Boats
Reporters compared the Estonian refugees to the pilgrims. News and Observer, Raleigh, North Carolina, August 20, 1948
roland
On August 17, 1948, the Roland, a 37-foot-long (11.3 meter) sloop arrived unannounced in Southport, North Carolina, with 15 Estonian refugees on board. Led by Captain Johannes Wortmann, the group had saved up for four years to buy the boat for $6,000.
Not much is known about the Roland’s route to America but the captain was a skilled sailor. On August 20, 1948, the Raleigh, North Carolina, News and Observer reported:
“Wortmann, using only the Roland’s compass and a sextant, brought his ship 7,500 miles in 52 days across the Atlantic, through a storm and high water…When first sighted 24 miles off Southport on Tuesday, he was dead on his course. ‘The guy, is a genius,’ said a sailor on the Roland’s escort cutter. “Right to the inlet, right on the nose. I wouldn’t a-done it with a gyro-scope torpedo.”
The refugees almost ran out of food on their journey.
The Roland‘s passengers ended up on Ellis Island at the same time as the refugees from the Prolific, which docked in nearby Wilmington, North Carolina, on September 20, 1948. U.S. immigration authorities treated the refugees from both boats as a single group.
Although the tiny Roland was the same size as the Erma, it attracted far less public attention. In September 1948, a newspaper reported that L.S. Zappas, a cafe owner in Jacksonville, North Carolina, bought the Roland for $2,100. It never returned to sea.
The wreck of the Roland in Southport, North Carolina. Image courtesy of Southport Historical Society’s Susie Carson Research Room, Lew Hardee, and the State Port Pilot.
Crew and passengers:
- Captain Johannes Vöörtmann (Wortmann), Vilhelmine, and daughter Helgi, 16
- Ants and Maria Altoja
- August Kuigre
- Aleksander August Liipa
- August Maripuu
- Heino Amandus Nõmm
- Mihkel Sutt
- Mihkel, Tatjana, Georgi, Maria, and Nikolai Tapp