Nils Johan Johansson

Nils Johan Johansson was a passenger on the *Titanic*.

Nils Johan Johansson was born on 4 July, 1881 in Ulfberga, Småland, Sweden. His father was Johannes Karlsson and his mother was Ingjerd Eriksdotter. In 1890 the family lived in Svaneryd.

Nils had lived the last eight years in America and worked as a machinist there. Now he had been visiting his old homeland to bring his fiancée Olga Lundin back with him. He was on his way to his uncle Oscar Benson, 110 North Ashland Block, Chicago, Illinois.

Possibly he arrived at Ellis Island on December 13, 1904 on the SS *United States* which departed from Copenhagen.

He told those at home that he owned shares in a Seattle company and property and also had a life insurance policy with the "Modern Brotherhood of America" ​​worth $1,000. While Nils was away from America, his friend John Hedman from Brainard, Minnesota, would see to it that the insurance premiums were paid. However, the parents only received vague answers to their questions about details regarding the investments.

The ticket for the *Titanic* was bought in Copenhagen. He and Olga boarded the ship in the company of Paul Andreasson, Albert Aguustsson and Carl Jonsson. They left the Southampton docks on April 10, when *Titanic* set sail for New York.

On board the Titanic, his fiancee Olga became so seasick  that Nils paid the difference so she could move up to Second Class. The pair could then be seen standing on opposite sides of the ship's class divisions and calling out to each other. Lawrence Beesley wrote of noticing a man who himself traveled in Third Class "but had his wife in Second Class; he used to go up the ladder to the Second Class deck and talk amorously with his wife over the low gate that separated them. I never saw him after the collision, but I believe his wife was on the *Carpathia*".

He and everyone in his traveling party managed to get on deck and Nils stood hand in hand with Olga next to lifeboat 10 and waited as she was thrown into the lifeboat by crewmen but refused to let Nils go with her. The last thing he said to her was: "Give my greetings to father and mother".

He perished in the disaster and his body was lost at sea.

On April 28, 1912, father Johannes Karlsson wrote to the Foreign Ministry:

> "We are in small circumstances and were hoping for help financially in old age."
>
>

Surely the parents had also expected that the son's legacy would help them, but on January 20, 1913, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs received information from the consulate in Minneapolis. There, they had straightened out the conditions surrounding what Nils himself said he owned. The result was disappointing.

> "... so far as the Consulate has been able to ascertain, the deceased left no estate within this consular district. The deceased had been insured in the 'Modern Brotherhood of America', but the last premium was paid on January 21, 1911, and the insurance was worthless at the time of death. However, it has stated that the deceased would have a share in a factory in Seattle and I have therefore reported the matter to the consul in San Francisco with a request for investigation."
>
>

On February 6 1913, the answer came from Andrew Chillberg who was vice consul in Seattle. He confirmed that Nils and some of his friends had shares in a factory that produced gas-powered machines, but "the company went out of control and that was the end of it".

Nils thus did not have any valid life insurance, part ownership in a company that went bankrupt, and in addition it was found that he did not own any at all, as he claimed. His parents thus received no help from that direction.

His parents received SEK 875:52 (£48) from the charity fund and on 5 October 1914 SEK 1,848 (£100) in damages.