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A Tribute to the Swedish American Line | ||||||||
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A Tribute to the Swedish American Line | ||||||||
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On board the Kungsholm, Autumn of '68
I stayed on the Kungsholm for six months, and made four Atlantic crossings, a Cruise Around South America, a Fall Cruise of Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as a Christmas and New Year’s Cruise of Northern Africa, the Canary Islands, and Madeira.
We had different tasks, but a common concern for the office staff was to prepare the passenger manifests for the ports of call. Every port had its own form for the manifests, demanding information of every passenger’s full name, passport number, date of issue, occupation, home address and in some instances, mother’s maiden name. There were about 450 passengers and we used electric typewriters. The forms were supplied in advance by the SAL local agents in the ports. If there were any mistakes in the passenger lists, there would be trouble with customs and immigration authorities, and the passengers could be delayed going ashore. This had to be avoided, as the passengers had a tight schedule with shore excursions and were eager to leave the ship as soon as the gangway was secured. On one Atlantic crossing we had to retype the passenger manifest 3 times, as we discovered that we had got the alphabetical order mixed up.
Highest in rank on the ship were the ship's officers on the bridge and the other merchant marine officers who had a formal education giving them authority to run a passenger ship on ocean trade; the Commander, the Chief Officer, the Chief Engineer, the First Radio Operator, and so on. The Chief Purser, the Ship’s Doctor and the Ship’s Chaplain also belonged to this category, giving them the right to dine and mingle with the cruise passengers and the first class passengers on the Atlantic crossings. They dined in the passengers’ dining room. Of course the most prominent passengers were seated at the Captain’s table. Seating the passengers correctly in the dining room was a tricky business, entrusted only to the most experienced head steward and the SAL cruise management staff from the New York office.
The category second in rank were the Deck officers, also with formal navy education, who had their meals in the officers’ mess.
In the next category, to which I belonged, were what we could call the "hotel management staff", such as the head stewards, the staff of the purser’s office, the nurses, the hair dressers, the gift shop's attendants, the ship’s photographers, the musicians, having our meals in our own mess (intendenturmässen).
Then we have the rest of the crew, the hard working professional seamen, the engineers, the cabin stewards and stewardesses, the dining room stewards and the deck stewards, and the galley crew, the carpenter, the tailor, the laundry workers, who all had their meals in the crew’s mess.
There was very little fraternizing between the different categories on board. This was not questioned in public, it was the way that such things always had been at sea.
The Deck officers and the staff of the purser’s office had the right to socialize with the tourist class passengers on the Atlantic crossings, and we had our meals in the tourist class dining room. We were not allowed to be in the passenger area on the cruises, nor the first class area during the crossings. However we had the privilege to join the passengers’ shore excursions when the ship was in a port, if there were empty seats on the buses. This way I went on excursions in Lima, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Bridgetown, Casablanca, Nice, Monte Carlo and the island of Capri.
I crossed the equator on the 29th of October, being splashed with food colors, having to kiss the foot of King Neptune’s Mistress, the Queen of the Seas, (one of the cabin stewardesses), and thrown into the crews’ pool. When I had showered, put on dry clothes, and joined my colleagues for a drink in one of the cabins, a hunting party of crew members ran into our corridor, and were, of course, told by my friends that I hadn’t been dipped. Fortunately we met friendly people along the way as I was being dragged back to the pool, and I was saved by an inch from having another set of clothes ruined.
Another memorable event occurred in the South Atlantic when the fire alarm went off, fortunately being a false alarm. While the elderly passengers were gathering anxiously at their life boat stations, convinced that the ship was about to sink, the ship’s photographer ran from one passenger to another, begging them to settle their accounts with him.
At sea, I had only a fragmentary insight into the daily lives of the cruise passengers, the bridge games in the card room, the lectures, the cha-cha lessons, and - the cocktail parties being arranged with the assistance of the cruise staff - to which the passengers invited each other and sent invitations in return in an intricate social web. The cruise around South America offered 44 days of life in luxury, and the cruise to Europe and the Mediterranean was for 40 days. The average age of the passengers was about 65. I remember one first class passenger saying on an Atlantic crossing, that the best way to travel was to have a first class stateroom, and go to the tourist class lounge in the evenings to have fun. On the cruises, the majority of the passengers were very well to do, and there were "repeaters" treated like royalty, but some were very ordinary senior citizens who had saved money for many years to spend the vacation of their lives on the Kungsholm, "the happy ship with a happy crew".
