The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-12
MARCH u, 1896
Vagabond
from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE
CITY, Fla, March r.

IL
l. Hardy Nurmsen is a young man
with muscles like rocks, and whitish
flaxen hair that stands straight I'D
for three inches. He has lost two
hats, so he never wears one any
more.
Hardy and I were travelling In
opposite directions, and our paths
just happened to cross here, so we
sat down on the back porch of the
Yacht Club, out on st. Andrews
Bay, and talked for a couple of
hours.
Hardy is on a 6500-mile trip-in a
cancel He has covered 1890 miles.
1t had always been my impression
that people who travel $500 miles in
canoes were queer in the head. 7
was wrong.
Hardy is as sane as any of the
rest of us, only perhaps a little
Drawer. He is an ESthonian, has
been in this country since 1929. is
naturalized now, is % years old, we'll
educated, speaks good English. lost
his father in the war, is not married,
is happy by nature, likes to be out
of-doo' ), but hopes to wind I'D in a
law once, and is taking this canoe
trip a a vacation.
q tt
LIE started from New York last
L l. July 4. He went up the Hudson.
through the Erie Canal, followed the
Great Lakes to Chicago, the Illinois
and Mississippi rivers to New Or
leans, and now here he is in Panama
City, Fla. He'll go around Florida
and up the coast and back to New
York by July, he hopes.
Hardy worked six years In New
York as painter and decorator,
and got his whole family over from
Esthonia-four brothers and sisters,
and his mother. Then he said he
was going to take vacation.
So he built a canoe in his back
yard in the Bronx. 1t is the Eskimo
type-wooden framework covered
with canvas, and "doped" like an
airplane wing. 1t is Is feet long
and 21s feet wide. 1t is covered at
the ends, and has little cockpit in
the center to sit in.
1t took three months to build,
and cost 5000, including equipment.
Hardy had never built a boat be-
fore. He didn't know whether it
would float or not. 1t foated.
u
VXTHEN Hardy arrived in Amer
w lea, he had just $18. When
he started rowing away from New
York last July he had just $18s It
wasn't the same $18, however.
Hardy rowed up the Hudson and
through the Erie Canal. He got into
the floods, and dead cattle kept
floating past him. 1t almost made
him sick. And mosquitoes nearly
ate him up
Finally he got to Lake Erie-big
water. Almost too big. He got into
a storm, and his canoe turned over,
two miles from shore.
Hardy hung around it for an hour.
He dived under and got the sail
and mast off. He tried to pull the
canoe, but it was too heavy. Finally
he lit out for shore. The wind was
against him, and it took him three
hours.
A week later the boat drifued
ashore. A farmer found it, nine
miles down the coast. Hardy had
to rebuild one whole side of it. He
would have called the whole thing
off and gone back home, except
there were stories in the Buffalo pa
pers about him, and he thought, eff
I quit now they'll think I'm yellow"
Finally he got into the Missis-
sippi. On Christmas Eve ne rowed
past a dredge boat, below st. Louis.
The captain was Swede. He
thought Hardy was Swede too
Che does look IT'D so he invited him
aboard. He had a fine Christmas,
even stayed the next day.
IT.. q
HARDY doesn't paddle his canoe.
Il l. He rows it, with two oars. His
biggest days rowing was 70 miles,
in 16 hours, coming down the Mis-
siSsippi with the current, and
rowing hard. His biggest days sail
ing Che used sail a lot on the Great
Lakes was 70 miles.
He doesn't travel steadily. He Is
held up lot by wind and rough
water And then he has to stop and
work once in a while He worked
for farmer in Michigan for 20
days. He has weeks job here,
painting oil tanks.
At night he works on his log
books, by the light of a lantern.
He is keeping two logs, one in Eng
fish, one in ESthonian.
He thinks Americans are mighty
honest. He always leaves his canoe
on the bank, unguarded, with the
cockpit full of boots and compasses
and all kinds of gear. He even leaves
it lying out on piers in the cities.
And not one thing has been stolen.