The Johannes Tragedy of 1887

Within the Tallinn Maritime Museum located in Estonia, there is to be found a letter from a Captain Rein Grant, dated October 22nd, 1887, from the ship "Morso," berthed in Copenhagen, which was sent to one Johannes Martinson, owner of the ship "Johannes", in care of the ship "Leenu."

Serving as a deck hand aboard the Johannes was a young man from Kihnu Island (Estonia) by the name of Jaan Umb, son of Ennu Umb. Also from Estonia were the First Mate, Nukk, from Parnu, and the sailor Rebane. The remaining five crewmembers, including the Captain, were Latvians.

In the fall of 1887, the Johannes took a cargo of wood and timber bound for the English harbor of Grangemouth, Scotland. A few days before the ship was able to leave the harbor, it was discovered that the deckhand, Jaan, had disappeared. Around that same time, the Captain let it be known that the ship's treasury was missing a bag of sail cloth. The deckhand immediately fell under suspicion and was presumed to have taken off with the valuable cloth. It was assumed that Jaan was hiding himself along with the stolen merchandise on one of the Kihnu ships carrying stones (these were used to keep the topsoil from washing out to sea) bound for his island homeland. The Captain ordered all the men to find Jaan. The Captain's assumption on Jaan's whereabouts proved to be correct, and Jaan was found on a small ship sailing to Kihnu. However, the sail cloth was nowhere to be found. Jaan denied repeatedly that he had taken the sail cloth. Sail cloth being the most expensive of a ship's reserve material, it was therefore kept under constant observation, often by the Captain himself. Hence, it would be difficult for a deck hand to have had access to it. What would have been more likely was that the Captain himself had sold the sail cloth, and seizing an opportune time, had tried to put the blame on the deckhand.

By orders of the Captain, Jaan was brought back to the ship and received a severe beating and lashing, both for leaving the ship and for stealing the sail cloth.