Filip Oscar Asplund was a child passenger on Titanic.
Early life[]
Filip Oscar Asplund was born in Worcester, Masschusetts, USA on December 12, 1898. He was the first child of Carl Oscar Gustaffson Asplund and Selma Augusta Emilia Johansson. The couple were of a Swedish background and had migrated to America years before the turn of the century and had found eachother in Missouri. Love bloomed and thus they started a life together in Worcester, Massachusetts. Carl worked as a general laborer for a wire company.
In 1902, Filip got a brother when Clarence Gustaf Hugo was conceived. In 1906 the Asplund family was blessed with twins, born on October 21, 1906. They were Lillian Gertrud and Carl Edgar.
The family’s peaceful life was disturbed by the sad news of the passing of Filip’s grandfather Gustaf Samuelson, Carl’s father. In 1907, the Asplunds had to make their way over to Sweden to support Carl’s widowed mother and arrange the paperwork surrounding the estate.
They took voyage and lived at the family farm in Alseda, Småland, Sweden for several years. Another child was born to the family in 1909 in Alseda. He was officiallly named Edvin Rojj but often called ‘Felix’. Fillip Oscar couldn’t adapt very well to the life in Sweden. He was very unhappy and felt homesick, missing the life in America. He was so desperate at some point, that he uttered he would take it upon himself to make his way back. His father was taking his son’s feelings seriously and believed there was also an opportunity to work at Spencer Wire Works again. The education was also very good in Worcester and there was a promising future there. His father wanted to keep the family together so he then decided all of them should return. Although Selma would like to stay, she agreed to go back to Worcester and they wrote to their families in Worcester. After the arrangements had been done, they sold their farm to cover the costs for the remigration and left Alseda.
Titanic[]
The Asplund family’s journey led them to Southampton, where they had tickets to board the grandest ocean liner the world had ever seen. They were Third Class passengers and had a cabin in the aft part of the ship. Titanic left port after noon on the 10th of April.
On the night of April 14, the ship had come to a sudden halt after mother Selma had felt something had hit her. She felt the tremor of the impact. Quickly she woke up Carl to ask if they should went outside the cabin and seek ansers. They did but strange scene took place. The stewards believed nothing was wrong and removed lifejackets from scared passengers. The ship would but the Asplund pair didn’t trust them at all. They started looking for their own lifebelts while also waking the children and helping them get dressed. After a while the stewards did seem to realise there was something wrong and they gave an extra lifebelt to the Asplunds.
When they were on the upper deck, they had no idea what to do or where to go, but Carl had wasted no time to just ensure the survival of his daughter and youngest boy. They were presumably at A-Deck when he handed them over to a crew member at lifeboat 10 and then practically obligated his wife to jump in herself, as the boat would be lowered soon as it was very late. She obeyed but had mixed feelings. The thought of leaving her husband killed her inside but she couldn’t allow her young ones to be left alone either. Filip stayed behind and stood by his father’s side. He would die with his father and 2 brothers when the ship sank at 2:20 A.M. Only his father’s body was recovered later, but the documents he had were missing.