Hans Kristian Harjo

Hans Kristian Harjo was born on 6 January 1902 in the Masjok area of Tana, northern Norway, to Ludvig Harjo and Anna Kathrine, née Børresen. The parish record preserves his home baptism on 20 January and its confirmation in church on 30 June. [1]

His father died in 1908. His mother later married Petter Barski, and the 1910 census places eight-year-old Hans in their household at Larsnes, Tana. [2]

A story passed down by his half-sister Anna’s son, Einar Henninen, remembers Hans taking two-year-old Anna out on a sled in March 1913. Near Masjoknes, the children reportedly encountered five wolves before a neighbor brought them to safety. Read the family story of Hans and Anna →

A relocation certificate issued in 1932 adds a glimpse of his youth: it records residence in Gamvik since 1917 and departure in April 1922 for Sandefjord. A later endorsement on the same sheet records arrival in June 1932. The two dates are preserved as written; the intervening years remain uncertain. Read the certificate and English translation.

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Surviving endorsements trace Hans’s seafaring career to 1924. Employer references later document his work as a donkeyman aboard Birk and Hvoslef, followed by years aboard Harpon as a fireman, greaser and engineer’s assistant. [3]

His whaling years connected him with South Georgia. Letters headed Foca and an address at Grytvika describe catches, illness, sending money home and the separation from Alfhild and their children. The letters preserve a personal story alongside the service dates. [4]

During the Second World War, records connect him with Gunvor; the maritime inquiry names him as a rescued third engineer after the ship’s loss on 14 June 1942. A later secondary roster gives a different rank; the inquiry’s identification is used here. His subsequent work as pumpman aboard Evita is repeatedly documented in crew lists. [5]

The men who worked with Hans left a consistent impression of his skill and reliability. In March 1929, Birk’s first engineer called him, in translation, “one an engineer can rely on.” A later Harpon reference records work on machinery and boiler fittings during four periods when the ship was laid up in Sandefjord, between 1932 and 1936. His working life continued ashore between voyages. Birk recommendation; Harpon maintenance record.

Grytviken, the whaling station on South Georgia in the South Atlantic, was part of Hans’s working world. His Krigsseilerregisteret biography explicitly records that he was at Grytviken shore station in 1939/40. This is a documented connection even though the register’s voyage map has no South Georgia marker: a biographical note and a mapped ship movement are different records. His exact arrival and departure dates, and residence during other winters, remain under investigation; his August 1940 letter says illness prevented that year’s planned overwintering. Grytviken and service record.

His work with Compañía Argentina de Pesca took him from Harpon’s engine department to service as a fireman aboard the catcher Foca. Eight seasonal allotment entries from 1932–33 through 1939–40 trace money allocated home. A separate Harpon instruction, dated 29 August 1932, names both Hans and Alfhild and assigns her 140 kroner per month from 25 September. The surname is typed as “Herjó”; the matching couple and service details strongly identify them. Pesca allotment records.

The 1939–40 settlement names him “Hans K. Harjö” and “Fogonero, Foca”—fireman aboard Foca. It records seven months’ salary at 215 kroner and seven monthly remittances of the same amount. Wartime extra pay, oil-related participation payments and overtime brought his total credits to 2,963.77 kroner. These figures describe one accounting period, not his entire time aboard. Foca settlement, page 16.

Alongside the accounts are his letters. On 8 January 1940, writing aboard Foca, Hans said he had applied to stay through the winter. On 2 August, he explained that illness had prevented him from overwintering; he was well again and expected to head south to the whaling grounds. His September letter returned to those plans and the pain of separation from Alfhild and the children. The family remembers roughly eleven years in whaling; the registered 1930–1941 span broadly fits that recollection, without establishing continuous service or identical seasons every year. Family letters; family recollections.

Read the seasonal records and the ships’ history →

Hans married Alfhild Bergljot Johnsen in Sandefjord on 23 June 1932. Family photographs preserve their wedding portrait and views of the Sandefjord home. [6]

After the war, his work shifted ashore. The Framnæs personnel card records 23 July 1945–28 February 1953, putting his start ten days after his registered discharge from Thorshammer in Sandefjord. A January 1953 recommendation credits him with about eight years in the machine-shop repair department. The card’s amended trade wording is not yet confidently read, and it gives no reason for his departure. Framnæs personnel card; employer recommendation.

His son John remembered the family home at Sjuveengveien 17B in Sandefjord and his father cycling to Framnæs in all weather—a journey of about twenty minutes. It is a small memory of the working days that held family life together. [9]

In March 1953, Hans traveled from Gothenburg to New York aboard Stockholm with Hans F. and Liv. Alfhild and the other children followed aboard Stavangerfjord in May. Those passenger journeys belong to the family’s migration story, rather than Hans’s employment at sea. [7]

The family photographs and travel papers let us follow this change in their lives: a departure, time aboard ship, and the beginning of a home across the Atlantic.

This photograph, identified by the family as Hans and Liv on their journey to America, puts faces beside the passenger records.

Alfhild and the other children made the crossing in May. The family album includes a group gathered beside a bus before departure and a photograph identified as John, Lill and Alfhild aboard ship. Together, they preserve moments around the journey; the names of everyone beside the bus are still to be added.

John’s memories place the family at 44 Quinlan Avenue on Staten Island for about six years. He recalled that Hans, Hans F. and Liv had first stayed with Johnny Horgen while getting established. For the children, the move meant starting at P.S. 30 without knowing English. John remembered being placed a grade ahead of his younger brother Kjell and finding it difficult to catch up. He could no longer remember the process of learning English itself; looking back, it seemed to have happened quickly. [9]

Hans worked as an outside machinist at Caddell Dry Dock for about three and a half years. Its February 9, 1959 recommendation described him as sober, able and dependable, with thorough knowledge of diesel and steam machinery. He was leaving because of a lack of work. That gives some context for the family’s move west later that year, although the letter does not explain their decision to move. Read the recommendation.

A new beginning in Seattle

John remembered moving to Seattle in the summer of 1959. The family initially stayed at Philadelphia Church in Ballard, then moved to a house on Jones Avenue. His recollections connect those years with James Monroe and, later, Ballard High School. [9]

In Seattle, John recalled his father working at Isaacson’s, using a large lathe to make propeller shafts. The surviving employment record now supplies the dates: January 16, 1960–December 30, 1970. It names Hans as a machinist in Earle M. Jorgensen Company’s Isaacson Division. [9] Employment and retirement record.

One small letter brings those shop years to life. On June 22, 1967, the company awarded Hans $35 for a suggestion concerning the “elimination of chip clogging,” congratulating him on his first award. At 65, he was still finding ways to improve the work around him. The letter does not describe the technical solution. Read his award letter.

Hans retired on December 30, 1970, after nearly eleven years at Isaacson, one week before his 69th birthday. His departure form gives the reason as “Retirement” and marks “Desire to re-employ”—a final expression of the regard in which his employer held him. The faint handwritten dates were clarified by the family. Retirement record.

Recognition, and the later years

Hans’s Norwegian War Medal certificate is dated October 3, 1979. It recognizes his service to the country during the war of 1940–1945. The older service-register extract gives March 18, 1980 as the award date; the relationship between those dates remains unresolved. View the certificate and English translation.

Hans died in Seattle on October 5, 1990, aged 88. His surviving papers span a working life on ships and in repair shops, while the photographs and his children’s memories preserve the family life around it. [8]

Later photographs bring us back to family life: Christmas with Alfhild and a visit to the Ballard Locks in Seattle.