Read about Lars Hemingstam's experience of SAL here.
Also, see the Bridge & Crew Pages
By Lars Hemingstam
The MS Kungsholm sailed from Göteborg, Sweden, bound for New York on Friday, August 30, 1968, on the same day that The Beatles' single Hey Jude was released. I was newly employed as a junior purser (in Swedish 3:e kontorist, i.e. 3rd clerk), and it was with mixed feelings of anticipation and concern that I left Sweden. The Soviet Union had invaded Czechoslovakia just ten days earlier, and no one could know for sure what was going to happen next in Europe. I remember staring a long time at the lighthouse on the island of
Vinga,
an image I had grown up with at home, as my mother had made an oil painting of the island thirty years earlier.
I had sent a letter to SAL with a job application and was offered a career as a dish washer. At that time I was a technology student in Stockholm (KTH) and Captain Torkel Tistrand at the SAL personnel office assured me that I would be in good company as there were several civil engineers and Ph.D.'s working in the galley. I declined the offer. Then Captain Tistrand called back a few days later and asked if I could type. I sadly replied noooo, and he said I had a week to learn. They needed a clerk on the Kungsholm that was to sail for New York about ten days later.
My place of work was the purser’s office, midship on Upper Deck. We were four young men, all under 30, working in the office; in order of rank: the Cashier, the Information Officer, a 2nd clerk and myself, the 3rd clerk. We worked next door to the Chief Purser’s reception room.
My salary was SEK 1,400 (Swedish crowns) per month, with a uniform supplement of SEK 4,20 per day. This pay was very low, even for 1968, but as the crew worked every day of the week (Sundays and holidays included), a substantial amount of compensation (vederlag) accumulated during the time at sea. This compensation could be obtained in cash or used as shore leave when the ship returned to Sweden, making it possible for the crew to take long periods of leave and spend months with their families at home.
Invitation to officers' party, 1968
The members of the staff of the Purser’s Office lived in outward single cabins on B-deck, separated from the passenger area, only accessible via a "crew only" stairway from A-deck. Our cabins were equipped with a berth, a sofa with a table and a writing desk with a chair, a small wash basin and a wardrobe. Showers and toilets were at the end of the corridor.
Invitation for cocktails, 1968
We had a lot of time off in all the ports, as the purser’s office was closed until about an hour before the ship’s departure. When at sea, we worked every day, Christmas and New Year included.
The second day of the Kungsholm's stay in Rio de Janeiro, we woke up and saw another ship with the Swedish flag next to us. It was Lion Ferry's Prins Hamlet, on charter for cruises in this part of the world. The Kungsholm's cashier persuaded the Brazilian customs officials to lend him a cap, and joined the authorities when they boarded the other ship. He behaved like a fool, demanding to be served whisky at 9.00 am, which was illegal, as the liquor stores always should be sealed in port. Before his real identity was revealed, he had instructed the Information Officer on Prins Hamlet to order the Captain to hoist the quarantine flag.
More than 100 web pages developed and maintained by Lars Hemingstam ©1998-2010
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Regardless of which ship we sailed on or which year - the memories we share are the same!
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Recommended Books |
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Updated Sep 7, 2009 Waterline - Images from the Golden Age of Cruising John Graves
Örjan Slätte, ex Information Officer on the Gripsholm, recommends Waterline - Images from the Golden Age of Cruising by John Graves, published by the National Maritime Museum in London in 2004. It is based on photos by Marine Photo Service, which were acquired by the museum in 1996 The book features many photos from SAL cruises.
