Charles Edward Dahl

[Michael Friedman]

Over the weekend, I read Henry Sleeper Harper's account of the disaster again. A detail I had previously missed: a man who said he was from Australia was allowed to climb down the falls into Mr. Harper's boat (Boat #3). This sounds curiously like Mr. Dahl, who has elsewhere been tentatively assigned to Boat #15. After checking Mr. Dahl's biography on this site, some of the details seem to match.

Mr. Engberg, what do you think of the possibility that Mr. Dahl actually escaped in Boat #3?

 

[Daniel Rosenshine]

Peter E-K told me that in some accounts, in Norwegian, he numerically mentioned his boat as being #15. Read Sleeper's account carefully (I had once thought the same things as you), he doesn't really describe the even at "his" boat, but more as something he witnessed at "another boat." However Henry Sleeper's description of this event is confusing.

Daniel.

 

[Michael Friedman]

Thanks Mr. Rosenshine, for calling that to my attention. I went back & re-read the account as you suggested, & it's true. In the middle of his account of the lowering of his boat, he suddenly refers to the man from Australia trying to get into "a boat", then suddenly shifts back to the story of his own boat - all in the same paragraph.

It seems that perhaps the original article for Harper's magazine could have been edited more carefully. Thanks again for your response.