EDITH

After replacing the anchor, the Edith continued its journey across the North Sea, stopping in Ostend, Belgium, to refuel and buy supplies. The refugees were allowed ashore, and by nighttime many were tipsy from sampling Belgian beer. One man, Enn Rada, did not return and, after waiting five days, the Edith was forced to sail onward, to the dismay of Mr. Rada’s wife. Three months later, Enn Rada’s body was found in the canal and it is assumed that he fell in on his way back to the ship.  

From Belgium, the Edith sailed to Penzance, England, and safely crossed the Bay of Biscay, stopping in Vigo, Spain. On July 31, the ship set out for Madeira, which it reached August 6. The next day, after getting more supplies, the refugees began the final leg of the journey across the Atlantic. Taking advantage of the trade winds, the crew stopped using the engine and traveled under sail. 

On August 29, a ship appeared on the horizon on the southern edge of the Sargasso Sea and began to approach the Edith. Ludwig Wahtras, an Estonian on board the Scania II, recalled this extraordinary meeting in the 1980 book Rehvitud purjedega (With Furled Sails):

“I glanced ahead, where I noticed a small white sail slightly to the left of our course… I soon noticed that our ship had taken a new course. We had turned toward the sail. I got my camera and went to the bow. But before I was able to take any pictures, someone shouted from the upper bridge that they were Estonians, and I should come back to the bridge. I ran up again and grabbed a spyglass. Yes…an Estonian flag! An Estonian flag was flying on a small Viking boat in the middle of the Atlantic.” 

Once the crews on each boat were within shouting distance, they greeted one another by lowering and raising their flags, a maritime custom. Wahtras asked the Edith’s crew, in perfect Estonian, if they needed anything, to which they shouted, “No!” He wrote:

“I felt like jumping overboard, swimming to their boat and hugging all of them. Estonians! Estonian Vikings who are flying the Estonian flag on the Atlantic. What an exhilarating feeling and such an experience it was seeing the flag flying after such a long time.”

On September 15, Elmar Kägu was the first person on board to spot the North American continent. When the Edith docked in Savannah, Georgia, they were met by officials and journalists and welcomed by locals offering food and drink. The next day, the refugees were escorted from their ship and sent by train to Ellis Island, New York.

The Edith’s 24 passengers spent four months in detention there, attempting to settle in the United States, before the Canadian Lutheran World Relief Committee sponsored them to enter Canada as immigrants. One passenger, Aleksis Kivi, was allowed to remain in America. 

The group arrived in Hamilton, Canada, by train on January 16, 1948, and then traveled by bus to Kitchener, where they were welcomed with a festive dinner at a church. The 8,170-mile-long (13,149 kilometers) journey from Sweden to Canada had taken seven months. 

A happy ending: On August 21, 1948, Captain Ludvig Tõsine and passenger Velly Allikmaa married at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Kitchener, with passengers Helgi Jaanus and Erka Jaanus serving as bridesmaid and best man.