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.

The Johannes pulled up anchor and set its course toward Grangemouth. The Captain's anger grew daily against the young runaway. Upon any provocation, the Captain took the opportunity to abuse Jaan with fisticuffs or slaps to the face, ordering the other crewmembers to demean him likewise. In addition, Jaan was prohibited from eating with the crew. He was only able to contain his hunger by eating potato peels and other scraps of leftovers from the crew's meals in the galley. Still, this was not enough punishment in the eyes of the Captain.

He decided to keelhaul the young man, keelhauling being a corporal punishment that involved tying a man to a rope that was typically looped and secured beneath the vessel beforehand and throwing him overboard, dragging him beneath the underside (and keel) of the ship until he was pulled up when he reached the other side. Two or more sailors generally controlled how fast or how slow he was keelhauled from a position on the deck, effectively using a pulley-type system with the rope to drag him literally from stem to stern across the underbelly of the ship. The practice was administered to offending sailors at sea in order to keep them in tow, usually after they had taken part in an offence that broke one or more laws held in importance aboard the ship, and often resulted in horrible injuries that frequently led to fatal infections within the wounds. Keelhauling, for these previous reasons, was also used as a convient and known method of torture.

The Captain gave orders that it was customary that a young man who puts out to sea for the first time should be 'properly baptized'. Accordingly, Jaan was hogtied and thrown overboard into the icy North Atlantic to be given the keelhaul torture run.

In the beginning of October 1887, aboard the Danish ship "Morso", it was noticed that the sailing ship Johannes was drifting in the nearby waters with a hoisted flag signaling a request for aid. Immediately a small boat was lowered from the "Morso" and put out to sea to board the "Johannes".

The Danish rescuers boarded the Johannes and were met with a horrible sight. Approaching them, hardly able to stand, was the first mate, Nukk. In the stern of the ship, on the deck lay the tied-up deck hand, Jaan Umb. To be found in the hold of the ship, in a pool of their own long-dried blood, lay the bodies of two dead crewmembers. Blood was spattered everywhere and the smell of fire damage permeated the timber of the ship's cargo.

The Danish Captain ordered the sailing ship "Johannes" to be taken in tow to Copenhagen where Danish Maritime Law awaited Umb and Nukk. Both crewmembers were first taken to a hospital and then transferred to a prison to await trail.

In the beginning, Danish authorities blamed the brutal murders on the First Mate, Nukk, but at the same time Jaan swore that he had killed the six crewmembers of the Johannes, and that he himself had been the one to seriously wound Nukk.

It appeared that the tragedy aboard the Johannes had erupted when the Captain, in making his daily rounds, came upon Jaan who was busy scrubbing the deck. The Captain, for no apparent reason, walked over to Jaan and cuffed him full in the face with his fist. Having had enough, Jaan reached for his belt, and without further thought, pulled out his knife and lunged for the Captain, slashing his throat and then throwing the body overboard. On the starboard side of the deck stood the brother of the Captain, who had apparently remained unaware as to the scuffle and murder. Jaan sneaked in between the shadows cast by overhead sails, came up behind his enemy, and shoved him overboard with a mighty push, for he had also tormented and teased Jaan in every possible way.

Now in a berserked rage, Jaan grabbed a log off the timber pile and stormed out to the stern of the ship where he waylaid the sailor Rebane unconscious with a single blow beside the steering wheel. His body was cast into the wind of the sea to follow to Captain and his sibling. Next, Jaan vented his anger on the young cook in the galley, who had been ordered not to serve him meals. The pleading cook was killed with an axe blow to the head. Jaan dragged the cook's body out of the galley and up the stairs onto the deck. He heaved this fourth body over the edge of the ship into the waiting waters below to join his other tormentors. By this time entirely out of his mind, Jaan, with axe in hand, made for the crew's sleeping quarters where he found two off-duty sailors asleep in their bunks. Jaan killed both sailors with several sharp blows of the axe and left their bodies in their bloodied bunks so as to proceed to the cabin of the First Mate, Nukk. He found the door to Nukk's cabin tightly shut. Jaan did not want to awaken the First Mate by smashing the door open, so he tied his knife to a nearby grappling hook and tried to pierce the porthole on the door.

Upon hearing the noise, Nukk threw the cabin porthole open and was met with a thrusting grappling hook to the head. He dropped back from the porthole, crying out. Unsure that he had succeeded in fatally wounding the First Mate, Jaan went to find a hammer and some nails, and within minutes had nailed the cabin door shut so that Nukk would be trapped inside.

To hide the murders, Jaan decide the set the ship on fire. He brought petroleum and turpentine from the storage hold, and poured the inflammable liquids over the ship's timber cargo before setting the logs aflame. Jaan rushed back to the steering wheel and set the ship's course toward Bornholm Island, Sweden.

