S/S Hero built 1866 S/S Angelo built 1874 S/S Montebello at Christiania S/S Salmo at Christiansund S/S Angelo taking on emigrants Wilson Line announcement Calypso at Gothenburg Ariosto departing Gothenburg Emigrants boarding for Hull Montebello at Christiania Passengers boarding the Montebello Wilson Line steamer departing Christiania Victoria Pier, Hull Eskimo in a Norwegian fjord S/S Romeo S/S Rollo (1) S/S Tasso (2) S/S Calypso (2)

Wilson Line for Tourists: TOURS IN SOUTHERN NORWAY By the S.S. “ORLANDO” and “DOMINO”. Sailing from London (Tilbury) every Friday Morning, These Steamers are fine comfortable boats, lighted with the electric light, and with accommodation amidships ; and have been specially constructed for the Norwegian Passenger Service. Special attention is paid to the victualling on board, and carefully-selected staffs of stewards and stewardesses carried. The meals provided are : Coffee or tea in the morning, breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. These Tours which were first started in 1895 have proved most popular, and have been the means of inducing many hundreds of passengers to visit this charming country. The beauty of the scenery, the excellence of the arrangements for travelling, and the accommodation provided, are on all hands spoken of in terms of high praise, while the prices charged for the inclusive round tickets will be found to be extraordinarily low. On these Tours the traveller is taken into the interior of the country, and without making such journeys, it is impossible to appreciate Norway. Those who content themselves with a yachting cruise in the Fjords, landing at certain spots here and there, cannot be said to have seen Norway. They may save themselves some trouble by taking such trips, but they deny themselves much enjoyment. It is only by travelling from place to place in car and steamer, by familiarizing themselves with the customs of the country, by associating with its simple, good-natured people, pausing now and then to make themselves, to some extent, at home in the land, that they can become subject to the peculiar fascinating influence which Norway exercises over all minds susceptible to its romantic charm. For Norway is a land of lake, mountain, and valley, with foaming torrents and mighty waterfalls, hardly a mile of road being without its special charm, this being the reason why such numbers of travellers visit the country year after year. In reviewing Dr. Yngvar Nielson's “Christiania and its Environs," published by Cammermeyers, the Daily Telegraph, of 10th August, 1894, said : " The rival attractions of the great fjords and the midnight sun have, perhaps, diverted attention from the very fine scenery of Southern Norway, but it ought not to be neglected by travellers. Christiania itself is interesting, but its easily accessible environs, both near and far, are enchanting. No lover of the picturesque can fail to be delighted with the tour among the lovely islands of the Christiania fjord, or the round that embraces St. Hans Haugen, Oscar's Hall, and Frognersæter ; while the excursions which severally have their chief points at Sarabraaten, Maridals Lake, and Krogkleven, are not to be surpassed for luxuriant landscape. Railways, steamers, and other means of locomotion, moreover, bring Telemarken, Valders, and the Gudbrandsdal within easy reach of the capital, and the scenery of these districts is remarkable for grandeur as well as beauty." There is no night in Norway during May, June and July, whilst during August and September there are only a few hours of darkness. It has been commonly supposed that after August no one should visit Norway ; but Tourists to the Southern part will find the autumn months, even so late as October, most delightful. (From a booklet issued by the line about 1897) Wilson Line for Emigrants: Advertisement for the Wilson Line: Wilson's steamships for emigrants. The well known and most comfortable equipped steamships, Hero and Albion will be expedited from Christiania to Hull every Friday PM (from the start of the season all year). These steamships have certificates from the English Government to convey emigrants. Tickets can be bought to most places in America for traveling with the: Allan Line steamers via Quebec, Inman Line steamer via New York, National Co's steamers via New York, Guion Line steamer via New York, Cunard Line steamer via New York. by addressing the agents in Christiania of those Liverpool companies.

Prior to 1865 the majority of Norwegian emigrants traveled on sailing ships going directly from Norwegian ports to New York or Quebec. Only a minority of the Scandinavian emigrants had traveled by steamship via Britain. In the years between 1865 and 1870 this gradually changed. The transatlantic steamship companies which operated out of British ports, took a larger percentage of the Norwegian emigrants every year. Many people had suffered and many died during the transatlantic crossing on the sailing ships. The sufferings and the risk of perishing was much lower on the faster steamships. The accommodation and food was much better on the steamships, and as they were much faster they crossed the Atlantic in less then half the time of a sailing ship. For more details read the article about the transatlantic crossing.

The number of emigrants leaving Norway increased from 1865. This was the beginning of the "mass emigration" from Norway and the other Scandinavian countries. The passage fee on the steamships became lower year by year due to the hard competition between the different transatlantic steamship companies. This soon made this way of transportation affordable to great numbers of emigrants. This development is probably one of the reasons why the large number of transatlantic companies like the Allan Line, Cunard Line, American Line, National Line, Inman Line, Guion Line, Dominion Line, State Line and the White Star Line established emigration agencies in Norway. Most of these companies where based in Britain and the great ocean liners sailed from ports like Liverpool, Glasgow and Southampton. In the first years of the "mass emigration" from Norway, the Allan Line and the Anchor Line made attempts to establish feeder services between and ports in England and Scotland and ports in Norway and Sweden. However, the feeder services of these lines were not profitable, and were soon given up. The transatlantic steamship companies became dependent on other companies, which could run feeder services from European ports to Britain. The number of emigrants leaving from small harbors, all along the Norwegian coast, was not sufficient for them to run their own services with their large transatlantic ships. The need for transportation of emigrants from Norway and other Scandinavian countries to Britain was then met by the Wilson Line. For the Wilson Line this was to become the start of a trade, on which the company would hold almost a monopolistic position for decades.

