As I was visiting Tristan da Cunha a colleague of mine had told me there is a Finn buried over there. Before the port was the local cemetery so I requested to stop there to have a look.
Eventually I found the grave after some walking about the graves and the stone said Arthur A Soderlund had been buried there after an accident working on the South African fishing vessel Frances Repetto.
Lawhill print by robertcarter.com
Quoted text from the link above: "Captain Soderlund died by a tragic accident on board the fishing vessel "Frances Repetto" the 15th of May 1954. The fishing vessel was owned by the Tristan Development Company from Cape Town."
Capt Soderlund was born in 1898 so he was only 56 years of age. He had apparently fallen over and injured himself badly and died. One newspaper writes that he was buried at sea according to his daughter, so I'm not sure if there was a body under the headstone.
Tristan Graveyard
Grave of Capt Soderlund
Arthur Alexander Soderlund had started at sea when he was 13 yrs of age (1911) as a galley hand and kept on sailing, in 1932 - 1933 he was Master on Killoran before he became Master of Lawhill. There is a 20 years gap between starting sailing and Killoran so I can only speculate that in the time in between he advanced through the ranks and attained possibly his first masters position possibly in late 20's or maybe it even was Killoran that was his first command.
Incidentally Captain Soderlund had also become Master of the 4 masted barque Lawhill between 1933-1947. She was owned by the renowned shipowner Gustaf Erikson and was the largest sailing ship in the Finnish merchant fleet at the time. Captain Soderlund had his family, wife and daughter, onboard for 7 years during the war, they embarked in 1940 when the ship was visiting Mariehamn in Aaland Islands (Finland) and loading cargo.
Capture of Capt Soderlund & Mrs Elize Soderlund, courtesy of Australian Sunday times
Eventually Lawhill was arrested by South African Gov't in 1941 and then taken as a prize of war in 1942 and then traded on with the Finnish crew (there was nobody else available as an option) along the southern African continent until 1948 when she was intended to be turned into a sail training vessel but this was never realized and subsequently a year after she changed hands and was laid up in Mozambique by the new Owner who didn't have the wherewithal to restore her up to seaworthy sailing condition.
Above screenshot courtesy of Facebook by Robert Carter
In the 1950's Lawhill eventually had (or was) grounded in Motala river, Mozambique (Maputo) and rotted (or broken) down there by 1959. Various sources claim differently, some say she was ransacked by locals, others say she dragged her anchors and was broken up or that she just fell apart as a natural process of corrosion. So in essence Capt Soderlund lived the same time that Lawhill traded but she met her demise off the coast of Mozambique being derelict. The Lawhill story ended about 10-12 years later forgotten up in a river creek off Maputo, quite sad actually for both the ship and the Captain.
Lawhill in port (photo courtesy of Jukka A Mikkola website)
The mind boggles how Captain Soderlund had ended up on a fishing vessel but maybe he had to take on other employ having signed off Lawhill when she was sold and plans to convert her into a sailing school ship were put in motion.
It appears his daughter Doris (and wife Elize?) had moved ashore in South Africa in 1947. She never returned to Finland and died in March 2001 leaving property behind in Aaland Islands, her parents native domicile. There was no surviving next of kin for the inheritance.
Doris Soderlund in South Africa with a visiting actor from Finland in 2000.
Photo courtesy of ENyan news
Doris Soderlund has also been mentioned in a gathering of old Cape Horners in Cape Town. In the article from Sea History edition no 093/2000:
I quote "Doris Soderlund who sailed in her father's four masted bark Lawhill for a dozen years, captured a table full of Picton Castle crew with her precise stories of her years under sail: escaping the Russians in Finland; sailing through mine fields; long howling passages to Australia; racing around Cape Horn in the teeth of hurricane-strength westerly; icebergs; injunctions to not associate (much) with the male crew of Dad's ship. In the end Doris captured all of us."
Capture from the Sea history article, Doris Soderlund standing left of the wheel
As ironical as it is, it seems there is more light shed on the Soderlunds family life documented in an Australian news paper (at least publicly) and a photograph of Capt Soderlund (see above).
I am copying below the whole text from the article (with some spelling mistakes corrected). Quoted text of the Australian Sunday Times article from 9th March 1943 by Tora Beckinsale:
Captain Takes His Family To Sea To Escape Bombs
They Feel Safer on Romantic Barque Than in Finnish Home
The four-masted barque Lawhill sails hazardous wartime seas as she plies between Australia and South Africa, but for all that she has meant home and safety for three years to her captain's wife and daughter from bomb Wrecked Finland.
"If we go_down, we oil go down together^* said Captain Arthur Soderlund when he brought his lovely ship into an Australian port the other day. "Last time I went to Finland, in 1940, 1 found my wife and daughter practically living in bomb shelters. That was no good, so I asked them to sail with me."
- So, from their modern flat in a town in Aaland Island, came Mrs.Soderlund and Doris to make their
wartime home on the most romantic type of ship there is.
Tall and beautiful, with a half century's salt in her timhers, she lies today dappling an Australian wharf with the shadow of her rigging, and rides tomorrow in full sail, exulting in . the boisterous winds of the wide seas.
To this new life Mrs. Soderlund brought her knitting...
In fact, she brought to her new home afloat all the interests and occupations of life ashore, the cares of wife, mother, and homemaker.
