Bark Ægir - Courtesy of Norsk Sjøfartsmuseum On the 7th of April
1837 the first emigrant ship sailed from Bergen to USA. The
ship's name was Ægir and there were 84 emigrants onboard. Most
of them were from Hordaland and 12 of these were from the
present municipality of Vaksdal. The bark Ægir (God of the Sea)
was a solid, bark-rigged ship at 62 'kommersielester' (129 reg.
tons), built in 1835 in Bergen and classed in The Norwegian
Veritas. Ægir's captain and the owner was Christian K. Behrens.
He had studied German and American emigrant ships in New York
and in this manner had gained insight into how emigrant ships
should be equipped and adjusted to better accommodate passengers
on such a long journey. There had been a limited emigration
earlier with ships from Rogaland. The first Norwegian emigrant
ship was "Restaurationen", which was merely 16 metres long and 5
metres wide and measured 18.5 kommersielest, i.e. approximately
38 reg. tons. This sloop-rigged Hardanger yacht sailed from
Stavanger in 1825 with a