Thure Lundstrom

[Andrew Maheux]

Do you know why Thure Lundstrom was saved but his fiancee Elina Olsson was lost?
And does anybody know more about her?

Regards,

Andrew

 

[Peter Engberg-Klarström]

Dear Andrew, Elida Olsson was born in Östra Nöbbelöv, Sweden (this is in the southeast of Sweden). She was on her way to her brother Olof who resided in St Paul, Minnesota. She had been working as a maid earlier, and was now looking for that kind of occupation in America. It is possible, however, that she intended to follow her fiancé Thure Lundström, to Los Angeles. For some reason they became separated during the night and he entered boat No 15 after having seen several other Swedes into boat 13. Elida was lost at the age of 31.

 

[Andrew Maheux]

Thanks for the information,

Regards,

Andrew

 

[Arun Vajpey]

The case of Thure Lundtstrom and Elida Olsson is very unusual in that they are perhaps the only couple in the Titanic disaster (although they were engaged, rather than married) where the woman was lost and the man survived.

There is no definite evidence that Lundstrom got into Lifeboat #15. He reportedly helped Mrs Sandstrom and her daughters into Lifeboat #13 and then was trying to get into a "Collapsible" with his fiancee Elida which the lifeboat "capsized" and Elida was lost. Here on ET that story has been doubted because the only capsized lifeboat was Collapsible B and there is not record of a woman being on it.

However, I wondered about another possibility. As has been mentioned by other members in different threads, many continental Europeans with limited English often use the word "capsize" for toppling sideways, even temporarily. So, I wonder whether Elida Olsson and Thure Lundstrom were actually near Collapsible A and Elida was one of the women seen near that boat by Steward Edward Brown. When the wave it, Collapsible A floated free and several people around it - some may have been actually inside - were washed away. Most never made it back and Elida Olsson might have been one of them.

That still leaves open the question on which lifeboat Lundstrom himself was saved. He was not Collapsible A because fellow Swedes August Wennerstrom and Carl Janssen would have found out. I am wondering if he was one of those who made it to the overturned Collapsible B.

 

[Aaron C]

Hello,

Long time listener,… I read his letter about his party’s lifeboat capsizing and went looking for more information as that detail stood out as odd. It could have been collapsable A but his letter claims to see them off and then head stern before praying. Not much mention of how he got in a boat. Thoughts? Could he simply have been a human in terrible circumstance and saved himself then made up a story later? What other possibilities could there be for the ‘capsized boat’ that caused his party to perish??

My curiosity got me here,… thanks to any additional thoughts!!

 

[Arun Vajpey]

I read his letter about his party’s lifeboat capsizing and went looking for more information as that detail stood out as odd. It could have been collapsable A but his letter claims to see them off and then head stern before praying. Not much mention of how he got in a boat.

While it is possible that Thure Lundstrom was referring to Collapsible A (although it toppled sideways when the wave hit rather than capsize), there are several things that go against that conjecture. The main reason is that Lundstrom himself definitely survived; since we know that for certain, the question arises on which lifeboat.

If he had seen his fiancee Elida Olsson washed away when Collpasible A toppled sideways after being hit by the wave, that means that he was still on board the sinking Titanic himself at that moment. If so, the only lifeboats that he could have reached to save himself were Lifeboat #4 (which picked-up Hemming) and the overturned Collapsible B. With so many women on board Lifeboat #4, any further rescue from the sea with or after Hemming would have been definitely recalled and mentioned; AFAIK, there was nothing like that and so we can rule out #4 as being Lundstrom's lifeboat. Most people in the vicinity of Collapsible A who later made it to #B - Gracie, Cecil Fitzpatrick etc - had probably gone to the port side before the wave hit; Jack Thayer jumped into the sea with Milton Long but that was also moments before the wave arrived. Therefore, the only person who was still near Collapsible A when the wave hit but eventually survived on Collapsible B was John Collins. There is a small possibility that Lundstrom made it to Collapsible B but AFAIK no one else rescued on it said anything to support that conjecture.

Having said that, there is a tendency to place a surviving Scandinavian man whose lifeboat was uncertain in Lifeboat #15 simply because there were many Scandinavian men on board it. Thus, men like Karl Jonsson and Thure Lundstrom were thought to have been rescued on it, which is in fact quite possible. In that case, Lundstrom could have simply lost sight of his fiancee in the confusion or wrongly believed that she was already in another lifeboat. Later, riddled with survivor's guilt and mourning the loss of his beloved, he could have made-up the story that showed him in better light.

 

[Jon Edward Lundstrom]

I agree with Aaron’s assessment of his boarding lifeboat #15. With few exceptions it is consistent with my understanding of my grandfather’s actions based on my own research and some family accounts. However according to my relatives, he rarely if ever spoke of it to my dad or his sisters. Whether survivors guilt or PTSD it seemed to have profoundly shaped the remainder of his life.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

One possibility that I have thought about regarding Lundstrom and his lost fiancée Edna Olsson is whether they were both on the port side somehwhere close to where Lightoller and his men were trying to position Collapsible B; the couple might have been hoping - at least for Edna - for places in it. When the crew tried to push the lifeboat onto the boat deck from the roof of the Officer's Quarters, it fell upside down, a sort of equivalent of "capsized" (the lower port side of the boat deck was already flooding by then due to the port list). The 'wave' hit very soon afterwards and Edna could have been washed away like Lundstrom said while he managed to cling on to something. There is just the possibility that Lundstrom then managed to swim to #B and get on top. There is no evidence that he did of course, but not all those who stood on top of the overturned Collapsible were identified and recognition of each other in that cold, dripping and dishevelled state in the darkness would have been difficult even if one of the others knew Lundstrom.