“Dear home! (…) Was found on 6 July, and by then I had released a lot of oxygen.” This is how Rolv Vaagaasar opens his first letter to his parents. He has been able to borrow NOK 150 from his grandmother, and received a ticket from his uncle in America. The 17-year-old is on his first trip alone. He is seasick and stands looking into the morning mist when he hears a loud boom in the ship. It is 120 years since the horror shipwreck at Rockall. 635 emigrants to the bottom The sinking of the D/S Norge is considered the event that has claimed the most Norwegian lives in recent peacetime. The sinking at Rockall was also the worst accident in the North Atlantic before the Titanic in 1912. The steamer Norge was an old rusted hull that should have been taken out of service. Photo: unknown / Private After 1912, the accident was somewhat overshadowed by the history of the Titanic, and has therefore been called the “forgotten” shipwreck. A television team in Bergen will now highlight the story of Rolv and the other emigrants in the documentary “The Shipwreck”, which will be broadcast on news in 2026. It was a bit hazy, but otherwise a mild and quiet morning on 28 June 1904. The captain thought he was further south, in reality he was heading straight for the only underwater reef on the North American route, St. Helen’s Reef. At a quarter to eight, the steamship Norge runs aground. 20 minutes later the ship sinks. When the ship goes down, there are hundreds of people on deck. Passengers around a lifeboat on NS Norge Photo: unknown / private There are gunshots, and in wild panic the mothers send their children up the mast to get them out of the water. An eyewitness said that it was like a crust of drowning corpses floating around the boat. In the middle of the chaos stands a lonely 17-year-old boy from Lom. Never reached the land of happiness The boy was the oldest of a group of eleven siblings. He came from a small farm in Lom, and his uncle had bought him a ticket on one of the big, safe ships. For one reason or another, Rolv ends up in one of the worst. – Norway was an old rust hole that should have been taken out of traffic. But 1904 was a special year, says Gøril Grov Sørdal. There was a price war and the tickets were unusually cheap and very many emigrants traveled that year. Emigrants play cards on the deck of NS Norway. Photo: unknown / private Gøril is a researcher on the documentary series “The Shipwreck”, and she found Rolv’s name in the passenger lists. And then the hunt began. Grov Sørdal makes many phone calls to his relatives in Lom, but without further success. A few weeks later, she finally gets the phone she’s been waiting for. The woman at the other end is a former farmer on the farm Vaagaasar in Lom, the farm where Rolv grew up. Made big eyes Relative Jorunn Kvåle in Lom says that she has found something that she thinks might be interesting in the old barn on the farm. Jorunn Kvåle points to the picture of Rolv Vaagaasar who was involved in the sinking of DS Norge. Photo: Even Lusæter / news – When we realized that these letters existed we were very happy, because it is incredibly important documentation, smiles Gøril Grov Sørdal in news. The first card from Rolv was sent from the hospital bed in Thorshavn just a month after the shipwreck. – These are important first-hand descriptions of what happened, says Grov Sørdal. In a sober rural way, Rolv tells that he has hovered between life and death. The reason why this appeared is because Jorunn Kvåle is above average interested in history. When she was working on creating her own farm museum, the old letters appeared. – We must thank those who ran the farm before us for being so bad at throwing things away, smiles Kvåle. In the old barn in Lom, among farm documents and old love letters, Jorunn found the first descriptions of Rolv. With elegant handwriting on a postcard, a traumatized boy sends a letter home to his parents. The letter from Rolv Vaagaasar was found in a barn in Lom. First-hand account of the sinking of DS Norge. Photo: Even Lusæter / news – I stood with the letter in my hand and thought, what am I seeing, says Jorunn Kvaale. Half of the passengers on the steamship Norge were children and teenagers, three of them from Lom. It was Rolv Vaagaasar aged 17, and the cousins Anne Andvordsjorde and Anne Gutubø who were both 19. Only one of them came alive from the wreck. Seven days at sea Only six of the eight lifeboats make it to the water with only 160 people on board. 635 people die that morning at Rockall. After the shipwreck, screams or revolver shots help. There is panic on board and the survival instinct kicks in. Photo: Even Lusæter / news Rolv is one of those who get on board a lifeboat, but they are not saved. There are hardly any provisions and drink in the boat, but they are soon empty of food and water. – In the letter, he says that they are all sick and hysterical with thirst. He drank sea water every quarter, says Jorunn Kvåle. Furthermore, he describes how his feet swell up and he is unable to walk. When they are rescued by a fishing boat, he is close to death. – There were many who said that they had never seen such a thin person as I was, writes Rolv from the hospital bed. The lifeboat Rolv was in was at sea for seven days, and was the last to be found. Saved the life of the child On board the lifeboat there are only men and a little girl child. They get to collect some rainwater in a tarpaulin, but they keep the infant alive by passing her around so she can suck up saliva. – Rolv has told this, and I have it from reliable sources that they sent the kid around in the boat so she could suck on their tongue. In addition, the father managed to puncture a blood vessel so she also got a little blood, says Kvåle. Photo: unknown / private Rolv will soon be well enough and come home to Lom. The two girls he was traveling with drowned along with 222 other compatriots. – It’s strange that he writes so much about the incident in letters, because when he got home he never talked about the shipwreck, says Jorunn. Rolv gets married, has children and buys a farm, but he became very restless and was strongly affected by the incident for the rest of his life. He dies aged 50. The little girl they saved grows up, but dies at the age of eighteen from the Spanish flu, Jorunn says. – I’ve tried to imagine what it could be like for Rolv and the others with that panic and screaming and revolver shots, but it’s almost impossible to put my mind to it, sighs Jorunn Kvåle. Published 18.08.2024, at 17.38
ttn-69
DS Norge wrecked at Rockall. 635 emigrants drowned. Jorunn found letters from the forgotten shipwreck. – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
