Mauritz Adahl
Mauritz Ådahl was a Swedish passenger on Titanic.
Mauritz Ådahl was a native of the small village of Asarum, Blekinge in Sweden. He was born there in 1881 on the 15th of June, as the son of Ola Månsson Ådahl and He followed in his father's footsteps as a carpenter.
In 1901 he met a girl named Emelie Josefina Kristina Grönlund. It was during a carpentry job in Västerbotten and they fell in love. They intended to emigrate together, but when Emelie's family opposed it, he returned in 1903 to Asarum and the same year he emigrated to Brooklyn, USA. Emelie worked in the meantime at the Umeå hospital.
In 1906, Emelie also went over and married Mauritz On 6 October 1907. The couple moved to Broolyn, New York, United States and together, they had two daughters. The first one was Vera Margareta, born on October 13th, 1908. The second child was Georgia Emelia Maria, born on February 22nd, 1910. The family were Lutherans.
Mauritz and Emelie Ådahl
Mauritz' wife Emelie never felt comfortable living in the United States. People didn't seem to like her. In 1910 Emelie and her daughters traveled back to Mauritz's childhood home in Asarum and the following year Mauritz came too to celebrate Christmas. His father Ola had passed away that year on 25th of May, and his mother was having a hard time coping. Mauritz had to help his widowed mother by going back to live in Asarum. There, the family was meant to build a house for themselves. Mauritz first worked in Sweden to help his mother before wanting to go back to Brooklyn to make more money to build his family home.
However, Emelie and Mauritz did not have much money so Mauritz decided to return to Brooklyn temporarily where the wages were high. He traveled together with his friend John Fredrik Alexander Holm, a sea captain from Karlshamn. On their route to Denmark they got acquainted with the 22-year-old Aurora Adelia Langergen, also from Karlshamn and offered she could join them on the voyage. They booked for a ship of the American Line, but due to a coal strike they were rebooked to White Star Line's Titanic in Third Class.
On April 9, 1912, Mauritz wrote a last letter home to his wife on his whereabouts and how he had taken passage on an entirely new ship, so large like he had never seen before.
The party stayed together when the Titanic sank, but Adelia, who survived, later recounted that "My comrades were particularly calm, but in the end Captain Holm told me I had better go in the lifeboat".
The sinking of Titanic[]
On the night of 14 April, the ship had struck an iceberg. Mauritz and John were awakened by a steward. They were told to put on a lifejacket and get up on deck. They obeyed but first went to Adelia's cabin. She dressed up as well and the trio went up on deck. She boarded it but quickly got out because she had forgotten her bible in her cabin and, being a deeply religious woman, she wanted to get it back.
The trio headed back in the halls of the ship as Adelia grabbed her bible and a few other personal items. When got back up to the Boat Deck, things had changed and there was a definite urge to get to a lifeboat in time. Mauritz and John quickly brought Adelia to lifeboat 13 and helped her in before retreating back in the crowd. It was the last time Adelia would see her friends alive. Mauritz and John perished in the sinking.
After his death[]
Mauritz Ådahl's pocket watch that stopped at 02:34 A.M, 14 minutes after the sinking of the Titanic
Ådahl's body was found by the MacKay-Bennett, the 72th body that was recovered. He was buried at sea on Wednesday, April 24th, 1912. He had valuables on them, most notably his pocket watch, which stopped working at 2:34 A.M. Other items included the watch chain with a horseshoe and a bone horsehead, a gold ring, 2 cufflinks, a leather strap with buckle and clip, a penknife and a notebook.
Mauritz Ådahl's wallet, as displayed at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, Cornwall, England.
They were sent home to his wife Emelie, who put them together in a box with the letters from Southampton. She kept it for a while and let her children have a look at it later.
The Mansion House Fund paid £98 to his wife and children on January 23rd, 1913 and £28 to his mother on the same day. Further damages of £325 were paid to the wife, children and mother on October 10th, 1914. Emelie probably knew that Mauritz had been buried at sea but never told the children. So, when Mauritz's grandchildren went to visit his grave in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, they were shocked to discover what had really happened to him. During an expedition on the vessel SS Nadir, a wreath-laying ceremony was held in his memory.