Sometimes one wonders what all the hoopla is about! 589 passengers and crew lost their lives when the Titanic went down, but that is nothing compared to the 7 000 that perished when the Goya sank in the Baltic in 1945. The Titanic was the world’s largest ship for only a month before the Imperator distanced her with all of 5 000 tons. It’s not even the Titanic we see on most pictures but her almost identical sister ship, the Olympic, launched the same day.

The Titanic was luxurious, but not extraordinarily so and apart from the world’s richest man John Astor perishing on board while his 19-year old bride survived, you would not have to go far to find a much more exciting transatlantic passenger list. Perhaps it is the fact that the Titanic was on its maiden trip that we are so fascinated by it. Or that she was promoted as the safest liner afloat, and was claimed to be unsinkable. One thing is for sure - when the Titanic sank it gave rise to more stories and myths than any other ship in history.

The motion picture Titanic is well on its way to becoming the most successful film of all times. It might not live on forever like "Gone with the Wind" but the romance of Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winsley set against the ill-fated maiden voyage of the R.M.S. Titanic has scenes you will never forget. Director James Cameron exploits many of the myths of the catastrophe but he also allows us to come close to the people, many of them Scandinavian, whose lives and dreams were scattered in the icecold waters of the North Atlantic in the early hours of April 15, 1912.

In one of the very first scenes of the film you hear some swearing in Swedish. This is when Leonardo di Caprio wins two steerage tickets off two Swedish emigrants-to-be in a poker game just before the fateful journey.

The two Swedes were left behind but 123 of their countrymen made it on the boat. There were generally many Scandinavians who crossed the Atlantic on the White Star Line ships. Most of them were emigrants who typically paid 181 Swedish crowns for a third class one-way ticket Gothenburg-Hull-Southampton-New York (compare that to the 16 000 Swedish crowns charged for the suite that Kate Winsley in the movie travelled in).

1 589 passengers and crew were killed when the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. Of the 123 Swedes only 34 survived. 87-year old Eleanor Shuman of Elgin, Illinois is one of only seven survivors of the disaster who are still alive. She was an honoured guest at a pre-release screening of the movie and she loved it.

Eleanor was only one year old when she and her brother Harold, who was three, were returning to America with their 24-year old mother Elizabeth after a visit with their grandparents in Ramkvilla near Jönköping. Eleanor’s mother told her the story of their Titanic "adventure" many times.

"We were in our cabin, and the impact was so hard when we hit the iceberg, it threw my brother Harold out of his bunk onto the floor," Shuman said in an interview. Her family was travelling third class with two young women from Sweden. The group went up to the deck but was ushered back down by officers who said everything was fine, the boat would be under way in a moment.

"We hadn’t been in our cabin very long when the dining room steward came to our room and told us to get our coats, the ship was sinking."

Eleanor’s family was allowed to pass to the last lifeboat. A man, probably Gunnar Tenglin, left the lifeboat to make room for Elizabeth Johnson who was carrying Eleanor. He got back into the lifeboat when he saw there was still room.

"When my mother was in the lifeboat with me, she looked to make sure the other girl had followed. She had not. She was still standing on the deck holding Harold. My mother called to her and told her to drop Harold. A man standing next to her lifted Harold from her and dropped him into the lifeboat. Our lifeboat was lowered at 2.05 am and the Titanic sank at 2.20 am."

Of the 254 Scandinavians and American Scandinavians on board, 14 (†12) were Danish, 63 Finnish (†43), 31 Norwegian (†21) and 123 Swedish (†89).

Emigrating to America was not simply a question of paying for the ticket. You also needed a certificate that allowed you to leave the country. This was not so easy to get and the radical 27-year old Swedish journalist August Andersson bought his false papers in Copenhagen in the form of an "America vest" where the falsified papers waited in the lining. August was nicknamed "the yellow scare" after a paper he had published with the same name in which he called Oscar II the "king of thieves". So before leaving Sweden he also changed his surname to Wennerstrom (after his friend Ivar Vennerström who later became a Social Democratic Minister of Defence).