By 1867 the Wilson Line had a already a weekly service from Christiania (Oslo) to Hull calling at Christiansand, with departure from Christiania scheduled every Friday. They also had a weekly service to Gothenburg. The Wilson line soon extended their activity in Norway with a route between Hull and Bergen, calling at Stavanger. Departure from Bergen was scheduled every Saturday. In 1871 they opened a route to Trondheim departing once every fortnight, calling at Christiansund and Aalesund. Later the service was scheduled with a weekly departure from Trondheim, every Thursday. More details about the routes and sailing lists can be found below. The company achieved almost a monopolistic position in the feeder service of emigrants between Norway and Britain. However, there were several attempts made by smaller Norwegian steamship companies, to take over the feeder service from certain ports. The Wilson Line did not appreciate this competition and threatened to cease all of their Norwegian passenger service. This gave the transatlantic companies a scare, and they arranged for their passengers to travel on the Wilson Line ships only. They knew that there was no other company that had the capacity to replace the Wilson Line. The Wilson Line also had a transatlantic steamship route between England and new York, but for some reason this service was not offered for Norwegian emigrants, probably due to the feeder contracts with the other great transatlantic lines. There should be little doubt that the Wilson Line probably transported more Norwegian emigrants than any other shipping line from Norway. Some of the ships became legendary, and were a common sight in Norwegian ports for decades. Along with the emigrants the ships brought all kinds of cargo, such as, fish, live cattle, timber and Pyrites. The ships often carried textiles and coal from Hull to Norway, and in the season a great number of tourists.

The monopolistic position of the Wilson Line allowed it to operate the routes with a much poorer standard of passenger accommodation than it could have done if there had been any real competition. (See the Reports relating to the conveyance & transit of emigrants 1881 - 1882) The complaints, from the emigrants about the steerage conditions on the Wilson Line ships were many in the early years, but later became quite few. The first and second class accommodation is known to have been very good, and the ships often took tourists from England.

Articles:
Migration via the Port of Hull

Pictures:
Prospects of Hull
Wilson Line picture gallery

Reports relating to the conveyance & transit of emigrants 1881 - 1882:
Christiania - Hull Gothenburg - Hull Accommodation in Hull Landing and Lodging Sanitary conditions

Sailing lists (departures) for some of the Norwegian routes:
Oslo - Kristiansand - Hull
(Christiania, Kristiania, Xania) - (Christiansand) - Hull
1867 - 1868 - 1869 - 1870 - 1872 - 1873 - 1874 - 1875 - 1876 - 1877 - 1879 - 1880 - 1881 - 1882 - 1883 - 1884 - 1885 - 1886 - 1887 - 1888 - 1889 - 1890 - 1891 - 1892 - 1893 - 1894 - 1895 - 1896 - 1897 - 1898 - 1899 - 1900 - 1901 - 1902 - 1903 - 1904 - 1905 - 1906 - 1907 - 1908 - 1909

Oslo - Kristiansand - Hull/London
(Christiania, Kristiania, Xania) - (Christiansand) - Hull/London
1878 - 1880

Oslo - Kristiansand - London
(Christiania, Kristiania, Xania) - (Christiansand) - London
1870 - 1872 - 1873 - 1874 - 1882 - 1883 - 1884 - 1886 - 1888 - 1894 - 1896 - 1897 - 1898 - 1899 - 1900 - 1901 - 1902 - 1903 - 1904 - 1905 - 1909

Oslo - London
(Christiania, Kristiania, Xania) - London
1881

Bergen - Stavanger - Hull
1879 - 1874 - 1875 - 1876 - 1877 - 1878 - 1880 - 1881 - 1882 - 1883 - 1886 - 1887 - 1888 - 1890 - 1892 - 1893 - 1894 - 1895 - 1896 - 1897 - 1898 - 1899 - 1900 - 1901 - 1902 - 1903 - 1904 - 1905 - 1906 - 1907 - 1908 - 1909 - 1884 - 1885 - 1889 - 1891

Trondheim - Hull
(Trondhjem, Drontheim) - Hull
1868

Trondheim - Kristiansund - Ålesund - Bergen - Stavanger - Hull
(Trondhjem, Drontheim) - (Christiansund) - (Aalesund) - Bergen - Stavanger - Hull
1898 - 1899 - 1900 - 1901 - 1902 - 1903 - 1904 - 1906 - 1905 - 1907 - 1908 - 1909

Trondheim - Bergen - Stavanger - Hull
(Trondhjem, Drontheim) - Bergen - Stavanger - Hull
1892 - 1893 - 1894 - 1895 - 1895 - 1896 - 1897

Trondheim - Kristiansund - Bergen - Hull
(Trondhjem, Drontheim) - (Christiansund) - Bergen - Hull
1870 - 1872 - 1873 - 1874 - 1878 - 1880 - 1881 - 1882 - 1887 - 1885

Trondheim - Christiansund - Hull
(Trondhjem, Drontheim) - (Kristiansund) - Hull
1880

Trondheim - Kristiansund - Ålesund - Hull
(Trondhjem, Drontheim) - (Christiansund) - (Aalesund) - Hull
1875 - 1876 - 1877 - 1878 - 1879 - 1881 - 1882 - 1883 - 1884 - 1885 - 1886 - 1887 - 1888 - 1889 - 1890 - 1891 - 1892 - 1893 - 1894 - 1895 - 1896 - 1897 - 1898 - 1899 - 1900 - 1901 - 1902 - 1903 - 1904 - 1905 - 1906 - 1907 - 1908 - 1909