Titanic: 109th Anniversary
April 15, 2021, marks the 109th Anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic, a tragedy that still captivates, troubles and mystifies the public still today. A combination of factors doomed the Olympic-class ocean liner, the largest floating vessel on Earth, including—in no small part— negligence. The largerthan-life vessel was the most modern, extravagant accommodations and technologies, giving the White Star Line, its officials and the public the confidence that man had outwitted the sea. Still, as the ship foundered in the 28ºF waters of the Atlantic, it was clear that had been a naive notion.
Last year, the Times-Record published a 3-part series detailing the lives and legacy of the Chaffee family, who were instrumental in the development of North Dakota. Herbert and Carrie Chaffee, at the head of a powerful farming force in the red river valley, were on board the Titanic. Herbert didn’t come home.
This year, we’re going to look at other Titanic victims and survivors entangled with North Dakota’s history. As it turns out, these men—Gustaf Johansson, Ole Abelseth, Oskar Hedman, Charles Dahl, and Johannes Nysveen—were all traveling as 3rd Class passengers. Three of them survived. The other two were lost.
Johannes Nysveen Johannes (John) Nysveen was born in 1851 in Norway to family farmers. In 1877, he married Kristiane (Christiane) Eriksdotter and they, with two children, emigrated to America in 1885. The family settled near Hillsboro, North Dakota, where he farmed areas of Norway and Logan townships. According to the 1900 census, John and Christine were living with their six children, John’s mother Anna, and a servant in Norway township. Christine passed away in 1901. About 1910, John went to Norway, most likely for a visit. There, he met and married Pauline Rognstad, and they remained in Norway. She had in 1911. His other children remained in North Dakota, which is where he was headed when he boarded Titanic in April 1912. Some reports say he was returning to attend
to business at his farm, perhaps considering purchasing more land, and others say he intended to transfer his share of the family farm to one of his sons living there. John hadn’t intended to travel to the US on Titanic; instead, he was slated to S.S. Megantic, which couldn’t set sail because of a coal shortage.
On Titanic, he shared a cabin with other 3rd class passengers, many of them immigrants. One of them was 21-year-old Norwegian Karl Midtsjo, a farmer headed for Chicago. Karl survived the sinking. John did not. Here’s what came to light through Karl’s recollection of the events:
When the ship struck the iceberg, John and Karl went up to the deck. As it became clearer that the situation was dire, John, 61 at the time, gave Karl his coat and his watch. It’s suspected he knew he wouldn’t be saved and that Karl had better chances. As the last of the lifeboats left Titanic, First Officer Murdoch gave Karl permission to get into lifeboat 15.
Though word of the sinking was quick to hit newspapers, John’s family—both in Norway and in North Dakota—didn’t know that John was on board until word was received in late April that he had not survived. In fact, they didn’t know until they saw news of his death that he’d even been ON Titanic, since his name wasn’t printed in any of the passenger lists.
John’s death was confirmed by an April 29 telegram from the White Star Line in answer to one sent inquiring about his fate: “We regret he was not a survivor.”
Grand Forks Herald April 29, 1912: “Among the victims of the Titanic, was John H. Nysven [sic], an old former resident of Hillsboro, who had been living in Norway, his old home, the past two years. He went back to Norway two years ago and married. Four children by his first wife live near Hillsboro. Nysven [sic] owned considerable property near that city.”
Karl held onto John’s watch and coat as he disembarked the Carpathia and kept it through his time at ST. Vincent’s
hospital, bringing the items with him to Chicago, where he arrived on April 26. Shortly thereafter, he made a trip to North Dakota to visit John’s family. It was reported that he stayed with them for a few weeks and told his family about John’s experiences on the Titanic before it went down. They offered their sincerest thanks to Karl for returning John’s belongings and for relaying the stories he couldn’t tell himself.
John is memorialized with a cenotaph at the Nysveen family plot in Norway Lutheran Cemetery, Mayville.
Olaus Jorgensen Abelseth [Quotes from his testimony during the US Senate inquiry]
Born in Norway in 1886, Olaus (Ole) Jorgensen Abelseth had found work as a sailor and laborer. He and his brother, Hans, came to America in the early 1900s and worked on various farms in the Red River Valley. He and his brother remained in North Dakota until 1908, when they established a livestock farm in Perkins County, South Dakota. Following a stressful time at the farm, Ole headed to visit his relatives in Norway while Hans remained behind. Ole left New York on a steamship bound for Glasgow in late fall 1911, and upon his arrival continued to Scandinavia. Headed back to America, he boarded the Titanic in Southampton in April 1912. He wasn’t alone on his return trip, however; with him were five other friends/family members from Norway, including cousins, a brother-in-law and a neighbor’s daughter. Ole and Adolf Humblen, a Norwegian from the same town as Ole, shared a cabin on F-Deck (G-63), located toward the bow of the ship. They were in their cabin on the night of the sinking.
