Ship fever

Ship fever is one of the deadly illnesses that afflict passengers aboard the Charlotta during its 1850 crossing to New York. In the novel, it makes the voyage’s material hardship consequential: close quarters, limited provisions and water, and shared responsibility for cleaning shape a passage in which illness diminishes the emigrants’ strength and three passengers die.

The voyage and its conditions

The brig Charlotta sailed from Karlshamn for New York on April 14, 1850, carrying 78 emigrants among 94 people aboard. Its hold was divided into three passenger compartments by canvas, with bunks and bedding arranged in an already crowded space. The emigrants’ belongings, food, and bedding left little room to move, and light reached the hold mainly through the hatch. These conditions made the ship not simply a means of travel but the passengers’ confined living environment for the crossing.

The ship’s rules assigned passengers responsibility for managing provisions and maintaining that environment. The mate allotted unprepared food weekly, set limits on fresh water, and required the emigrants to take turns using the galley. Refuse had to be thrown overboard on the leeward side, while passengers were responsible for keeping the hold clean. Each morning they removed the previous night’s dirt before receiving their water ration. The rules organized daily life, but they also show how much the passengers’ health depended on scarce resources and on work performed within the crowded quarters.

Illness and mortality

The novel names ship fever as one of the illnesses that took lives aboard the Charlotta. Of the 19 children on board when the vessel left Karlshamn, two died during the voyage: a one-year-old boy from whooping cough and a five-year-old girl from ship fever. The surviving children were then considered in good health. The distinction between the two deaths preserves the specific cause given for the girl’s death rather than treating every loss as the same disease.

By the time another week had passed, three passengers had died of what the narration calls ship-sickness. Their deaths reduced the number of people aboard, and the hold had become less crowded as a result. The account thus makes the consequence tangible: the additional space was not relief produced by improvement in the ship’s conditions, but the grim aftermath of adult deaths.

The book also describes prolonged illness among the emigrants without making every symptom evidence of ship fever. Inga-Lena suffers recurring dizziness and headaches, fainting during work, and extended bowel trouble that leaves her weak. Kristina fears that a grave illness has taken hold of her, and the narrative identifies scurvy—also called ship-sickness—as the illness she and several others may have had. When Captain Lorentz assesses Kristina’s later condition, he recognizes long-standing scurvy. These references place ship fever within a wider landscape of voyage-related sickness, but the text does not establish that the different illnesses are interchangeable.

The crossing’s human cost

The emigrants’ suffering accumulates over a long passage marked by storms, illness, and confinement. Scurvy and ship fever lower their resistance; monotony and hardship leave many depressed and indifferent to what might happen next. The illnesses therefore affect not only individual bodies but the group’s collective capacity to endure the journey.

When America finally comes into view, the emigrants gather on deck to see its buildings and, beyond them, green ground and trees. The sight changes the mood aboard: the passengers recognize that they have crossed the sea, and renewed energy and ambition take hold. The contrast does not undo the deaths or the damage of the voyage. Rather, the arrival’s surge of hope follows directly upon a passage in which illness and confinement had worn down the people who made it across.