Lice infestation aboard the Charlotta

Lice infestation aboard the Charlotta exposes how little privacy, space, or control the emigrants had over their bodies during the Atlantic crossing. A small discovery on Kristina’s knitting becomes a shipboard crisis: the vermin are widespread, an innocent passenger is blamed, and improvised cleaning measures become a test of both practical resourcefulness and religious interpretation.

Shipboard Conditions

The Charlotta sailed from Karlshamn on April 14, 1850, carrying 78 emigrants among 94 people aboard. In the hold, canvas divided the passengers into compartments for families, unmarried men, and unmarried women. The low, crowded quarters left little room to move: bedding and bundles crowded the floor, and belongings were kept at each passenger’s bunk. Karl Oskar had no place in the family compartment and shared a two-man bunk with Robert in the men’s section, with Jonas Petter above them and Arvid nearby. These close quarters made the passengers’ living arrangements a practical part of the infestation: Kristina later recognized that a narrow gap between hanging canvas and wall connected her bunk to Ulrika of Västergöhl’s sleeping place.

The ship’s rules assigned passengers responsibility for order and cleanliness but imposed limits on their resources. Provisions were allotted weekly, and each person received only half a gallon of fresh water a day for drinking and washing. Passengers had to take turns preparing food in the galley and were required to clean the hold each morning before water was issued. As the days went on, this routine meant that washing and cleaning depended on a ration already judged too small by some passengers. The conditions placed the burden of hygiene on the emigrants without giving them much space or water to meet it.

Discovery and False Accusation

Kristina first noticed a gray-yellow speck moving on a white wool sock as she knitted on deck. She recognized it as a body louse and recalled that she had been itching for several days. When she stripped in the dim light of the hold, she found lice throughout her garments, including seams and folds, and nits gathered in the clothing. She also saw small red bites on her body. The discovery left her crying on her mattress; Karl Oskar, wondering why she had abruptly left the deck, found her there.

Kristina’s attention turned to the adjacent sleeping place. Because Ulrika’s bedding lay close to hers, with only a narrow opening between the canvas and the wall, Kristina concluded that Ulrika had brought the lice aboard. She shouted an accusation that Ulrika had infested the ship and would carry the vermin onward to America. Karl Oskar tried to warn her, but Kristina had already spoken. The physical proximity that made the accusation seem plausible did not make it true.

The Infestation Becomes Public

Inga-Lena, who had come down from the galley with food, held up a louse she had found in her own undergarments. Her discovery shifted the scene: rather than confirming Kristina’s charge, it showed that lice were present beyond the adjoining bunks. Inga-Lena was ashamed and reached toward Danjel as if seeking forgiveness. Danjel examined the insect and treated it as one of God’s created works, urging acceptance rather than hatred and interpreting the infestation as a trial that should remind the passengers to wash and keep clean.

Karl Oskar then found lice in his own clothing. The discovery that followed was conclusive: every passenger in the hold was infested except Ulrika. Kristina had therefore accused the one person who had escaped the vermin. The reversal exposed the force of suspicion in cramped quarters, where a visible proximity could be mistaken for proof and a person’s reputation could shape blame before the facts were known.

Cleaning, Blame, and Meaning

Kristina set about eliminating the lice. Rather than rely on passengers picking them from clothing one at a time, she used the soft soap she had brought aboard and boiled the family’s underwear in a strong soap-lye in the galley. She also applied quicksilver salve to herself, Karl Oskar, and the children, and combed the children’s hair thoroughly. The episode links the ship’s inadequate water and crowded sleeping arrangements to a difficult, hands-on response: the ship’s daily cleaning routine could not prevent infestation, so Kristina had to take direct action with the supplies available to her.

Kristina regretted accusing Ulrika, but could not bring herself to ask her forgiveness. The obstacle was not uncertainty about what had happened; she knew the accusation was wrong. She could not bear the thought of placing herself beneath Ulrika, whom she regarded with contempt because of her past. At the same time, Kristina recognized a further moral contradiction: if anyone should ask forgiveness, she thought, it was Ulrika, for the women she had insulted by giving herself to their husbands. The infestation thus unsettles easy distinctions between cleanliness and moral standing. Ulrika’s reputation made her an easy target, but she alone had escaped the lice; Danjel’s piety, by contrast, did not protect him. When hardship was read as a religious trial, the lice could signify a call to cleanliness, but their distribution offered no simple measure of virtue.