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The Emigrants


By Sune Christian Pedersen

The great wave of European emigration to America began in the 1850’s. Increasing population, falling prices of grain, and increasing unemployment within the trades drove more and more people to try their luck in America, Australia, and New Zealand.


The emigrants would become an even larger source of income to the shipping lines than conveyance of mail. In order to transport the about 35 million Europeans across the Atlantic an aggressive market of shipping lines emerged. With their network of agents and subagents they reached out all the way to even the smallest rural communities.

Danish Ships
The first Danish shipping lines to America started up in the 1850’s, but it was not until C.F. Tietgen joined the battle and founded the Thingvalla Line that things began to move. During the next 56 years the Thingvalla Line (later renamed the Scandinavia-America Line) carried 617,000 Scandinavian and Eastern European emigrants across the Atlantic.

The Thingvalla Line was, however, tormented by a number of ship catastrophes, e.g. in 1883 when – incredibly as it may sound – their two ships, the Thingvalla and the Geyser, crashed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The Thingvalla stayed afloat whereas the Geyser sank quickly. Of the 140 people on board only 31 were rescued on the Thingvalla. However, the biggest accident ever to befall the shipping line took place in 1904 when its ship the Norge went down after striking the isle of Rockall west of Scotland. 627 people drowned, only 146 were saved. The accident shook the confidence in the shipping line which constantly had to endure a strained economy, and it is estimated that most of the about 300,000 Danes who emigrated before 1914 travelled via England.


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