America Letter - The Danish Immigrant Museum

Thingvalla Line routes.
A First-Person Account of the Last Voyage of the Danmark, 1889
With the exception
of the organized
Mormon companies,
Danish immigrants and
businessmen wishing
to come to North
America had to travel
to their destinations via
a third country, usually
Germany or Great
Britain, until 1879.
This necessitated a
multi-stage journey
involving ships, wagon
carts, trains and
frequent delays before
The Danmark’s second journey ended when it sank in the
mid-Atlantic after a propeller screw broke.
the major part of the
journey even began.
The establishment of the
Scandinavian Thingvalla
Line in 1879 strove to make
the emigration experience
less stressful and costly,
advertising that emigrants
could communicate with
ship’s personnel and
did not have to worry
about their luggage being
transferred multiple times
from point of embarkation
to destination.
However, throughout its
existence the company
was plagued by numerous
shipping disasters. For one,
in August of 1888 two of
their ships, the Geiser and
the Thingvalla, collided; the
Thingvalla sank and many
lives were lost.
A larger ship, the Danmark,
was subsequently
purchased, making its
maiden voyage in early
1889 and returning to
Scandinavia in March
of that year. Its second
journey, however, ended
when it sank in the mid-
Atlantic after a propeller
screw broke.
Of the nearly 700
passengers on the
Danmark, only a few
accounts of that ill-fated
journey are known to have
survived. Among them
is a series of letters and
a journal written by Just
Knudsen Justesen (born
in Veerst Parish in Ribe
County in 1866), a young
man who was on his way
to join his half-brother in
America.
Magne Juhl, M.D. of Viborg
visited the museum last
summer. Upon his return,
he forwarded an article
he had published with
Justesen’s letters in Fra
Ribe Amt, the publication
– Continued on page 18
America Letter • 17