roland

On August 17, 1948, the Roland, a 37-foot-long (11.3 meters) sloop arrived unannounced in Southport, North Carolina, with 15 Estonian refugees on board. According to newspaper reports, the journey from Sweden took 56 days. Not much is known about the Roland’s route to America, but its 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. 

In September 1948, a newspaper reported that L.S. Zappas, a cafe owner in Jacksonville, North Carolina, bought the Roland for $2,100.

Image courtesy of Southport Historical Society’s Susie Carson Research Room, Lew Hardee, and the State Port Pilot.