Please note that the book's edition at Amazon.co.uk may not have the Kungsholm on the cover. Örjan Slätte, Informationsofficer på Gripsholm, rekommenderar boken Waterline - Images from the Golden Ages of Cruising. Boken är utgiven år 2004 av National Maritime Museum i London som 1996 förvärvat Marine Photo Service (MPS) samlingar. Redan omslagsbilden föreställer Kungsholm 1953 med två vattenskidåkande ynglingar i fronten. MPS fanns i många rederier och där finns många mycket bra foton från SAL:s kryssningar. Våra fotografer var mycket yrkesskickliga med konstnärlig talang. Man kan förmoda att de tidvis kände för att fotografera annat än leende, välklädda pax med cocktailglas i hand. Fina miljöer från fartygens "omvärld". |
Updated July7, 2008 MERCY SHIPS
During World War 2 the Drottningholm and the Gripsholm were used as repatriation ships and made 33 voyages to exchange prisoners of war, diplomats, women and children, between the warfaring nations. David Miller has written a book about the exchange and repatriation voyages,with an emphasis on the British experience. It is loaded with facts about these voyages of mercy. Read more about all the exchange and repatriation sailings during WWII here. |
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M/S Kungsholms inredning Första M/S Kungsholm, Amerikalinjens stora passagerarfartyg, byggdes på 1920-talet. Det gick mellan Göteborg och New York. Arkitekten Carl Bergsten fick uppdraget att hålla i den påkostade inredningen som skulle visa för världen vad svenska konstnärer kunde åstadkomma. Under andra världskriget togs fartyget i beslag av amerikanarna för att användas i trupptransporten till Europa. Inredningen revs då ner och förstördes. Anne-Marie Ericsson har letat i arkiv och museer efter beskrivningar, ritningar och gamla fotografier för att försöka rekonstruera denna makalösa uppvisning i svensk inredningskonst. |
Amerikabåtarna Christer Winberg, professor i historia vid Göteborgs universitet, har skrivit en bok om SAL som bygger på bevarat samtida material från Svenska Amerika Linien på Landsarkivet och Sjöfartsmuseet i Göteborg. Det omfattar exempelvis reserapporter, minnesberättelser och personligt färgade reseskildringar. Författaren har också samlat in eget material genom intervjuer med f.d. anställda.
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Andrea Dorias undergång I Andrea Dorias undergång berättar Britt-Marie Mattsson den fascinerande berättelsen om kollisionen, den heroiska räddningsaktionen och det rättsliga efterspelet till den mycket uppmärksammade olyckan - sin tids Titanic. Mattssons far var vid tiden för olyckan informationschef vid Svenska Amerika Linien. Britt-Marie Mattsson har träffat flera av de överlevande och intervjuat dem för denna bok. Hon har bland annat talat med vittnen som ger information som kan kasta nytt ljus över vad som egentligen orsakade den fruktansvärda kollisionen. Boken är rikligt illustrerad i svartvitt. |
A book about the Kungsholm of 1953. |
Journalist Per Fält has recommended |
"Såna" på Amerikabåtarna SAL har skildrats i böcker, dokumentär-filmer, journalfilmer och tidningsartiklar. Oftast är det glamouren som uppmärk-sammats men en grupp har alltid saknats i beskrivningarna: homosexuella män. Såna på Amerikabåtarna är en välskriven, lättläst och underhållande studie av en värld som gått i glömska. | |
De Flytande Palatsen From the very inception of the line in 1915, the ships of the Line attracted much attention on both sidesof the Atlantic. Not only did they represent the bonds between the old country and the new, they also represented new concepts in service, decor, and furnishings as well as in art and handicraft. Published in 1987. This book can be found on Amazon.
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Huset Broström Huset Broström för tankarna till Forsythesagan och Onedinlinjen. Inget svenskt företag har upplevt så stor dramatik som just Broströms. Detta är den dramtiska berättelsen "inifrån Huset", om det som skedde i det som syntes ske. Utgiven 1980. | ||
Out of the Fog is an American edition of a Swedish book by Algot Mattsson, who was the information officer for SAL, the owner of Stockholm, the ship that collided with Andrea Doria in 1956. The book describes the collision from the perspectives of both ships as well as the heroic rescue of hundreds. Testimony given at the hearing is also included as is a legal opinion by the American editors, one of whom was directly involved with the case. |
Detta är en berättelse om den dramatiska färden över Atlanten, från de hårda och riskfyllda överfarten med små lastskutor i mitten av 1800-talet, till lyxresorna med Amerikalinjens sista skepp. Utgiven 1982 | ||