One of the Swedish first class passengers also had his name changed on the passenger list. This was 42-year old Erik Lindeberg-Lind who wanted to return to the United States as Mr Lingrey to once again make his fortune. He had originally emigrated in his youth and enlisted in the US marine. He advanced to the rank of commander and managed to get an unofficial monopoly to supply the fleet with coal. He returned to Sweden after an unhappy marriage, remarried and bought back the manor Jordastorp in Sörmland that his father had lost in a game of cards. After a few unsuccessful speculative business deals, he fell into the hands of an unscrupulous moneylender and Erik saw no other solution but to make more money in the States. Erik changed his name so that this ex-wife in New York would not read his name on the first class passenger list that was published in many newspapers.

Because of the change of name, the White Star Line refused for a long time to pay any compensation to Erik’s widow and stepson. It was not until 28-year-old millionaire and fellow first class traveller Håkan Björnström-Steffansson swore that Lindeberg-Lind and Lingrey were the same person that the shipping company reluctantly obliged. Håkan and Erik had, in the last mad rush, jumped off the ship together to land in a life boat. Erik missed and his body was never recovered. Håkan died in 1962 in his residence on 57th Street in New York. His was one of the last remaining private houses on Manhattan.

From Norway there were 28 passengers. Engelhart Cornelius Østby and his daughter Helen travelled first class. The 65-year old owned the jewellery company Østby & Barton in Providence, Rhode Island where many Scandinavians worked. He usually combined his business travel with side trips to Norway so that he could bring lots of goat cheese with him, but this time he was returning to the States directly from Paris. After the iceberg collision father and daughter were waiting at lifeboat 5, when Østby decided to go back to the cabin for some warmer clothes. His daughter was forced into the lifeboat without her father who was later listed as corpse #234 in the list over the deceased.

There was only one Norwegian in 2nd class. That was 19-year old Arne Fahlstrøm (who actually looks a lot like Leonardo di Caprio) who was on his way to study film in New York. His parents were successful actors and his aunt was actress Harriet Bosse who was married to Swedish author August Strindberg. Arne’s body was never recovered, but his parents donated money in his memory for a rescue ship that was baptized "Arne Fahlstrøm".

Jacob Milling was a machine inspector from Odense who was on his way to New York to study locomotive construction. On April 14 he sent a telegram with the text ABANAPAS to his wife Augusta. That was their code for "Everything is fine, weather is calm, the ship is excellent, I am having a good time, nice fellow travellers, a wonderful journey". The next day he was dead.

One of the seven Swedish second-class passengers started out in third class. 23-year old Olga Lundin was so seasick that her fiancé Nils Johansson paid the difference and got her transferred to second class. Nils and Olga could later be seen shouting to each other from different decks as the classes on the ship were strictly segregated. Nils last words to Olga from the railing when her lifeboat was launched was "Greetings to father and mother". Nils had told his parents about his investments and life insurance in the US, but after his death on the Titanic these were found to be worth nothing.

Scandinavians generally got better third class accommodation than many other nationalities and were warned in handbooks of the time "to guard their possessions" when the Irish embarked on the ship in Queenstown.

Titanic had third class cabins with the luxury of running water for 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 persons. Even then families were often split up and men would sleep in the larger cabins in the bow. In their advertising, the White Ship Lines boasted about the orchestra on board that held concerts each afternoon and evening, but forgot to mention that it was in first and second class only. As a compensation for third class passengers there was a piano in their common room and here there were often spontaneous concerts and sometimes dances, which there never were anywhere else on the ship.

Only a quarter of those who travelled in third class were saved, as compared to 62 percent in first class and 42 percent in second class. One of the lucky ones was 14-year old Johan Svensson on his way to his father in South Dakota. His mother and four siblings waited for their turn in their home in Halland in the south of Sweden. When the Titanic was sinking, Johan managed against all odds to get up on the first class boat-deck, which was still barred to third class passengers. He was twice declined a place in a lifeboat, but managed to get into the third one. When the lifeboat was later found by the Carpathia, he was installed with everybody else in first class, but his humble clothes soon gave him away and he was sent down to third class.

