers had heard stories about America and had begun to consider emigrating. Their father showed little enthusiasm for the idea, while their mother strongly opposed it. After several poor fishing seasons, however, the family finally agreed that three of the brothers would leave for America in the spring of 1851 and try their luck there.

Considerable preparations were made for the journey. Each of the three brothers was provided with four new homespun suits, twelve undershirts, an equal number of work shirts and sets of homespun underwear, two dozen pairs of stockings, three coverlets, and three new blankets. 

They also carried a substantial supply of food. Between them they had sixteen cured legs of lamb, six pounds of butter, 120 rounds of flatbread, eight bushels of potatoes, seven tins of sea biscuits purchased in Bergen, a bushel of peas, four cured hams, half a barrel of home-ground rye, eighty liters of homemade ale, coffee, syrup, and other provisions.

They had also intended to bring a barrel of sour milk. When they reached Bergen, however, they were told that it could not be taken aboard. One of the brothers, Sjur, protested to the captain that if he was not permitted to bring milk for his porridge, the ship should hardly expect him to pay the full fare.

The departure from home was difficult, particularly for their mother, who was deeply distressed at seeing three of her sons leave for such a distant country. Their father and four of their brothers accompanied them to Bergen aboard a neighbor's small sailing vessel. They first had to row as far as Bukken before finding a favorable wind, and the journey to Bergen took four days.

Aboard the Haakon Adelsten

At Bergen, the emigrant ship Haakon Adelsten lay near the Brunehorst shipyard. She was a large brig commanded by Captain Simonsen, whom the emigrant later remembered as a friendly and talkative man of about forty-five. The brothers purchased passage to Quebec from the shipowner. Their tickets cost 49 daler and 8 skilling each. They then carried their chests, boxes, sacks, clothing, and provisions aboard. Not everything survived the loading intact. The bottom fell out of one of their chests, sending some of their lefse into the water. The flatbread was recovered and dried. Although it was no longer particularly appetizing, they did not throw it away, but later used it as a thickener in their cooking.

The passenger accommodations were simple. Wooden berths had been built along the sides of the ship, one above another, with storage beneath the lower bunks. There was no proper dining table. Benches fixed along the sides of the passenger quarters served both for sitting and for eating. The passengers' larger chests were stacked at one end of the compartment, while smaller boxes were kept near the berths. Married couples had somewhat larger sleeping places on the starboard side. Unmarried men and women occupied the same general quarters, although each had a separate berth. There were about 120 passengers aboard. Two young women from Voss stayed aft near the captain's quarters, apparently because they were relatives or acquaintances of his. The crew lived forward in the forecastle. Three stoves were available for the passengers. Since everyone had to prepare their own meals, they divided themselves into cooking groups and took turns using them.

Departure from Bergen

After the emigrants had spent two days aboard, preparations for departure were completed. Friends and relatives came to say their final farewells. At eleven o'clock in the morning on May 16, 1851, (May 15, 1856) the Haakon Adelsten raised anchor and headed out into the fjord. Once the ship passed the Marstein lighthouse and entered more open water, seasickness quickly began to affect the passengers. One woman from Lindås had been preparing rice porridge for her family when she became ill and had to leave the stove. Her husband teased her for being unable to continue cooking and took over the stirring himself. He soon became seasick as well and hurried on deck. The unattended porridge burned, and the smell spread throughout the ship. The mate warned the passengers that they would have to help one another if they were to avoid similar problems. From then on, they learned to remove their pots from the stove whenever sickness forced them to leave.

Across the North Sea

On May 17, one of the sails tore, and the ship was then becalmed for about twenty-four hours. One of the brothers, Hans, and a passenger from Sogn climbed into the rigging to help with the damaged sail on the mainmast. When the man from Sogn came down, Captain Simonsen jokingly asked whether he had been able to see Norway from aloft. He replied that he had seen nothing of Norway, although he had once seen Kvarven while in Bergen. The joke was followed by a round of Sogn ale for the captain and some of the passengers. Hans was expected to do the same. The two men were thereafter regarded as among the strongest and most capable passengers aboard, although their reputation was soon challenged by Sjur, who offered to compete with them in finger wrestling. Captain Simonsen apparently enjoyed such diversions. He encouraged the passengers to wrestle or perform somersaults and was remembered as laughing so heartily that his stomach shook and his eyes almost closed. The lightheartedness did not last.

