OLOF Crew

The OLOF normally had a crew of 15 including a master. On Oct 14 in 1845 the master of the barque “Olof”, Johan Olof  Almgren, hired 15 hands (sailors) in Gefle for the journey from Gefle to Marseilles. This was the crew from 1845-1846:

 

Name

Title

Hometown

Age

Marital Status

Salary

(riksdaler/ month)
Boije Andersson first mate (styrman) from Gefle 28 married 23
Eric Gustaf Holmström second mate (konstapel) from Gefle 42 married 18
Per Westergren carpenter (timmerman) from Gefle 33 married 18
J O Björklund boatswain (båtsman) from Gefle 27 unmarried 16
C A Sjölander able seaman (matros) from Linköping 24 unmarried 15
Jon Åberg, able seaman (matros) from Sundsvall 34 unmarried 15
 J W Cornelius able seaman (matros) from Gefle 28 unmarried 15
 N Nilsson ordinary seaman (lättmatros) from Hven (an islandoutside Helsingborg) 22 unmarried 13
 G L Lindström ordinary seaman (lättmatros) from Stockholm 22 unmarried 13
 Sören Tollefson ordinary seaman (jungman) from Christians (?) 22 unmarried 10
 P O Bång ordinary seaman (jungman) from Gefle 22 unmarried 9
 N J A Wiström (Wikström?) ordinary seaman (jungman) from Gefle 17 unmarried 7
 C J Wendin ordinary seaman (jungman) from Gefle 16 unmarried 7
 Carl Johan Hillman cook (kock) from Hille (a little north of Gefle) 19 unmarried 8
 Anders Gustaf Boqvist cabin boy (kajutvakt) from Gefle 16 unmarried 5

On Oct 20 the “Olof” was laden with planks and left for Marseilles, or rather for Gibraltar for orders. The “Olof” arrived in Marseilles on Dec 20 and sailed again on February 12 and the destination was Antwerp. I don’t know the cargo. As I have written before the “Olof” arrived in Antwerp on March 6.  On April 9 in Antwerp six of the crew ran away, Björklund, Sjölander, Cornelius, Nilsson, Lindström and Tollefson. Five days later Bång also deserted the ship. No doubt the master had to replace these hands with whatever he could get in Antwerp and at twice the cost of a similar sailor in a Swedish harbour.

When the “Olof” arrived in New York probably the hands recruited in Antwerp deserted. What I know for sure is that Åberg, Wiström (Wikström?), Wendin, Hillman and Boqvist ran away there.  I don’t know much of these sailors. But I can tell you about the three sailors from Gefle, Andersson, Holmström and Westergren, who stayed with the ship for the journey back to Antwerp.Boije Andersson went to sea in 1834 as a cabin boy and was appointed first mate on the journey with the “Olof” in 1845. He left the “Olof” in Oct 1846 and in 1847 he became the first mate on a little schooner “Active”. In 1848 he held the same job on the ship “Chatarina”. He died in Bahia in 1850, probably on the brig “Julia”, owned by Elfbrink & Luth.  Eric Gustaf Holmström also went to sea when he was around 16 years old, in the Autumn of 1819, as a cabin boy. He left the “Olof” in 1847 and I know of no later ship for him. He died in Gefle in 1849.

The carpenter Per Westergren had been a house builder and didn’t venture to sea until he was over 30 years of age, in 1843 when he was the carpenter of the “Olof” on her maiden voyage to the Mediterranean. He left the “Olof” in 1847 and in 1848 he sailed on the brig “Hebe” on the Mediterranean. He died in 1858 in Peru, probably as a carpenter on the full rigged ship “Sophie”.

Source: Ingvar Henricson