Ellen Natalia Petterson was a passenger on Titanic.
Early life[]
Ellen Natalia Pettersson as a young woman.
Ellen Natalia Petterson was a native of Österplana, Skaraborg's län, Sweden, born on July 19, 1893. Her father was Gustaf Petterson. He was married in 1890 to Anna Natalia Anderssdotter. At the time of her birth, the family consisted of 5 children.
Elin Maria, their firstborn had sadly not survived birth and died within a month in 1890. It could have been her only sister. After Elin Maria came Ellen's older brother Axel Wilhelm in 1893. The other siblings where younger brothers: Harald William was born in 1895, Swen Fridolf in 1898. Their youngest child, Åke Gunnar, came 10 years after Swen in 1908. They lived in Österplana before the birth of Åke. Later, the family lived in Hällekis in Skaraborgs län, where Ellen's father was born.
Ellen or Elin, as she was also called, had wanted to emigrate to America for a long time, but nothing had ever come of it. The Skoog family was related to Ellen and Jenny Henriksson, Ellen’s cousin. They likely lived together in Stockholm with possibly other relatives in 1912.
When the Skoog family returned to Sweden after living in Iron Mountain, the girls were inspired again. When the family, contrary to their original intention, decided that they would be best off returning there, Elland and Jenny both went along.
Her destation was the home of Olaus Rask who lived at 805 East Second St., Iron Mountain, Michigan. The trip led them from Stockholm to Gothenburg where they took passage on the ship Calypso, which would bring them across the North Sea to Hull in England. The voyage lasted from 5 to 7 April.
Titanic[]
On April 10, the had gotten aboard the mighty ship in Southampton. Ellen was 18 years old at the time of the voyage. It’s uncertain if she had a partner. She and the others had tickets for Third Class.
On April 14 at 12:39 A.M, Titanic had met her match on her seemingly effortless voyage when an iceberg was spotted right in front of her, but it was too late to avoid and she had scratched her hull against the solid mass on starboard side. The gashes underneath the water line meant she was taking on tons of sea water in just the first minute. On April 15, the evacuation started as the commanding officers realised that the ship was going to sink.
What happened to Ellen, Jenny and het Skoogs isn’t known, but after Titanic sank at 2:20 A.M. not a single one of them survived. Their bodies weren’t recovered either.
After her death[]
Ellen’s father received SEK 874:08 (£48) from the charity fund on 21 January 1913 and damages of 455:50 (£25) on 15 July 1914.