Pictured from left: Aimi Brown, Inga Barrett and Ulla Kemman.
On Aug. 9, 1945, 16 Estonian refugees set sail from Sweden in a 37-foot sloop to cross the Atlantic to America. Four and a half months later they arrived in Norfolk, Va. The Küün daughters, consisting of Inga Barrett of Mount Pleasant, Texas, and her two sisters, Aimi Brown of Flagler Beach, Fla. and Ulla Kemman of Black Diamond, Wash. recently gathered at Ulla’s home to celebrate the anniversary. Inga and her two sisters represent three of the four voyage members still living.
At the time WWII broke out, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union. A year later, the Red Army was driven out of the country by Hitler’s Nazi forces. During the German occupation, Estonians of Swedish descent were allowed to emigrate to Sweden. The Küün family qualified and moved to Sweden. In 1944, as the Germans began losing the war, the Russians once again gained control of Estonia and insisted that all former Soviet citizens be repatriated.
Fearing persecution by the Russians, the Küün family made plans to flee to America. Arvid Küün, the girls’ father, found a 50-year-old mail carrier vessel, the “Erma”. To raise money for needed repairs, the family took on additional passengers. Arvid, a graduate of the Estonian Merchant Marine Academy, knew that it was possible to cross the Atlantic under sail power by using the trade winds and following the route of Columbus. After 127 days at sea, the small boat and its 16 passengers landed in Norfolk, Va. on Dec. 15, 1945.
The voyage of the “Erma” is memorialized in the book, “Sailing to Freedom” by Voldemar Veedam and Carl B. Wall, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York, 1952. The story first appeared in the Feb. 1947 issue of Reader’s Digest. A British press review declared the saga of the “Erma” the most epic historical sea voyage of our time.
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