Part Three The day after, the 30th April, the damage to the Valkyrien was assessed and a contract made with the shipbuilders to repair it for 500 daler* and to be ready a week after the contract was signed; and it was. Soon after came a petition to the Captain from the City's citizens for permission to come aboard to see how things were. That was granted and we scrubbed the decks. The next morning at 9:30 the parade began, the passengers were all in their Sunday best but had to spend the whole day in their berths, so thick was the stream of city folk that passed through the ship. Some of them took their time, gave presents to several children and inspected us as carefully as they could. The stream continued all that day and most of the next so that it was not possible to eat as long as they were there. As you will see, the petition to come aboard was not just to come to look at us. First on that morning, 15 fine gentlemen and ladies came aboard as representatives of the City that had collected a supply of provisions for us because our journey was longer than provisioned for. With them were four wagonloads of all sorts of foodstuffs found in Dover, even food from military supply. Nor were vegetables and condensed milk forgotten and not even the children who received 3 sacks of dried fruit and 2 big boxes of candy. Of baked goods, 1400 pounds of rusks and 300 pieces of hardtack of 15 pounds each. By my evaluation (I had the honour of distributing it to the passengers and gave the last sack of Dover bread at the railway station in Toronto in Canada) we received provisions to the value of 500 dalar* But our friends in Dover had just begun with their kindness and there would still be more and there were many small ones as well. The City had its greatest joy in whatever they could do to make us happy so that our sorrow would be diminished when we set off later on the capricious sea. The day the contract was signed, Captain Møller went to London, first to visit his sister who was married to a ship captain whom we met in Quebec and also to enquire about the brigantine and its owners to see if he could obtain any compensation for the damage but he failed to make contact. Fear of being without provisions since the journey now looked to be longer, they asked him to purchase 1400 pounds of hardtack for us and for this 1400 pounds the Captain was paid back by Dover because he had bought it with his own money. Because the Captain received money from the people of Dover for the bread that he had paid for, there were some who on the 9th of June, swore revenge on the Captain, Pat and another Mate when they came ashore and spread the shameful lie that I first heard of after I had been in America for over 20 years. That the Dover citizens had given us 500 dalar in cash, that they delivered to the Captain and that he had kept it for himself and never disclosed it to us; so goes the story. And because it is so easy to believe this to be true, and after it has spread as it has, so there are several as I understand who have taken their stand on the liar's side. Therefore it should be in Valkyrien's history that it is an absolute lie regarding the 500 dalar the Captain received. What happened aboard Valkyrien on the 16th May and the 9th, 13th and 14th June when the investigation was begun and dismissed, anyone with any knowledge of what was said those days will understand how this malicious lie about Captain Møller spread and was easily believed by many for it was cash and could have been as much as 10 daler per family. The Sunday we lay in Dover 6 of us went to church but it happened that the church we entered was Catholic. But we were met at the door and ushered to the last pew by the door. But think, in the pew I was assigned there were only Dover people and one of them gave me his hymn book and himself shared one with another, would we be so friendly if a foreigner, and especially if we knew he was a Catholic, had come into our church? On Monday the Captain again went to London to ask about the brigantine and the shipping company but could not find a trace of anything. The brigantine undoubtedly lies on the bottom of the English Channel to this day. That day, Pat and Markus S., who had been in America for 8 years, went to the Norwegian Consul to ask if under the circumstances we now found ourselves we might be due compensation from the Emigrant Company. Not unless we ran short of provisions, he said. Although the language he spoke was nothing but English, there lived in Dover a priest who was not ashamed to tell that he was descended from Norwegian blood and two days before we departed Dover he invited us to a banquet, "a great feast" with place for 318. At 5 in the afternoon, Wednesday the 7th May we were all festively dressed and at 5:30 the priest came down to the quay to be our guide to the hall where we were to be treated. With a sailor and a policeman aboard and a soldier with fixed bayonet ashore, we left Valkyrien at 6 o'clock and with the priest and Captain at the head we paraded through the City's grand streets as those who had arisen from the dead. And wherever we went everyone came to their doors to see the Norwegian creatures who now for the first time after escaping death would sit around a decked table. To deal with this chapter of my diary, dear reader, is so moving that even though it is 32 years since it was first written, it is hard to do it without tears. We did not yet fully believe that we were actually alive before we went into the building and were to sit at the table. Our consciousness of what we had endured was greater as we went in than it was during that night of distress. In front of the entry to the hall there were Norwegian, English and American flags that waved as if to welcome us. As soon as we came in, a large number of able ushers seated us at the tables, all at once, 317 at 5 tables and where I sat there