We left Bergen on the D.S. “Irma” at 7 p.m. on Monday evening, and reached Tromsö at 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon. The “Irma” is a coal burning vessel of about 2000 tons, 30 years old and built in England. It was on the Bergen-Newcastle route until replaced by “Venus”. She is a pleasant boat, though very unsteady: the cargo is not systematically placed, so the ship has a permanent list to starboard, which is being gradually rectified as they burn away coal. One day when she stopped out at sea to take on a few passengers from a rowing boat, it looked as if she would topple over when all the passengers went over to one side. She only coals at Tromsö, on the back and forward journey and people who complain of the dirtiness of coal burning ships should come on board, for she is spotlessly clean. We have 3rd class tickets but eat and sit 1st class. The cabin is minute and contains four of us - Bentgssen, John, Robert and myself, a wash basin and enough room for one person to stand up. The bunks are most comfortable, and although we are right in the stern of the ship, there is absolutely no vibration, so little that I have often not woken up when the ship stops and starts again at night. The first evening we had a foretaste of the amusement we were to get out of Karl’s pronunciation of English - we were all talking about bears, while Karl was leaning against the door: when there was a pause he woke up a little and said ‘Ach, the beer, it is very strong’ - we all thought he’d had just a bit too much of it, but after a pause he went on - ‘with its great leg it will smash anything’.
The ship is very full - lots of people get on and off at every port - and we have had such a nice little Norwegian horse on deck, and a few pigs down in the hold too! The ship can do 15 knots, but keeps up a steady 13: she is one of a daily service and goes on after Tromsö, beyond North Cape, and takes 11 days for the to and fro journey from Bergen. It’s a good service and has kept up to time very well, - indeed, we had often stayed longer at the ports than scheduled since we are going so well - but it must be very difficult in the winter when it is dark and misty.
Time passes very quickly - much too quickly, in fact. Brownie gives us two morse lessons a day, and we play a sort of deck billiards (Cambridge beat Oxford 8-1), a little chess, and with occasional writing the odd minutes get filled up. But most of the time we stand in the bows, or elsewhere, admiring the view. Every day it gets better and better: at first the hills were quite low and the islands rocky but rather flat, but gradually they got higher and rougher, and now wherever you look you see jagged peaks, with snow in patches all over the mountain sides. Yesterday evening just before midnight we had to go through a long narrow channel between islands in the Lofoten group, with great mountains high on either side. We are well in the Arctic circle now, and could easily have read even in the cabin at midnight last night, even though it was cloudy outside. The weather has been very disappointing all the time - many of the mountain peaks have been enveloped in clouds and the sun has shone only for a few minutes all the time.
Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim
image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nidaros_Cathedral
We have stopped many times on the way - usually just for a few moments at smaller places when it was not worth getting off, but sometimes for an hour or more. Aalesund is a very pretty town, with a great rock of a hill rising up behind it. Karl took me round the village a bit - it has the largest sealing fleet in Norway but it is out just now. Then Trondhjem is a nice old town - the old capital. I wandered about with Robert but not in the best part of the town. However when we got back to the ship they had postponed the time of sailing and this time we found the centre of the city and the magnificent cathedral. It is built of granite, and reminded me very much of Salisbury, but it must have been built during different periods, for it has a full norman door, and some parts are very decorated. We had an hour in Bodö yesterday: most of us went off in cars to a viewpoint, but Brownie and I, feeling the want of exercise, climbed a ridge at great speed instead and got just as good a view. A short stay of 20 minutes at Stamsund gave us time to walk round a factory where fish heads and backbones are converted into cattle food and fertiliser. A curious factory: there were a few people working in it but nobody seemed to be in charge of anything. All the villages round here have curious rocks for drying fish on, and all have very big petrol tanks painted silver on an island in the neighbourhood which really look most attractive.
We’re due at Tromsö soon: I will be very sorry to leave the “Irma”.
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