Kokkola, or Gamla Karleby, now just Karleby in Swedish... an important Finnish shipping town where in the eighteenth century onwards at least a dozen ships owners and their many captains lived, and took cargoes from Finland to everywhere... including the British Isles, as near as Sweden and Denmark, and as far as the south Americas.
The old town, now known as Neristan, still stands because of somebody's foresight in the 1960s that this 'heritage' might be worth saving, old sailors' houses preserved. Now of course it's a delightful area, with original wooden houses, cafés, little shops, wild flowers growing by the kerbside, A far cry, artistically and functionally, from the small red, yellow and grey huts where families of many children were raised, whilst their fathers were off at sea.
The 'newer' town, away from the noisy and crowded river, back from the port, beyond the parks and churches, have mansions where the merchants dwelled, a prosperous living to be made from producing the goods (timber, tar, furs, grain...) inland and then shipping it to meet world demand.
So the same names roll off the tongue and the lists of the Skeppskalendars - and onto my family tree! Most not in my bloodline, of course, but owners of the boats that my ancestors captained, worked on, died on... and left Finland on, to come to the place eventually called home by Anton Söderman (3rd in line from a Swedish set of Södermans from Öregrund, almost opposite on the other side of the Bothnian Sea).
The old town, now known as Neristan, still stands because of somebody's foresight in the 1960s that this 'heritage' might be worth saving, old sailors' houses preserved. Now of course it's a delightful area, with original wooden houses, cafés, little shops, wild flowers growing by the kerbside, A far cry, artistically and functionally, from the small red, yellow and grey huts where families of many children were raised, whilst their fathers were off at sea.
The 'newer' town, away from the noisy and crowded river, back from the port, beyond the parks and churches, have mansions where the merchants dwelled, a prosperous living to be made from producing the goods (timber, tar, furs, grain...) inland and then shipping it to meet world demand.
So the same names roll off the tongue and the lists of the Skeppskalendars - and onto my family tree! Most not in my bloodline, of course, but owners of the boats that my ancestors captained, worked on, died on... and left Finland on, to come to the place eventually called home by Anton Söderman (3rd in line from a Swedish set of Södermans from Öregrund, almost opposite on the other side of the Bothnian Sea).
The river now has boat sheds and a lovely walk between the town and the sea, but was much bigger and more open into the estuary when the Södermans, Jessbergs, Rahms, and Roos families lived alongside it, lined up in grid-bound streets, with one of the first children's schools (above left) in it. Slowly the river has silted up, the land has risen, and big boats no longer come up into the quays. The boat sheds are a 'heritage' feature, celebrated with costumed festivals and other communally-spirited events, as well as being weekend getaways for city folk.
Kokkola played an important part in one of the skirmishes in the Crimean War, when the merchant ship owners battled the Royal Navy in the bay, repelling an attack on its ships, taking a hostage boat which is still displayed in the city today.