When Titanic struck the iceberg, Ole and Humblen got dressed and made their way up to the deck. There, they saw a large amount of ice on the starboard decks of the ship, but no one was saying what had happened. One of the officers, when Ole asked if there was any danger, replied “no,” but the Norwegian “wasn’t satisfied with that answer.” He headed below deck to alert Ole’s brother-in-law and cousin, who shared a cabin not far from his. They put on their overcoats and went to the cabins in steerage near the back of the ship to alert Karen, the 16-year-old daughter of one of Ole’s former neighbors in Norway, and Anna, traveling with Humblen. Together, the group went up to one of the higher decks, standing near the port side with other steerage passengers.
Ole and his cousin fetched lifebelts for the group. Since they were below the boat deck, from where the lifeboats were launching, Ole recalled seeing steerage passengers climbing the arms of cranes on deck to get up to the boat deck. The gate was shut, so it was the only way for them to get up to the deck. After a while, the ladies standing on the lower deck were allowed up to the boat deck, and the two young ladies with Ole and Humblen left.
“I was standing there, and I asked my brother-in-law if he could swim and he said no. I asked my cousin if he could swim and he said no. So we could see the water coming up, the bow of the ship was going down, and there was kind of an explosion. We could hear the popping and cracking, and the deck raised up and got so steep that the people could not stand on their feet on the deck. So they fell down and slid on the deck into the water right on the ship.”
In time, the men were allowed onto the boat deck, but the boats had been filled and the last of
them were leaving.
As the bow section gradually sank into the sea, the stern rose sharply, and Ole and the others clung to the falls of a lifeboat davit (the chains or wire that lift/lower boats). when the water came within five feet of them, they jumped into the Atlantic.
“My brother-in-law took my hand just as we jumped off; and my cousin jumped at the same time. When we came into the water, I think it was from the suction - or anyway, we went under, and I swallowed some water. I got a rope tangled around me, and I let loose of my brother-in-law’s hand to get away from the rope. I thought then, “I am a goner.” That is what I thought when I got tangled up in this rope. But I came on top again…”
He never saw his cousin or brother-in-law again.
Ole was in the water for about 20 minutes. After spotting a collapsible lifeboat, he swam toward it. When he got there, Ole held onto the side of the rig for a short while before he was able to pull himself up and in.
“Some of [the passengers] were trying to get up on their feet. They were sitting down or lying down on the raft. Some of them fell into the water again. Some of them were frozen; and there were two dead, that they threw overboard.”
He shared the raft with about 10 or 12 people, including one woman, a first-class passenger wearing only his undergarments, a young boy and a fireman named Thompson who had burned one of his hands.
The canvas of the collapsible boat was not in position when Ole got on, and the survivors couldn’t get it to raise up. Because of that, there was water in the bottom of the raft. Ole and the others spent at least four hours on that raft, with their feet in 12 to 14 inches of water the whole time.
He helped row to the Carpathia when she steamed up to the scene that morning, and he spent four days aboard the ship with the other survivors before disembarking at New York. With other “aliens,” Ole and Karen went through Ellis Island, which became the port through which they officially emigrated.
In New York, Ole stayed at St. Vincent’s hospital for a few days. He remained in the city for a month after the sinking, testifying at the US Senate Inquiry on the disaster before he headed to Minneapolis. He spent 1912 and 1913 traveling in Canada, Indianapolis and Montana before returning to his farm.
In 1915, Ole married Anna Grinde, and in the 30 years that followed, Ole continued working at his farm and the couple raised three children: George, Helen and Mae.
After he retired in 1946, Ole and Anna settled in Reeder, North Dakota. During retirement, they moved around to Tacoma Washington to Whetting, North Dakota before settling in Hettinger, North Dakota.
He died in 1980 at the age of 94 and is buried at Glendo Cemetery, Perkins County, South Dakota. — Gustaf Johansson, Oskar
Hedman and Charles Dahl, all having set sail aboard Titanic, had North Dakota ties, as well. Dahl was headed to Fingal to visit family, Gustaf was seeking a position in farm labor in Sheyenne, and Hedman —who had emigrated to North Dakota in 1905— was headed to his farm in South Dakota.
Read more about them in Part 2 of this story, which will run in your Friday, April 16th Times-Record.