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A Tribute to the Swedish American Line | ||||||||
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About us
Johan, Lars, and Anders Hemingstam, mid 1990's.
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A Tribute to the Swedish American Line | ||||||||
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About us
Johan, Lars, and Anders Hemingstam, mid 1990's.
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These pages, in tribute of the Swedish American Line, are since 1998 created and maintained by me, Lars Hemingstam, and my sons, those uncouth seamen Johan (now 24) and Anders (23). The maintenance is hopefully secured for the next 70 years or so.
Please help us make this site better by mailing us exterior and interior photos of the ships of the SAL fleet, photos and lists of passengers and crew, objects, menues, folders, and so on. Our goal is to have a photo from every Atlantic crossing and every cruise. You can easily figure out that this may take 70 years to accomplish. And please, sign our guestbook and tell us what you think of the site. There are quite a few connections between our family and the Swedish American Line. My father, the Rev. Tage Hemingstam, was a member of a Swedish men’s choir, which, under the name
The Singing Ministers, made a tour of the U.S. in 1954. He made the westbound Atlantic crossing on the Gripsholm (#1), at that time recently sold to the German shipping company Norddeutscher Lloyd, and made the eastbound crossing on the Kungsholm.
In 1957 Tage Hemingstam, his wife Ruth, and their children Gun, Runa, and Lars, applied for immigrant visas, and traveled to the USA to work and study for three years. Tage Hemingstam left Gothenburg on the Gripsholm's maiden voyage, and held the first Sunday Worship Service on board. Tage was born and raised in Jonsered, a suburb of Gothenburg, and like most inhabitants of Gothenburg he knew people who had served on board the SAL ships, and felt proud of the company and its new flagship, Gripsholm. Read his letter from the maiden voyage here.
The rest of the family followed on the Gripsholm's departure from Gothenburg in August, 1957, arriving in New York as bona fide immigrants Ruth Hemingstam wrote this letter, which was published in The voyage of a dream! What I have dreamed about for years has become a reality. Imagine - nine days on board a floating hotel. Wonderful days of rest, fun, sunshine and salty winds. The departure ceremony at Betongskjulet in Gothenburg is overwhelming and exciting. The moorings are hauled on board, a giant crane removes the gangway, thousands of paper serpentines in the air. The ship's orchestra starts to play the Swedish national anthem. Our relatives on the quay are waving and cheering. The Gripsholm slowly glides out. We have soon passed all the small islands and can see the Vinga lighthouse disappear from sight. About 800 passengers walk around and are trying to acquaint themselves with the ship. A couple of hours later we are assigned our table in the beautiful dining room. It's a fiest for a housewife to sit down in the dining room and be served by a pleasant waiter! We get to know the passengers around us. The sheep farmer from Illinois at the table next to ours, left Sweden when he was 19 and had returned to visit his elderly mother, 33 years later. "I cried like a child when I came home!" He didn't have to say more. We all knew how he had felt.
We are taking in the sunshine in the deck chairs, the children play ping-pong on Verandah Deck or go for a swim in the pool, filled with water from the Atlantic. Now and then we stand in line to the ironing room. Everyone wants to be well-pressed for dinner. Twice daily movies are shown in Cinemascope in the Auditorium. We listen to music and have coffee in the Main Lounge. That's also where the games and dancing take place.On the Sunday afternoon, the Auditorium is fully seated for the two sermons, one in English and one in Swedish. There is always one or two pastors among the passengers. Outside our cabin porthole there is nothing but the ocean and the sky as far as we can see. The view is the same every day, but the colors are constantly changing. Sometimes we see large fish jumping above the waves, and a whale came up to the surface to remind us of the secrets of the deep sea. MS Gripsholm, August 1957
We lived in Collinsville IL, Chicago IL, and Long Beach CA, about one year in each city. In August 1960, Ruth tragically passed away, and we immediately returned to Sweden by air from Los Angeles.
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In 1968 I was employed on the MS Kungsholm of 1966 for 6 months as a junior purser (in Swedish 3:e kontorist, i.e.3rd clerk), 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. Read about my life as a crew member here.
I was born in a small town called Hjo in Sweden in November, 1946, just a few days before a little girl named Ann-Margret Olsson, then 5 years old, danced over the gangway to embark on the MS Gripsholm to go to USA with her mother, most certainly not aware that she would become one of the world’s most famous entertainers. At the time of the collision between the MS Stockholm and the Italian ship Andrea Doria in 1956, the world press was represented by an editor of Hjo Tidning, the local newspaper in Hjo. The editor was a passenger on the Stockholm and made the scoop of a lifetime.
I am a semi-retired IT consultant, dividing my time between Internet projects and writing, part of the time in the U.S., and the rest in Sweden. I am married to Kathryn. Together we have four children, Kathryn's daughter Sara (30), my daughter Annika (35), and my two sons, Johan and Anders, plus two grandchildren, Lukas and Matthew. | ||||||||||||||
| Other sites with information about SAL:s ships |
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This site is not about refurbishings, altered doorways, or funnel colors. The purpose of the site is primarily to describe the life and people on board the "White Viking Fleet" - the emigrants, the tourists, and the business passengers who crossed the stormy North Atlantic to reach America, - and the cruise members, sailing smoothly from port to port in a world of luxury, many of them coming back for a new cruise, time and time again. And, of course the crew, who worked and lived on the ships for months and years - in some cases decades - regarding them as their homes. For a more detailed technical description of the ships, however, we recommend the following fine sites: |
More than 100 web pages developed and maintained by Lars Hemingstam ©1998-2010
Email us
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 | ||
