(This story was originally written and recorded for Retrocast #28 – Podcast #226, which was released on October 2, 2024.)
You may recall that about a year ago I told the story of Johann Beck, the man who got into a crate and shipped himself to the United States back in 1901. That story, Boxed for a Better Life, was episode #203.
It was while researching that story that I stumbled upon this one. In this case, we have a man named William Johnson who arrived in New York on Tuesday, October 21, 1902, aboard the steamship Oscar II from Copenhagen.
If the Oscar II seems familiar to you, that’s because it was the same ship that Henry Ford chartered in 1915 to function as his Peace Ship, the story of which I told in Podcast #172 back in May of 2022.
Johnson, a Swede, along with two young Norwegians, Isaac Jensen and Oscar Hansen, sneaked aboard the Oscar II on the night of October 10, 1902, just before it sailed from Kristiansand. They managed to go unnoticed for two days before being discovered by an officer. When brought before Captain Skjodt, the captain expressed his fury and assigned them to work in the stokehole (the place in a steamship in which stokers fed the boilers with coal).
While there, the three heard grim tales about the fate awaiting stowaways in New York: execution by hanging followed by dismemberment and being shipped back to their home countries in pieces. The thought horrified Johnson, and he spent the next few days thinking of a way to escape this grim destiny.
His chance came on October 18, 1902, when Hialmar Lundgreen, a steerage passenger, died of apoplexy. Lundgreen’s body was sealed in a pine coffin to be taken ashore. Johnson saw an opportunity and, under cover of night, went to the hold where the body was stored. He pried open the coffin, removed the corpse, and hid it under some matting. Johnson then climbed into the coffin, carefully replacing the lid so that the nails slid back into the original holes, leaving just enough space for air.
The next morning, when the crew realized Johnson was missing, a search began. Later that afternoon, they found Lundgreen’s body and assumed Johnson had suffocated under the pile of matting. They brought the body to the deck, where a steerage passenger recognized it as Lundgreen’s. Rushing back to the coffin, the crew removed the lid and found Johnson, terrified and nearly starved.
When the ship finally arrived in New York, Johnson and his companions were taken to Ellis Island for deportation. They were placed in the “pen” reserved for deportees, guarded by immigration officials to prevent escapes. However, during a routine check that Thursday night, the guards discovered that Johnson, Hansen, and Jensen had disappeared. The guard at the top of the stairway leading to the New York pen said that he saw the three men head down to another area, but since no one stopped them, he assumed they had been officially released. It was believed the men blended in with other immigrants and boarded the ferryboat that transported passengers to the Barge Office in New York. After that, they simply disappeared into the millions of people already living in the city.
