Reinert Gabrielsen Johannesen

Greetings - I'm trying to get details on my Great Grandfather. What I know is that he was born on the 23 March 1853 in Mandal, Vest - Agder, Norway. Died in Wellington, New Zealand on the 12 June 1878, aged 25. His Father, Gabriel Johannesen ( 1821 - 1869) and Mother Sille Thomine Reisdatter ( 1819 - 1884). It is recorded in some family notes that he spent some time in the USA sometime around 1870, and arriving in New Zealand in time to marry Mina Caroline Ovidia Jansen ( 29 December 1851, Oslo, died 12 March 1934, aged 82) on the 7 September 1877. He and Mina had two daughters, Hanne and Theodora. He never saw his second daughter ( my Grandmother) as he died with Typhoid Fever before her birth. I find it interesting that Reinert died with Typhoid, the ship that Mina travelled out to New Zealand was Quarantined in Wellington due to an outbreak of Typhoid. In a letter recently found from Theodora to an Uncle back in Mandal, she refers to problems she endured as a baby, apparently she was born with Typhoid side issues. Was Reinert a mariner on the "Shakespeare", not a passenger,. When, how, and from where did he leave the shores of the USA.