On May 19, the ship encountered a strong northerly gale, and the already damaged sail was lost completely. An error in navigation had also taken the ship too far north, rather than directly toward the English Channel. The wind later died, and progress was slow. The Haakon Adelsten did not enter the English Channel until May 24. Fog then delayed the ship for more than a day before favorable winds finally allowed her to continue westward. On the evening of May 29, the passengers saw Europe disappear from view.

Storms on the Atlantic

The following day, the ship encountered a southwesterly storm that lasted for several days. Conditions aboard deteriorated rapidly. Almost everyone became seasick. According to the later account, only five or six of the approximately 120 passengers escaped it. Even the previously confident man from Sogn was reduced to what the emigrants jokingly called "feeding the crabs."

Hans and his brother remained reasonably well, while Sjur continued to help the crew handle the sails. After this, the man from Sogn no longer mocked him. The captain remarked that they had now discovered "who was fit when trouble came." Storms, calms, and fog continued to slow the crossing. At one point, a severe northwesterly storm forced the crew to take in all the sails, leaving the vessel to run for several days under bare rigging. The movement of the ship caused the passengers' stacked chests to come crashing down in the quarters below. Women and children cried, and conditions became frightening and uncomfortable. Fog presented another danger. It persisted for about a week during the latter part of June. Around St. John's Eve, June 23, the Haakon Adelsten encountered an iceberg. According to the emigrant's recollection, the ship collided with the drifting ice. By then the vessel had been carried many miles from its intended course. He later believed that a favorable change in the wind may have saved them from a much more serious situation.

Life and Death on the St. Lawrence

By early July, conditions had improved. On July 4, the Haakon Adelsten reached the St. Lawrence River. There, calm weather combined with the strong current forced the ship to anchor for several days. With the worst of the Atlantic crossing behind them, the passengers began to recover. During this period, a woman from Voss prepared pork and peas for her husband, her sister, and three young girls traveling with them. Before the meal was ready, however, she unexpectedly went into labor. In the confusion, her husband and sister forgot about the pot on the stove. Another cooking group later arrived, and one of the crew emptied the abandoned food away. More seriously, there was no physician aboard. Captain Simonsen therefore assisted at the delivery together with a woman from Hosanger. The child was born very prematurely and did not survive. Two days later, the infant was buried at sea according to maritime custom.

Arrival in Quebec

On July 7, the ship again found favorable winds and continued toward Quebec. According to the emigrant's recollection, the Haakon Adelsten reached the city at six o'clock on a Saturday evening, after approximately eight weeks at sea. The passengers had lived under crowded and primitive conditions, but discipline aboard had apparently been reasonably strict. They were expected to wash every morning and to take turns cleaning the passenger quarters. The crew supervised the work and readily gave orders when necessary. Not everyone appreciated these standards. One woman from Sunnhordland reportedly complained that the sailors made far too much fuss about cleaning. At home, she said, the floor was swept only on Saturdays, and they had always managed perfectly well.

The emigrants remained in Quebec only about half a day before continuing their journey aboard a small paddle steamer to Montreal. From there they traveled westward through the interior of North America. Obtaining and preparing food remained difficult, even aboard the larger steamers used on the Great Lakes. The final part of their journey was made by railroad toward Chicago. Conditions were somewhat better there. The emigrants were able to carry food with them in the railway compartment and bought fresh bread in Detroit, which they ate with cured meat and a bottle of American ale.

The Atlantic crossing aboard the Haakon Adelsten had lasted approximately eight weeks, but Quebec was only the first stage of their journey in America. Like thousands of other Norwegian emigrants in the middle of the nineteenth century, they still had a long journey inland before reaching the communities in which they hoped to begin new lives. The narrator eventually settled in Des Moines County, Iowa. 

The story was reproduced in Martin Ulvestad’s Nordmændene i Amerika, published by the History Book Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1907.