were 53. In one end of the hall there was a stage and on the walls around it were 11 flags from different nations and on the stage were 18 horn players. At the other end there were galleries that were filled with more than 100 ladies and gentlemen who wished to see if these Norwegian farmers could use knife and fork. This was the first time they had to manipulate such equipment which was obviously difficult since for all their days they were used to using 5 fingers. As well, the prayers and singing were as in a Norwegian farmer's banquet for the English had familiarized themselves with what was Norwegian custom. When we were all seated, the musicians began their program with "Sønner af Norge, det ældgamle Rige" etc. Oh, what an unexpected thing for when hearing that the blood began to stir and the tears to roll and we could not stop them even though we were at a party where there should only be happiness but our heart strings were still too tender after that night on the North Sea, life and death were still mixed within us. When the song ended the priest's father, an oldtimer who looked to be 90 years stepped before the assembly and said grace and then we began to eat. Then the musicians immediately began to play and played the whole time we while we ate. And even though the dishes were many and good and everything more inviting than we were used to, we ate very little - we could not - we were too full of sorrow. As soon as we had finished eating the ladies in the gallery came down, they resembled angels more than people - and began to pick fruit and all sorts of pastries from the tables and stuffed them into our pockets for they clearly felt that we had not helped ourselves as much as we should have. I can say that never in our lives had our pockets been so well filled as the ladies filled them. When we left the hall we had enough oranges and cakes to serve as ballast for Valkyrien instead of stone, had it been needed. Then the ladies took the children out of their mother's arms and danced with them in the air, spoke to the mothers as if they understood the language, gave the children presents and were more smiling and happy than I had ever seen before in my whole life. There was no condescension to be seen in them but the love they had for we unfortunates was without limit. For 4-5 days in a row the City's inhabitants kept soothing us both in body and soul to get us to forget how close we had been to death. The officers and 3 of the sailors who could speak English moved from one end to another and also Pat, who knew a few English words. But if the rest, who could not speak to them still enjoyed ourselves amongst them until 8 o'clock. Then the music began to play again and when there were exclusively Norwegian songs: "Gud velsigne Kongen god" ex-sergeant Pat joined in, as he had often done at Bergenhus when the music played there, in full voice. Immediately the officers were ready to control him but when he stopped, a young lady who stood beside him patted him on the shoulder with these words, "Good to sing, good to sing!" After that the preacher held a little speech in which he praised us for the quiet and mannerly conduct we had shown in the streets as well as at every place we visited during our stay in the City and this speech the Captain translated for us on the spot. Then the Captain gave a speech in which he thanked the priest and the City and all of those who had hosted us that evening and what they had delivered aboard for our trip, their kindness in all things and the brotherly love they had shown us who had been struck by misfortune. His words were translated to Norwegian by the First Officer from the main hatch cover when we had come back to the ship. On our return we saw a diver come out of the sea with a child who had fallen from the quay while we were at the party. Since we had enjoyed being with our friends as long as we wished, we then bade a heartfelt farewell and thought that we were finished with all the good they had decided to do for us but that was not so. In the morning came another wagon load with provisions of all sorts. Then the priest came with gifts of dishes for all the children who were called forth by families from the passenger list to receive their gifts, 80 in all and some got two. But the blessed priest's and the City's compassion were still not exhausted, the banquet cost the priest and the City a bit over 200 daler altogether. But now the hour of departure was near and the friends would soon have to separate. At morning prayers the 9th May at 8 o'clock an immense crowd stood on the quay at Dover to say a last farewell and the separation was just as moving as we departed from our dear ones in Norway but much more painful than that Friday when we left our friends in Bergen. But just as we were to separate from our friends and benefactors they had more to give us, remembering the children the priest came with 50 pots of fresh milk for them and distributed it himself. This was then the last gift and now these people had cause to be happy for what they had done - it is better to give than to receive - they had alleviated our sorrow in every way. How many prayers, sighs and tears our friends and benefactors on the quay gave that morning as we left the City no one knows but the Lord. Not an eye was dry, no face looked happy. The moment of departure had come. When the Palmerston began to pull on the line and the Valkyrien slowly began to slide from the quay, Pat stood on the railing and on behalf of the passengers in a farewell salute with "Long live Dover! hurra! hurra! hurra!" which was responded to be "Long live Valkyrien! hurra! hurra! hurra!" and with handkerchiefs as long as the eye could see we signalled each other the last "Farewell!" *The daler/dalar was a speciedaler, worth a bit more than the US dollar of that time. OK

Does anyone have Vattne in their database? Thanks, Margit