2 accounts of the crossing on the Marie in 1864
1999 - by Hazel Evans
In January 1999 Bob Anderson was contacted by Hazel Evans of Faribault, MN, who had read the account contributed by Bob, see link below. She had new pieces of information about this very dramatic voyage on the Marie in 1864. Through this information we were able to add 12 more passengers to the list of passengers. Hazel's g-g-grandparents emigrated from Tysnes. They were Ivar Olson Opdahl and Ingeborg Haakenstr. with their children Ole and Anna and Ingeborg' two daughters from her first marriage, Kari Olsdtr. Dalen and Ragnhild Olsdatter Dalen. Ole who was then twelve later wrote about the voyage:
"Ole when yet a boy immigrated with his parents and three sisters from Bergen on the 9th day of May, 1864 on the Sail ship 'Mary' under Captain Christensen. Was ship wrecked under Scotland the 21st of the same month,
drifted one week and was pulled in with a British Steamship to Sheals,
England without losing a man. Was rigged up in a week and went out again;
a week later ran on a floating wreck the ship sprung a leak and the
passengers had to pump all the time. Ran short of provisions, laid 11 days
in calm seas, set out boats and got provisions from other ships that passed
by. Finally reached Quebec with as many passengers as when left Bergen.
On board the ship one child died and one was born."
". . . but it was in 1864 when she was a child of 10 that she came with her
parents and two sisters and brother to this county. They sailed in a brand
new boat, in fact, they were delayed in starting for several weeks while
the boat was being finished. There were 365 passengers on the boat. After
being on the way one week a severe storm broke the main mast, about the
height of a man from the deck. They stopped in England to have a new mast
installed. The storm was so severe and with the loss of the mast the boat
rocked dangerously from side to side. A day after the worst of the storm
was over, a baby was born. It was still so rough that it was necessary for
a man to stay on each side of the berth to keep the mother from falling out.
The captain baptized the baby and she was named Atlanta Maria, Maria being
the name of the ship. A month later the ship sprung a leak and four pumps
were kept running day and night. They ran out of fresh water and had to use
rain water that was caught in barrels and sails, then boiled and skimmed.
The emigrants left with a 10-weeks' supply of food but the two catastrophes
caused so much delay that the trip took 14 weeks. They ran out of food and
the captain sold what he could spare as he had brought double rations for
his crews. They met a ship from Holland and hoped to get additional food
from them but this ship had already sold all it could spare to a boat that
had sailed from Germany and had been out 15 weeks, so the passengers of the
Maria arrived in the St. Lawrence river in a pretty desperate condition.
They hoisted a flag that told those on shore they were out of food and a
boat brought out three barrels of flour and two barrels of meat. A few of
the emigrants went to shore but found on returning to the ship that the
current was so strong they had to go up the river one mile, then only could
they contact the ship. With the aid of life belts they were hauled back on
shipboard.
Ole's younger sister recalled the experience in a newspaper interview
(South Dakota State Forum, May 22, 1942):