Jakob was born in the sea captains’ village of Käsmu, Estonia in the Tooma Talu. My grandmother was best friends with his wife, Minna, although everyone in my family called her Tooma-momma as if that were her name. As a child her pock-marked facial skin scared me but her eyes and demeanor were that of a heavenly angel. Later in life I learned that her husband, my 4th cousin, was a sea captain, and a crew member involved in a sea mutiny on the ship s.s. Harjurand during WWII.
On July 31, 1940 the Soviets ordered all Estonian ships at sea to proceed to Murmansk, Russia. The Master of the s.s. Harjurand, Capt. Johannes-Eduard Eelmere (Eelloo) was a communist, he did not reveal to the crew information contained in telegrams received while the ship was in the Azores Islands (region of Portugal), however, the wireless operator did. A telegram, dated August 8, 1940, sent by Johannes Kaiv, the Estonian General Consul of the U.S.A., to Master Eelmere, gave an official order that the s.s. Harjurand was to sail under the Estonian flag to the U.S.A. immediately. and to disregard all instructions from the Soviets. The ship’s crew held a meeting and unanimously, aside from the Master, voted to follow Kaiv’s orders. However, the ship did not move. It finally left Fayal on August 15th, the infuriated Master informed the crew that each signatory to such mutiny would receive the death penalty.
