Swedish Bark OLOF – 1846
The site describes the OLOF, her owners, home port, captains and voyages carrying immigrants to America. Of particular interest is the second emigrate voyage. There were 228 “between-deck” and 7 cabin passengers that left Antwerp on April 17, 1846 and arrived in the City of New York 43 days later on May 30, 1846.
Among those passengers were Heinrich Wilhelm and Adelheit (Buskamp) Rauenhorst (misspelled Rohenhorst in ship lists). This website will provide a family history of the Rauenhorst on this historic journey to America and provide their background, reasons for leaving, journey to and purchase of homestead in Burlington, Wisconsin. We will trace the lives of the Wilhelm and Adelhiet and their six children, Heinrich, Henrietta, Bernard, the twins— Herman and Wilhemina and Theodore.
About the Ship
The Swedish bark (barque) OLOF made several voyages to New York between 1844-47 carrying passengers who were predominantly German emigrants to America.
The Lloyds Registry reference was initially supplied by Gilbert Probst on TheShipsList website. Mr. Probst is an individual who responded to hundreds of requests for ship information and he provided the basic leads on OLOF from the 1846 Lloyds Registry that lead me to research the OLOF in Galve, Sweden internet sites, then to the Gavle library, then its Museum and the local historian/author, Ingvar Henricson. Nearly all the detail on the OLOF, its owners, place of construction, captains, crew and representations of the ship and Captain Almgren were provided in the early 2000s by Ingvar Henricson, who lived in Gavle and is author of a book on 300 years of shipping and boat building in Gavle (1690-1990) entitled“ Inte bara en skepparhistoria.” He also wrote a book with former Swedish Parliament member Hans Lindbad in 1995 about ship passage between Sweden and America called “Tur och retur Amerika”(Round trip to America) which can be found in the Library of Congress. Either book can be ordered from Ingvar Henricson(ingvar.henricson@telia.com). I dedicate the OLOF portion of this site to Invar Henricson whose help made it so rich in detail.
| Place of Construction | Gefle in the 19th century, now spelled Gavle, Sweden |
| Owner | Elfbrink, Norman and Company. The firm was owned by Daniel Elfbrink (1808-1846) and August Norman (born 1805). Daniel Elfbrink was the oldest son of Olof Elfbrink, the wealthy owner of the Mackmyra ironworks (in Gefle?). It is possible that he named the OLOF, the largest of his ships, in honor of his father.In 1845 Daniel Elfbrink ran the second largest shipping company in Gefle and the “OLOF” was the largest of the firm’s, at that time, eight sailing ships. In a way it is also relevant to include the five vessels from the firm Elfbrink & Luth, that was owned by Daniel’s brother Wilhelm and his brother in law Gustaf Luth (1800-1863). In the Spring of 1846 Daniel Elfbrink died and his younger brother Wilhelm took over his business. |
| Builder | Lars Bang(1806-1853) |
| Shipyard | The OLOF was constructed at the Norra varvet shipyard in Gefle. The shipyard operated between 1780 and 1864 and it destroyed by fire in 1869. Gefle was the leader in shipbuilding in Sweden in the middle of the 19th century and its commercial fleet was the biggest in the country for a number of years in the 1840s. The rival fleets of Stockholm and Goteborg nearly matched Gefle’s during these years, but they eventually surpassed Gelfe. |
| Ships owned by Elfbrink, Norman & Co (Daniel Elfbrink) in 1845: |
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| Ships were owned by Wilhelm Elfbrink in the firm of Elfbrink & Luth in 1845. |
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| Dimensions | The OLOF measured 232 svara laster ( heavy loads in Swedish) meaning that the ship could take a load of approximately 750 metric tons. Herr hull length was 39 meters and hull breath was 9 meters. In American measure (3.28 feet/meter) the ship was 124.6 feet long and 29.5 feet wide. |
| Decommissioning | There is no direct information as yet on decommissioning date and fate of the OLOF. |
Source: Ingvar Henricson – The ship was constructed of oak and fir and was sheathed and fastened with iron bolts.
Source: Lloyds Registry. The Lloyds Registry for years 1845-62 was reviewed and copied by Michael Roanhouse at Library of Congress (see summary table at Exhibit 1).
Lloyds Registry of Record
The OLOF was first registered in1844 in Lloyds Registry of British and Foreign Shipping: From 1st July. 1844 to the 30th June, 1845, published in 1844. The Lloyds Registry is a system used to register and survey the condition of ships.
The first registry information on OLOF follows:
| No. | No explanation so far for this number in Registry. Later surveys have a different number for OLOF. | 7 |
| Ships | Name of the Ship and classification. Bk is Bargue. Type of hull covering. S43pt.I.B. means the ship sheathed in 1843part Iron Bolts | Olof Bk x. 43pt. I.B. |
| Master | The Master of the ship. | Almgren |
| Tons | When 2 tonnages are given the upper one is the measurement under the old act and the under one is under the new act. Timber of which ship was built. F & O was fir and oak | 555 (485 F. & O.) |
| Build – Where , When | Where and when the ship was built. | Gelfe , 1843 |
| Owners | The owner(s) of ship. | Elfbrenk |
| Port Belonging to | The surveying port. Npt is Newport, England | Gelfe |
| Destined Voyage | N. York is New York | Npt. NYork |
| Classification – No. Years First Assigned | Denotes either the year or month the current year, which the vessel was last surveyed. | 5 |
| Classification – Character for Hull and stores | Vessels hulls are graded. “A” means the ship is of the first class and of first description. “AE” meaning first class second description, “E” second class, and “I” is third class. Stores are graded. Figure after class A means the stores of the ship are designated by Figures 1 or 2. 1 signifies that the vessel is well and sufficiently found, and 2 that she is deficient in either quantity or quality. | A 1 (8) |
| Lloyd Survey Year | 1844 |