An indepth look at the sinking of the Steamer Atlantic in Lake Erie in 1852 including survivors stories from various Valdres immigrants. By Bruce Weaver
It started as a long-distance telephone call and answering machine message from the American Southwest, or at least that’s how this part of the story began…
“Hi, this is Dean Rovang. I am looking for and trying to connect with Bruce Weaver—a relative of mine, described in the book, Shipwrecks of Lake Erie. I don’t know if it’s the right one. I got the name from “ancestry.com.” My great-greatgrandfather was Ole Rovang. I’m trying to follow up and get some information on the family on that side about the shipwreck.”
By “Shipwreck” Mr. Rovang was likely referring to the sinking of the Steamer Atlantic on Lake Erie in August 1852: An unfortunate collision of two types of ships—the Steamer Atlantic—a sidewheeler passenger boat—and the Ogdensburg, a “Propeller” that was driven forwards by means of a large screw turning a propeller blade rather than of a paddlewheel.
Some 134 Valdres emigrants were aboard that fateful early morning and only about 64 survived the Atlantic’s sinking. Carefully reviewing Mr. Rovang’s surprising message, I pondered his points of reference and admired his interest in reaching out for clarifying information. I have not been a member of “ancentry.com.” Could it be that the book he cited may have been one subsequently written by Dr. David Frew, former Executive Director of the Erie County Historical Society and author of the 5 volume Lake Erie Quadrangle Series?
I had contacted Dr. Frew in December 2005 concerning his book, Interrupted Journey: The Saga of the Steamer Atlantic— Volume 3 of the Lake Erie Quadrangle Series. I was then fine tuning my research on the Steamer Atlantic’s demise of August 1852. Three of my Valdres ancestors and one other family member had narrowly survived drowning in that early morning hour catastrophic maritime tragedy.
David Frew was very interested in reading my ancestor’s survivor story. Among documents shared with him was the retelling of Marit Rødvang’s account, as published in the Decorah Posten in 1902 and subsequently recovered and translated in 1986. I later forwarded to him my finished article as published in the May 2006 issue of Budstikken: “Forgotten Shipwreck, Recovered Memory.” It marked both the first time that my Vestre Slidre ancestor’s survival account was available to Valdres Samband members at large in English and the first time an imagined graphic depiction of the shipwreck or collision printed in September 1852 had been featured in the Budstikken. Dr. Frew was referenced on page 6, column 3 of that article. His personal inscription in Interrupted Journey read, “To Bruce who is here today because of a Survival Story” and dated, 12/05/05.
I rang Dean Rovang. We agreed that Marit Rødvang was indeed our common ancestor. Ole Alfson and Marit had two children: Ambjør and Ole. My direct ancestor was Ambjør, who was five years of age at the time of the sinking of the Atlantic. Ambjør’s younger brother Ole— who was age two at that time— was Dean’s ancestor (shared also with Rebecca Wood—current Valdres Samband President). He was excited to have learned a considerable amount about Marit Rødvang and her family’s struggle in avoiding a watery grave as described in Shipwrecks of Lake Erie. Impressed at the level of its descriptive detail, he wondered how I had come across it.
Dean confirmed his source was David Frew’s 2014 book on Shipwrecks of Lake Erie. As he recalled details and scenarios for me it appeared that Dr. Frew may have continued his fictional historical novel approach from the Quadrangle Series in this 2014 work. While the basic plot lines of Marit’s story and my connection with it that Dean related seemed plausible, certain other story … Read Full Article