Helene Rosbom from the village of Kolla near Raumo was going to return to her husband in Astoria, Oregon, with her three children. Her son Eeino, 10 years, had refused to "come along and drown" so eventually she let him stay. Helene was not booked in the Titanic but her 8-year old daughter Salli fell ill in Southampton, so they were re-booked and perished on the fateful crossing.

Nineteen-year old Carla Jensen from Odense slept through the collision in her third class cabin, but was woken up by her fiancé, brother and Danish-American uncle who were travelling with her. She kept her nightdress on under her clothes when she went up to deck and she was the only one of the group allowed into a lifeboat. Her uncle joked with her that "you may come to New York a year ahead of us". She returned to Denmark where she eventually married. When she died in 1980 her last wish was to be buried in the nightdress she wore on the Titanic.

Among the surviving passengers from the third class was also 32-year old Swedish missionary Edvin Lundström who had worked in China until 1911. Travelling with him was his fiancée Agnes Sundström and a group of Christian Swedes. Lundström claimed that he had placed members of his group on lifeboats but that they had capsized. He himself had jumped into the sea and been saved by a lifeboat. His story is doubtful. No lifeboats capsized. Only ten passengers held out long enough in the sea to be rescued. (The lifeboats kept their distance since it "would have been suicidal" to try to save any of the hundreds of screaming and drowning, passengers in the sea.) In all likelihood Edvin could never have confessed that he managed to get into a lifeboat while his fiancée, her two daughters and the rest of the group perished.

To begin with only women from first and second class were allowed into the lifeboats on the first class deck. Many refused to leave their husbands and sons and in the beginning the enormous ship seemed to be a much safer place to be in than the small lifeboats. Many lifeboats left half empty. Moreover the crew did not trust the lifeboats and the lines for the 20 meter drop along the ships’ side, so they did not want to load the boats to capacity. It was also easier to get on to a lifeboat on the starboard side where shipping line owner, Bruce Ismay was in charge of loading them. He gave no special priorities, so many men including Bruce Ismay himself gladly jumped into one of the lifeboats. He was much criticized for saving himself and he later withdrew to his country residence in Ireland where no-one was allowed to mention the name Titanic.

If you were a man in third class you had the least chance of survival. Five Finnish men made it through although 32-year old Eirik Jussila really had to fight for it. He had slept through the collision, but was woken up by his friend Johan Niskanen and quickly got up on deck. When he was refused entry in three lifeboats, he jumped into one being winched down after fighting off two officers who wanted to stop him. When some other passengers tried to throw him off the lifeboat he managed to fight them off too holding onto his seat. Eventually they let him stay and row. Never once did he turn around and look at the sinking Titanic.

Many men stayed on the ship, being gentlemen to the very end. They would perhaps have had a better chance of making it if the owners of Titanic had listened to the Swedish inventor Axel Welin who had supplied the swing-out mechanism for the lifeboats. Welin had insisted that there should be lifeboats to accommodate every passenger and had drawn up plans to install 32 instead of 20. This plan was never followed up and many more lives were lost as a result.

(Most of what we know about the Scandinavian passengers on the Titanic comes from expert Claes-Göran Wetterholm and his beautiful 296 page book Titanic from Båtdokumentationsgruppens Förlag 1988. It is an exceptionally interesting coffee table book that really "goes to the bottom" of the story. The true story about the Titanic is even more fascinating than all the myths about the accident that we have heard through the years.)

