On September 21, 1944, five boats were anchored near the beach at Nõva in Estonia. The smallest of them was Ago. The beach was crowded with people trying to get on board a boat, in order to escape from Estonia. Most of them wanted to get away on a large vessel. Probably because it was considered to be safer.
One of these who searched for a place on a larger vessel was Juhan Müller with his daughter Maret, then 13 years old. But it turned out that they had to go with Ago. They were rowed out from the beach, there were many rowing boats in action this afternoon.
Ago had 18 people on board. Skipper Johannes Kallas, fisherman from Haapsalu, decided it was time to leave. As the first boat of the five, Ago weighed anchor around 5 p.m. and headed westward. It was a nice evening. The sea was calm and Maret especially remembers the beautiful sunset. During the night the voyage continued without any problems.
The morning of September 22 came, Ago went steadily westward, at dawn the auxiliary sail had been set. The morning passed without seeing any other boats. In the middle of the day, the outline of a warship suddenly appeared in the west. The ship approached Ago and all on board felt a bit uncomfortable. No national flag could be seen. Was it German, was it Swedish?
Tension and nervousness rose. Finally, at around 1 p.m., it was seen that it was the Swedish destroyer Visby.
HSwMS Visby (source: Naval Museum of Sweden)
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