Elsa

The Elsa was the second ship to reach Argentina in 1948. It was a 92-foot-long (28 meters) passenger ship designed for use on rivers and lakes. The ship’s captain was Latvian Arvids Bertins, and its crew included Estonians Arnold Pakker, Karl Kuus, and Konstantin (Kostja) Rannamäe. Latvians owned the ship and made up 31 of its 65 passengers. There were also 10 Estonians, 12 Poles, six Finns, two Lithuanians, two Germans, a Ukrainian, and a Russian. Eleven of the refugees were children.

One of the passengers was Daisy Kullamaa-Umnova, an Estonian who had jumped from a Soviet ship in Karlshamn harbor in February 1948 and was granted political asylum in Sweden. A few months later, she published Jag flydde från Sovjet (I Escaped from the Soviet Union), which angered the Russians, and she gladly accepted an invitation from Karl Kuus to leave Sweden on the ship.

The Elsa stopped in Dover, England, Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, and Cabo Verde off the coast of West Africa. The refugees experienced a smooth Atlantic crossing, but the boat ran into a heavy storm near the Brazilian coast. Eventually, the Elsa arrived safely at the port of Recife. The next stop was Santos, where Ferdinand Saukas, the former Estonian Consul to Brazil, and members of the São Paulo Estonian Society warmly welcomed the passengers.

The Elsa arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 13, 1948, but customs officials did not allow the refugees ashore until November 27. On that day, the local Estonian society celebrated “Day of Estonians Abroad” (Välis-Eesti päev) and the passengers joined the festivities with their fellow countrymen.