DANES 2nd class: †Hans Givard, 30 years old, †Jacob Milling, 48, †Martin Ponesell, 34, 3rd class: †Claus Hansen, 41, †Henrik Hansen, 26, †Henry Hansen, 21, Jenny Hansen, 40, Carla Jensen, 19, †Hans Jensen, 20, †Niels Jensen, 48, †Svend Jensen, 17, †Marius Petersen, 24, †Einer Windeløv, 21, †Charles Jensen, 25, FINNS 2nd class: †Erik Collander, 28, †Marta Hiltunen, 18, Anna Hämälåinen, 24, †Anna Lathinen, 26, †William Lathinen, 30, Lyyli Sylvén, 18, Anna Siukonnen, 30, 3rd class: August Abrahamsson, 20, †Ilmari Alhomäki, 20, Erna Andersson, 17, †Karl Backström, 32, Maria Backström, 33, †Karl Berglund, 22, †Anders Gustafsson, 37, †Johan Gustafsson, 28, †Alfred Gustafsson, 20, †Pekka Hakkarainen, 28, Elin Hakkarainen, 24, Laina Heikkinen, 26, Wendla Heinen, 23, Helga Hirvonen, 22, Hildur Hirvonen, 2, Elina Honkanen, 27, †Ida Ilmakangas, 27, †Pieta Ilmakangas, 25, †Jakob Johansson, 34, †Aina Jussila, 21, Erik Jussila, 32, †Katriina Jussila, 20, †Nikolai Kallio, 17, †Kristina Laitinen, 37, †Antti Leinonen, 32, Eino Lindqvist, 20, †Matti Mäenpää, 22, †Kalle Mäkinen, 29, †Manta Nieminen, 29, †Lisakki Nirva, 41, Joan Niskane, 39, †Ernst Panula, 16, †Jaakko Panula, 14, †Juha Panula, 7, †Maria Panula, 41, †Urho Panula, 2, †William Panula, 1, †Edvard Pekoniemi, 21, †Nikolai Peltomäki, 25, †Sanni Riihiivuori, 22, †Matti Rintamäki, 35, †Helena Rosblom, 41, †Salli Rosblom, 2, †Viktor Rosblom, 18, †Johan Salonen, 39, †Antti Sivola, 21, Anna Sjöblom, 20, †Ida Strandberg, 22, Juho Strandén, 31, Johan Sundman, 44, †Juho Tikkanen, 32, Anna Turja, 18, Hedvig Turkula, 65, †Jacob Wiklund, 18, †Karl Wiklund, 21, NORWEGIANS 1st class: †Cornelius Østby, 65, Helen Østby, 2nd class: †Arne Fahlstrøm, 19, 3rd class: Anna Abelseth, 16, Olaus Abelseth, †Albert Andersen, 32, †Thor Andersen, 20, †Hans Birkeland, 21, Charles Dahl, 45, †Daniel Grönnestad, 32, †Ingvald Hagland, 28, †Konrad Hagland, 19, †Johan Holthen, 28, †Adolf Humblen, 42, Bernt Johannesen, 32, †Johannes Kalvig, 21, Frithiof Madsen, 22, Karl Midtsjø, 21, †Sigurd Moen, 25, Albert Moss, 29, †Johannes Nysveen, 61, Arthur Olsen, 12, †Carl Olsen, 50, †Henry Olsen, 28, †Ole Olsen, 27, †Olaf Pedersen, 29, †Karl Rommetvedt, 49, Anna Salkjelsvik, 23, †Peter Søholt, 19, SWEDES 1st class: Mauritz Björnström-Steffansson, 28, †Frank Carlsson, 33, †Erik Lindeberg, Lind, 42, Sigrid Lindström, 55, 2nd class: Dagmar Bryhl, 20, †Kurt Bryhl, 25, Carolina Byström, 42, †Ingvar Enander, 21, †Johan Kvillner, 31, †Ernst Sjöstedt, 59, 3rd class: †Johanna Ahlin, 40, †Alfrida Andersson, 39, †Anders Andersson, 39, †Ebba Andersson, 6, †Ellis Andersson, 2, †Ida Andersson, 38,†Ingeborg Andersson, 9, †Johan Andersson, 26, †Sigrid Andersson, 11, †Sigvard Andersson, 4, †Pål Andreasson, 20, †Ernst Aronsson, 24,