Meanwhile, the heavily wounded First Mate had started to come to. Jaan's handiwork with his cabin door led to a long string of failed attempts to break out of his quarters, but he finally succeeded. Unaware that the Captain was long dead, he tried to enter the Captain's cabin but found the door locked. He quickly figured out that the only way he could enter the Captain's quarters was to destroy the wall blocking him from the deck, which he did with some difficulty in order to search for his missing Captain. Finding the cabin empty, he immediately went searching for his assailant.

Jaan, being totally engrossed by the steering wheel, was not able to observe the First Mate creeping up on him. There was an unexpected blow to the back of Jaan's head which sent his vision spinning as he slumped over the steering wheel and lapsed into unconsciousness. The First Mate quickly tied Jaan up with a piece of rope and proceeded to put out the fire Jaan had set some time before. Without concern for his wounds and loss of much blood, the First Mate succeeded in controlling the flames and hoisting the S.O.S. signal flag which was observed some time later from the deck of the Danish steamship "Morso".

The badly wounded First Mate and the tied-up deckhand Jaan were taken aboard the "Morso" and later brought to a Copenhagen hospital where Jaan was able to recover from his head wound. Nukk was in the hospital for a much longer duration due to the severity of his wounds and heavy blood loss.

While in prison in Copenhagen, in an individual cell, Jaan was visited by the daughter of a Danish pastor who tried to save Jaan's soul by helping him seek God's forgiveness for his sins. This was reported in a letter to Jaan's mother by a German nurse who had visited him in his prison cell. The pastor's daughter encouraged Jaan to write a letter home to his mother in Kihnu. In the letter, Jaan asks for forgiveness from his God and forgiveness from his mother for his deplorable deeds. Within the contents of this letter, he absolutely denies the stealing of the sail cloth. In a following letter to his mother, Jaan tells her that the pastor's daughter is his fiancee and he hopes that someday after serving his prison sentence that he might marry her. (These letters are preserved in the Tallinn Maritime Museum).

After the First Mate had recovered from his wounds, criminal proceedings against Jaan began. At the Danish Court trial, Nukk gave detailed descriptions of the Captain's cruel treatment of the young man that pushed Jaan to his murderous undertaking. The Danish Court, taking into account the First Mate's testimony and the fact that he had also been one of the victims, declared Jaan to be innocent.

However, the Czarist Government of Russia was not satisfied with the Danish verdict and decided to press for the transfer of the young man to Russia in order for him to stand a second Court trial. Jaan was taken into custody to be held until such a time that a prisoner transfer could be made with Russia. At St. Petersburg, the Czarist Court ruled that Jaan was guilty. He was sentenced to serve in a forced labor camp in Siberia.

In further letters to his mother in Kihnu, Jaan explains that after he was found guilty by the Czar's Court he was transported from St. Petersburg to Odessa. From Odessa he was placed on a ship headed for Sakhalin Island. He remained there for two years, serving time as a cook. He was transferred again in 1891 to Vladivostok to work on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

By this time, the tragedy that had taken place on the "Johannes" and the two opposing verdicts brought great interest as well as much publicity for Jaan's plight. It was a Latvian poet who took the liberty of immortalizing Jaan and the tragedy that took place on the ship "Johannes" in verse with a song called "The Sea Robber". From Latvian verses, "The Sea Robber" was translated into German and published in Riga on March 1, 1888. The song gives a detailed account of a ghostly ship sailing on and on forever upon the great seas of the world with its ghastly bloody crew.

In Estonia, the song was widely blackballed because of the poetic license taken in exaggeration and the sensationalism of the tragic event. In verse and song, the Latvian poet had tried to compare Jaan to the original "Sea Robbers" of yore; whereas the Estonians saw Jaan as a tragic figure brought to his doom by unforeseen and unusual circumstances. It was considered that "only a Shakespeare, had he been alive, could have done justice in portraying all sides of the truth to the tale".

After his release from forced labor in 1902, Jaan worked off and on as a painter in Vladivostok, then as a sailor on different ships transporting the mail between the harbors of Japan and Vladivostok. During the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905), Jaan was at sea on the pilot ship, "Nonn". He managed to escape when the "Nonn" hit a mine and sank. After that, Jaan was soon transferred to serve aboard a new ship, the "Storoz".

From 1909 to 1913, Jaan served as a sailor and pilot on the ship "Oleg" under one Captain Mender's command. The respected Captain, who had served for many years on a number of ships in the Far East, was impressed with Jaan and wrote his superiors a letter of recommendation on Jaan's behalf, noting his outstanding work and exemplary behavior.

In one of Jaan's late letters to his mother, Jaan wrote that he had given up sailing, married an English woman, and had settled down as an innkeeper near the Surrey Docks.

As for the "Johannes", it was sunk by the Czar's orders in the harbor of Lepaya (in Latvia) during World War I. In 1919, the Johannes was raised from its watery grave and put on display.