SAILING
(a ship similar to the one Gunnar would have traveled in)
Peder moved home after their father’s death to comfort his mother. He took over his father’s work and was often traveling. That spring Gunnar was hired on the barkship(9) Rinkan with Captain Hansen. He was employed for three dalers(10) per month. Gunnar found sea life exhausting and knew very little about sailing. There were 250 passengers aboard the ship. On one of the decks there were three beds above each other and two to three people in each bed.
The deck was slippery from many forms of mess, and the stench was very unpleasant. When large storms came, Gunnar and the rest of the crew had to move very quickly to tie everything down. One Norwegian man became ill on the journey and had to be buried in the sea.
One day when there was little wind they took out their fishing equipment. One man caught a huge fish and while he pulled it up to the deck it slid toward a six-foot-tall man’s feet, and he fell on the deck. Everyone clapped and cheered but the man was not amused.
While the ship took a short break in London, a man named Ingebert(11) bought some clothes and carried them in a parcel under his arm. Two men came from behind, and one knocked the parcel from his arm and his friend grabbed it and ran up a cross street. Ingebert did not like to lose his package, so he chased him yelling “Stop thief! Stop thief!” The thief got scared and threw away the parcel, so it was of no use that Ingebert screamed out after the thief.
One day he had to tie up a sail but it was impossible to go up the stay, so Gunnar took off his boots, threw them on the deck, and climbed up. He was able to tie it up but it was very cold with only socks on his feet and the rope covered in ice. That was both his first and last trip as a seaman.
Gunnar’s family wanted him to attend the Teacher Seminar, so he went away to take the entrance exams. He was barely accepted and the students who had been educated in private schools made it difficult to keep up. The course was two years long, and at the end he got a teaching certificate. He got a temporary job as a teacher that winter. Afterward he could not get any of the teaching jobs he applied for, even though he had good recommendations.
After that, Gunnar worked at several jobs. He worked in a country shop, but it made him very nervous at first to take responsibility for others’ money and goods. Afterward, he worked at a shipbuilding yard, and was also nervous to begin this job. It paid very little so he decided to cut timber with his brother Peder.
Footnotes
9 “A sailing ship of three or more masts having the foremasts rigged square and the aftermast rigged fore-and-aft”
“Bark (Ship).” The Free Dictionary. Farlex. Accessed November 29, 2019. https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Bark (ship).
10 Gunnar explained in his journal that dalers are an old form of money in Norway
11 There is little to no information about the name "Ingebert" or similar names online