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Theme: Emigration |
A Typical Journey Sweden - USA |
a *** SweGGate StarGuide *** ®
This page is a brief overview of a typical journey from Sweden to the USA.
For details about the journey or about a specific trip please go
to the Emigration -> Sources -> Travel
pages.
| Voyage step-by-step | ||
| Step | Comments | Links |
| In Sweden | ||
| Home -> Port of exit from Sweden | This was the
travel within Sweden. The vehicles varied widely depending
on the time period, what part of Sweden and what the
traveller could afford. From about 1860 the railways are
rapidly built across the country. Before that a horse-drawn
carriage was the only means available. Some people even
walked long ways like from Värmland and Dalsland crossing
the land border through south-eastern Norway to Christiania
(now Oslo). Some comments on discrepancies in emigration dates. |
|
| At the Port of exit | The major ports of exit from Sweden were: Göteborg,
Stockholm, Malmö, Helsingborg, Kalmar, Norrköping,
Söderhamn and Gävle. Before boarding the ship the passengers passed the emigration police office where they had to show their "flyttningsattest" / "flyttningsbevis"- the certificate of moving obtained from the home parish office. About emigration from Dalsland and Värmland provinces in mid-western Sweden go here. Port descriptions >here> |
Details |
| The Sea Trip(s) | ||
| The sea trip was different in roughly 3 periods: | ||
| 1 Sailing directly Sweden-USA in
the "tall sailing ships" up to around 1860. 2 Sea trip in two legs: Sweden->England->USA/Canada. With the advent of larger steam ships crossing the Atlantic became much faster but ships were available only from English ports - see below 3 With the arrival of the large motor ships direct travel from Sweden to USA and other countries again became the rule. |
||
| Direct Sailing before mid 19th century | ||
| The sailing ships going directly from Nordic ports to America took 8-12 weeks to complete the trip. Conditions aboard were sometimes terrible and several people died on the trip. Most passengers had never been to sea before. | ||
| About 1860 to WW I (1914-18) | ||
| First Sea leg - crossing the North Sea | After a few short, failed attempts at regular
steam ship traffic in the 1830's between Göteborg (Sweden) and Hull
(England) the J W Wilson company started regular service Göteborg -
Kristiansand (Norway) - Hull about 1850. The trip took about 2 days.
Already in the mid 1850's the ships carried 100-300 emigrants on each trip From the Swedish ports, smaller ships, from the late 1800's steam-powered, took the passengers to a port in eastern England, often to Hull or Grimsby. These were frequent trips, in periods there were ships leaving every week and they were often referred to as "feeder lines" and "feeder ships". There were feeder trips from many ports in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany. An estimated 15% of the Swedish emigrants, mainly from the southern provinces, went to Hamburg or Bremen in N Germany and took a feeder ship from there. (N W Olsson). Some of the well-known ships were: Hero (several, in 1866 it carried 550 pass.), Argo, Oder, Albion, Orlando and Rollo (1869/70-, 800-900 pass.), Romeo (1881-), Ariosto (1890-), Calypso (1904-), Eskimo (1910-), Cameo. Consult the specific ship sites for detail info and pictures. Also read N W Olsson: "Emigrant Traffic on the North Sea" |
Ship sites |
| Through England | After a brief stay in the port of arrival the travellers usually took a train across England to the next port. See that link ---->>>> | Great Central Railway |
| Crossing the "Pond" | This sea trip was made on a
larger steamship. Several Trans-Atlantic Lines
existed but the competition was very hard. With these ships crossing the
Atlantic could soon be done in about 2 weeks. Major ports of exit from England were: London, Southampton, Liverpool and from Scotland Glasgow. Most used ports of arrival were: New York, Boston, and Pier 21, Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada. Major lines (examples only !): Glasgow - Boston: Allen Line: ship Norwegian. Liverpool - Boston: Cunard Line: ship Ivernia. Leyland Line: ships Iberian, Winifredian. Dominian Line: |
Voyage details |
| From after WW I | ||
| Direct Sea travel | Some Shipping Lines travelled directly from a Swedish port across the Atlantic, especially when the modern motor ships were built in the early 1900. One of the best known was the S.A.L = Svenska Amerika Linjen (Swedish American Line) running the route Göteborg - New York and took over almost all traffic from about 1915. | |
| The New Country: USA, Canada | ||
| Arrival ports | Where did immigrants arrive ? | |
| Across the USA | Different means of transport were used in early times but
"prairie wagon" was probably common. In the late 19th century new railroads were built at a rapid pace. Ship transport across the Great Lakes were also frequently used e.g. to Duluth. |
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| Final destination | Summary of settlement in Minneapolis / StPaul, Minn, late 1860's onwards. | |
| The New Country: Australia and NZ | ||
| To Australia and N Z | Some direct ships went from Kristiania (Oslo) in Norway to Australia and New Zealand. A well-known trip was on the ship "Hövding" in 1872. | |
| Voyage details | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Some crossing narratives / diaries |
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| Author / Editor | Title | Publication data / Comment | L | M | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (unknown) | Translated diary. Trip Sweden-USA in 1881 | B | H | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ship Athena, Hamburg-New York 1862 | E | I | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Page produced by F Haeffner.
Please help me add good advice to this guide. .. Mail me 
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| Last updated by | F Hae | 2005-05-25 21:28 | © Fredrik Haeffner, 2001-5 |