She and Doris live their lives aboard just as the captain's wife and daughter. They take no part in actual sailing activities.
"But, of course, they do not Just sit and make up their faces when there is an emergency," said the captain. "If my sailors get knocked about in a storm, they put on overalls and gum boots and sou'wester caps, and get hot water and bandages and help me to doctor the injuries."
Not long ago the ship ran into such a bad storm that she was under water for 18 hours, and it was touch and go with her. This was one of the few times when the women had to lend a hand.
They bailed water out of their own quarters. "But they were not frightened," said Captain Soderlund, proudly. 'It takes a lot to frighten a woman."
Doris can climb the rigging.
"But I do not allow it," said her father. "I like her to be a lady.
"It is no life for a woman In a sailing ship," he added, ruefully. He said a' few words in Swedish to Mrs. Soderlund, who nodded her head firmly.
She does not speak English, but Doris does, and Swedish, too. "My father says it is safe enough for us to sail with him, and so we just don't worry," she said. "But I'll be glad when the war is over and we can live on shore again."
However, in the Lawhill, which is owned by the South African Government, they are very happy
and comfortable.
Captain Soderlund has seen that their quarters, although small, are ' snug and cosy. A small hunk has been fitted in what was previously the skipper's writing room for Doris' bedroom. It is a charming little room, with flowered chintz curtains at the porthole and screening off the bunk. There is a fixed table and a small locker for her belongings.
Her mother and father sleep in the adjacent cabin. Most of the time of Mrs. Soderlund and Doris is spent sewing their own clothes or knitting for the captain. "Sailors wear out their woollen clothes very
quickly," said Captain Soderlund. He's a typical sailor, and has been at sea since be was 13. He
started as a cook boy in a Baltic schooner, and his people were seafaring people for generations back.
His wife also comes of seafaring stock. She has to look after their clothes with especial care because
sea air is ruinous for clothes. There is sometimes a shortage of fresh water to make difficulties with washing.
Doris, who wears her light brown hair in a long, fluffy bob to her shoulders, has become,
under- her mother's tuition, a clever little needlewoman.
Her father showed with pride a huge supper-cloth embroidered by her, and pointed out two little
tapestry pictures which she has worked.
The Soderlunds have a family of pets - aboard. Bella, the Scottie, is very valuable. "She came from Glasgow, where GBP800 was offered for her mother, but the owner, would, not sell," said the captain, with a pat for Bella.
"This is Ronnie. That's a girl's name in our country," said Doris, introducing a big, lively brindle
bitch, which is a great favorite with the family
"Ronnie sleeps in the box we have for the dogs until all is quiet. Then she creeps out and jumps on my bunk and sleeps there for the night," said Doris.
Peacefully asleep on the captain's bed was Tassie, the black cat, called after Tasmania, which is a favorite stopping place of Doris.
Then there are Tip and Tap, the tortoises, who calmly munch lettuce or hard-boiled eggs in a corner of the saloon.
"When it is rough we put them in a box," said Doris.
Mrs. Soderlund has no actual housekeeping to do aboard. Cooking is done by chief cook Leo Nielsen, who came from Denmark, and the assistant cook. Fred Arenase, of South Africa.
Menus depend on the time between ports.
"We have been as long as 78 days," said the captain, "and then we cannot have fresh food."
Daily meal routine for the Soderlunds is breakfast in the mess room at 7.30, dinner at 12.30, and tea at 7.30. They have coffee between meals. Cleaning, washing and scrubbing are done by the steward and cabin boy.
Most important of all Mrs. Soderlund's tasks aboard is Doris education. She attended the school for boys and girls at Mariehamn, her home town.
"You know, Finland was the first country to have mixed' schools," said the captain. ' "My daughter was very fond of sports, especially skiing and basketball, and always acted in the school plays."
Although Doris' ordinary schooling has been interrupted, her mother is training her in all the womanly arts, and she is going through the grand finishing school of travel.
She has splendid poise for such, a young girl, and talks well.
Mariehamn, on Aaland Island, was the birthplace of both Captain and Mrs. Soderlund. They were married there, and Doris was born there.
This island, which has a population of about 27,000 people, is under Finnish law, but is an independent State with its own small Parliament It is about 20 miles by ll miles in size, and is one of a group of no fewer than 8000 islands.
Doris wears the shield of her home State on a pendant hung round her neck.
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Another article I came across from Australia, this time from The Sydney Morning Herald from 9th of May 1946 by Pamela Eriksson by airmail from South Africa, she shortly mentions Lawhill as follows:
The "Lawhill" long nicknamed "coffin" and the oldest ship that Gustaf Erikson owned, being his first,
buy", (and incidentally the foundation of his fortunes) is still sailing the seas, cement boxes and all under the flag of the South African Government. She visited Australia during the war and has carried well over 50,000 tons of cargo.
She arrived in Capetown a few weeks ago from Bunbury and will probably be sent to South America
on her next trip.
Captain Artur Soderlund has sailed in her for donkeys years - before the mast, as mate and then as skipper, and even a world upheaval could not part him from her or his family.
The last time he and the "Lawhill' were in Finland, just before war broke out, he said that he would no
longer sail her unless he could take his family with him. So they came on board, and there they have been ever since. l suppose his daughter Doris is the only modern girl who has grown up on board a sailing ship, and Captain Soderlund is certainly the only skipper who has sailed throughout the war with a wife and daughter on board.
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