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S/S "The Lion"


By Christina Bramsnæs

"Goodbye! The strong animal is going swimming
Steam rises black from its nostrils
And the vapours look like my dreams
And the colour tallies with what is inside me
As sinisterly black is my every thought
Because the animal carries away my sacred thing
It sails away from me on the light plank
And to my soul the entire world lies empty.
…"
Carl Bagger, 1836.


It is the poet’s beloved Thora Fiedler that the mail-carrying paddle steamer "The Lion" is sailing out of Korsør Harbour. The destination of the steamer was Kiel. In good weather the sail took a night, and Thora was then to continue on a long journey in Germany. Her family had arranged the journey in order that the unseemly romance between the daughter of the Counsellor and the destitute poet would sink into oblivion.

Carl Bagger (1807-46) wrote his presumably most well-known poem in his deep-felt grief for the parting. As a second Lord Byron he wanted to devote his life to art and the rising against the narrow moral standards of the time. Like Byron he died young, only 39 years of age. But he got his Thora. They got married in 1838 when Carl had become editor of the newspaper Fyens Stiftstidende.

Footnote:
Post & Tele Museum holds a painting of S/S "The Lion" painted in 1845 by Jacob Petersen (1774-1855).


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