December 6, 2024
In December of 1867, Charles Fernelius began the journey that would change his life. His older brother Peter had emigrated from Sweden to America three years earlier. That fall Charles made the momentous decision to follow him.
Many people emigrating from Sweden joined groups to make the big trip easier. Charles was a teenager and impatient. He was unwilling to wait until enough others decided to emigrate. He decided to head out on his own.
In those days, passenger ships for the United States didn’t leave directly from Sweden. Many Swedes traveled to the Swedish port of Gothenburg. Most emigrants traveled in steerage. Bedding and eating utensils were not provided on the ships. Many Swedes spent a day buying supplies for the voyage. They then boarded a small steamer for Hull, England.
From Hull, emigrants took a train across England to the port of Liverpool. In Liverpool large passenger ships sailed across the Atlantic to ports in Canada and the United States. Many of the ships headed for New York City. It’s been estimated that more emigrants arrived in New York than in all the other ports combined.
Charles followed this typical migration path. Luckily for his descendants, Charles wrote a memoir about his trip. In it, he gives details about the voyage.
December in the north Atlantic is cold and dark. Icebergs and blizzards are common. Charles mentions that his ship was brushed by an iceberg which tore off a section of deck railing. They later ran into a storm, and a sailor was lost from one of the masts. For many passengers, seasickness was constant. As a healthy young man, Charles was never sick and walked on deck every day.
Even though he was the only Swede onboard and couldn’t communicate except through pointing and other gestures, Charles enjoyed his trip. Except for one thing: there was never enough food. Many passengers complained about the quality of food in steerage. Not Charles. He was a seventeen-year-old teenager. He would eat anything and a lot of it. Charles tried to communicate with gestures that he wanted bigger portions. Nothing happened.
Eventually Charles took note that some of his fellow passengers were getting larger helpings than he was. It seemed to Charles that when the other passengers said “fortoo,” they got extra food. He had no idea what the word meant, but he vowed to try it.
The next day was Christmas. When the stewards appeared with dinner, Charles saw that it was a special meal. Charles was starving. He needed a large portion of that delicious-looking food. When he got to the front of the line to present his dish, Charles looked at the steward and then said “fortoo.” The steward nodded and gave Charles large dollops of dinner.
Starvation averted, Charles enjoyed the rest of the trip, saying “fortoo” at every meal. When he got to America and learned some English, Charles learned what “fortoo” meant. The word was really “for two” and what someone said when he was asking for enough food for two people. Men often brought back food for wives or children, so it was a common phrase aboard ships.
All these years later, Charles’ Christmas food story is one of my favorite ancestor tales. I don’t know if Charles was just a growing boy who could eat a tremendous amount of food or whether the ship’s portions were small. Whatever the case, Charles handled the situation. It boded well for his future in America.
Carol Stetser
Researcher
Larimer County Genealogical Society