Alfred Ossian Gustafsson was a Third Class passenger on the RMS Titanic.
Background[]
Alfred Ossian Gustafsson was born in Karlby,Kökar on the Aland Islands of Finland on May 12, 1892. His parents were parish clerk Gustaf Albert Gustafsson and Olivia Angelina Karlström. Alfred was the third child of the married couple. He had two elder brothers. Albert Verner was the first in 1890. The Gustafsson’s second child, Johan, lived less than 3 years as he died in 1892, having been born in 1890.
Many of Alfred’s younger siblings shared the same fate. After Alfred came Ferdinand Gustav in 1894. Following him was Magnus Georg in 1896. He was nother child that didn’t live long. He was deceased in 1901, as was Gunnar Filip, who was born in 1897. Anton Albin was the next child to be born in 1900, he did survive. Gunnar Magnus Filip, conceived in 1902, was not living long. He too survived for less than 5 years. Gustaf and Olivia only had one daughter: Amanda. She was conceived in 1903 and did survive childhood, but her younger brother didn’t: Johannes Sigfrid Gustavsson lived for less than a year after his birth in 1904.
The last 4 or 5 of the children were most likely born in America as the family had moved to Waukegan, Illinois in 1898 where Father Gustaf was a laborer for a steel mill.
Alfred went for a visit to his home town of Karlby inbetween 1911 and 1912.
In 1912, Alfred’s older brother was living in New York and helped him realize the trip by sending him the money for the ticket. Albert had previously lived in Illinois. Now, Alfred was on his way back to the family's home in Waukegan, Illinois. Waukegan had a thriving Finnish community at that point.
On April 5, he departed from Gothenburg in Sweden on Wilson Line’s Calypso, a ship that sailed to Hull in England. Only in Southampton did he realise he was going to be on board the Titanic, as a coal strike caused major disruptions to shipping schedules and his own ship was cancelled.
Titanic[]
On April 10, Titanic set off on her Maiden Voyage and left the Southampton port after noon. Alfred traveled in Third Class. He was 19 years old when he embarked on the Titanic. His occupation is stated as workman.
On April 14, Titanic met trouble as an iceberg doomed what was a smooth voyage till that point. The massive frozen wall loomed from the distance. It was spotted very late and the Titanic couldn’t veer around it. The result was a collision on starboard side with a set of cuts in her hull on a good length and she was taking on tons of seawater within a minute as a consequence.
On April 15, a worried Captain Smith new the plain but horrible truth: Titanic was sinking and would not stay afloat for very long, as shipbuilder Thomas Andrews had worked out. He started the evacuation around 12:05 A.M, giving the order to prepare the boats. At 2:20 A.M, Titanic sank, taking 1503 souls with her, most of them ending up in the freezing waters.
Alfred Ossian Gustafsson was lost in the Titanic tragedy and his body was never found. Much later, his parents were paid £50 in compensation for the loss of their son.