Captain Richard Teng served as a kaugsõidukapten on the S.S. Torni which was owned by Tallinna Laevaühisus. He was Torni’s Master from 1935 to Dec. 1939 (as well as being a certified radiotelegraph operator). His elder brother, kaugsõidukapten Captain Johannes Teng was Torni's previous Master 1932-1935.
During the summer months the ship would sail up to Archangel in the White Sea for wood cargo that it transported to the U.K.; in winter, it would take salt down to the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Dakar or Freetown, Sierra Leone, Africa. For a 10,000 ton cargo of peanuts, the ship travelled up the crocodile infested Saloum River to the jungle surrounds of Kaolack, Gambia. African men carried 100 lb sacks of peanuts on their shoulders, the occasional strong man carried 2 sacks, each man was paid per sack once it had been carried up the long wooden gangplank and sent down the hatch into the ship’s cargo hold.
