Cultural City Bergen 2000, Bergen Public Library

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by Kjartan Fløgstad

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Fire and Water

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Of Kjartan Fløgstad

By Kjartan Fløgstad

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About Kjartan Fløgstad

Excerpt from
Eld og vatn
(Fire and Water:
Hesselberg or The Good Norwegian)

In late October 1671 a motley group of colonists and crew members led by Dyppel, the future governor of the West Indies, sailed from Copenhagen. Only a few went of their own free will. The majority of those aboard were convict laborers in the Bremerholm shipyard and women from Spindehuset, a house of correction to which they had been sent because of their "improper lifestyle."
The voyage from Copenhagen to the West Indies aboard "Færø" is no pleasure trip, for either the prostitutes or the prisoners, or for the future colonial administrators. The course across the Atlantic leads first to the north, as was usual in those days. But the weather on the North Sea is so dreadful that when "Færø" finally reaches the north of Scotland and heads out into the North Atlantic, the ship is leaking so badly and is in such poor condition overall that she has to turn back and sail to Bergen for repairs. The work proves to be extensive and takes a long time.
The stay in the Bergen shipyard lasts three months. During that time several of the Danes who had been forced to emigrate see their chance to flee ashore and disappear for good. The cold, rainy winter on the west coast of Norway is less frightening than the prospect of a further sea voyage aboard "Færø" and a new life in warmer lands.
Consequently, when "Færø" is finally repaired and ready to sail again she is seriously undermanned. The future governor of St. Thomas solves this problem easily and effectively by filling the empty places with Norwegian prisoners from the dungeon at Bergenhus fortress. Hence the new crew and newly chosen Caribbean colonists are people from western Norway who had been sentenced to slavery in the fortress. Poor sinners from throughout western Norway were brought there to atone for crimes such as blasphemy, witchcraft, desertion, assault, robbery and murder, but also for fornication and incest according to Moses' law. True, most of the fortress inmates came from Bergen, which at this time was a major northern European city as well as a city with many immigrants. Only about 25 to 30 percent of the inhabitants were actually born in Bergen; an equal number had immigrated from other nations, while the rest came mostly from the surrounding countryside. With a new crew recruited from this colorful community, "Færø" ventured into the North Atlantic once again.
The first Norwegian to go ashore in South America was an artist fleeing from the Reformation on ideological grounds. The second was a soldier and adventurer in Brazil. The first group of Norwegian emigrants to America were prisoners from western Norway. So the story of collective Norwegian immigration to America begins with a band of criminals from Bergen, Strilelandet, Sogn, Hardanger and Voss - people who did not travel to the New World of their own free will, but were forcibly conscripted, put in irons, or flogged with a cat o' nine tails to make them take the road to freedom. And the trip began virtually by chance, or as an accident of ill fortune.
It's uncertain how many of these forced emigrants from western Norway finally reached the New World. Not until May 26, 1672, seven months after she departed from Copenhagen, and four months after sailing from Bergen, could "Færø" drop anchor in the fine, natural harbor at St. Thomas. Of the 190 persons aboard at departure, 77 women and men had died on the voyage, including ten of the twelve company officials dispatched to the New World.
Of those who finally arrived in the West Indies alive, but weakened by sickness and poor nutrition, only about a quarter survived the first seven months on St. Thomas. And things did not go much better with those who later went on West Indies expeditions from Dano-Norway. According to historian Jens Vibæk, of the 324 persons who traveled to the West Indies from Copenhagen between 1671-75, only 64 survived the voyage and the first half year ashore in the tropical paradise.
"It was," says Vibæk, "fully as unhealthy to be a sailor as to be a Negro on the voyage across the Atlantic. In the years from 1777 to 1790 the Danish slave ships signed on 2004 seamen, 691 of whom lost their lives." Similarly, about 15 percent of the slaves died on the voyage from West Africa to St. Thomas and St. Croix.
The explanation of these figures is simple and logical. Slaves were profitable merchandise with immediate cash value, whereas the prisoners, who often constituted the crew on board, had only utilitarian value and could be replaced with new prisoners at essentially no cost. This is elementary capitalism. The captain on the slave ships had economic responsibility for each slave in his cargo, but not for the crew that transported them.

Translated by Nadia Christensen