Sven Johansson was born in Åhus, Kristianstad, Skåne, Sweden, on the 11th October 1878, the son of Johan Pettersson and Hanna “Nilla” Nilsdotter. His father was a farmer, and Sven had two older brothers – Per and Nils, and a younger sister named Sigrid. He was unmarried.
On the 3rd April 1913, he embarked on the Ascania at Southampton, England, and disembarked at Portland, Maine, in the United States of America, ten days later. From there, he travelled to Moline, Illinois, where his brother, Nils, who had become a naturalized U.S. citizen, had settled some years previously. Sven later moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he found work as a cabinet maker, and resided at 523. East 42nd Street/
In 1915, he decided to return home, either permanently or for a holiday, and consequently booked as a third class passenger on the May sailing of the
Lusitania from New York to Liverpool on the first part of his journey.
Little else is known about him except that he must have arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York on the morning of 1st May 1915, for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. Presumably, also he would have left Chicago by rail at the end of April. Having boarded the vessel, he would have had to have waited until 12.27 p.m. before she actually sailed, because she had to load cargo and take on board passengers and some of the crew from the Anchor Liner S.S.
Cameronia which the British Admiralty had requisitioned for use as a troop ship.
Six days out of New York, on the afternoon of 7th May, the Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk within sight of the coast of southern Ireland, by the German submarine
U-20. At that stage of her voyage, she was only about 250 miles away from her home port.
Sven Johansson was a victim of this action, however, and lost his life as a result. As his body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, he has no known grave. He was aged 36 years at the time.
Sven’s name appeared on the passenger manifest as Johannsen, and he was also known by the surnames
Johnson and Johanson, but his correct name was
Johansson.
Sven’s brother filed a claim for compensation for his death, and the loss of his personal belongings, with the Mixed Claims Commission. The claim was unsuccessful because Sven was a Swedish subject at the time of his death, and his brother could not claim any financial dependency on him.
Sweden Indexed Birth Records 1857 – 1947, Sweden Indexed Death Records 1840 – 1947, U.S. Atlantic Ports Passenger Lists 1893 – 1959, Cunard Records, Mixed Claims Commission Docket No. 2246, Chicago Tribune, PRO BT 100/345, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Peter Engberg-Klarström, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.