page_title: Merilaid & Co.
section_title: SS Kuressaar
hierarchical_section_title: Merilaid & Co. / Details of ships / SS Kuressaar
caption_attribution_description: English: Digitization of a photograph taken on the foredeck of SS Kuressaar in 1936.
context_page_description: A/S Merilaid & Co. was an Estonian shipping company. The firm was founded in Tallinn, Estonia on February 18, 1930. There were seven founding shareholders, most of whom were related by blood or marriage as descendants of Peeter All. Of the 7 founders, 6 were ship captains and 5 had worked in the Far East, in Vladivostok and/or Shanghai, for many years, and had avoided the turmoil of the Bolshevik or Communist Revolution, prior to returning home to a free Estonia. Estonia had been part of the Russian Empire since 1721 when Russia defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War. After World War I, and concurrent with the Russian Civil War, Estonia defeated Russia in the 1918–1920 War of Independence and became an autonomous nation after almost 200 years of Russian rule.
context_section_description: In 1935 Johann Kalmar went to England and, under Merilaid's authorization, found and negotiated the purchase of a suitable ship built in the U.K. in 1914 called Inverawe. Merilaid renamed this ship Kuressaar and Kalmar became her captain until early 1940 when he took the ship to England where Capt. August Tarius was to take Kuressaar to the U.S.
  On June 21, 1940 the U.S.S.R. invaded the Republic of Estonia and on August 6, 1940 they annexed Estonia and the other Baltic nations. The Soviets installed new governments and had these communist governments issue decrees nationalizing all industrial and commercial enterprises, including transportation companies, and expropriating their assets without compensation. The communist governments also attempted to get title and control over various ships owned privately by Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian interests that had been in foreign waters when the decrees were issued. The U.S. did not recognize the occupation of the Baltic Republics by the U.S.S.R. and froze the transfer of all assets owned by Baltic nationals so the Soviets could not benefit from them. The U.S. also affirmed its recognition of Johannes Kaiv, the existing Consul General of the Republic of Estonia in New York, as the lawful representative of Estonia in the U.S.
  One of the ships that the newly annexed Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic tried to claim ownership and control of through American courts was the Kuressaar, that was lying in Baltimore harbor. Various lawsuits were heard regarding the ownership of this vessel including A/S Merilaid & Co. v. Chase Natl. Bank, 189 Misc. 285, 71 N.Y.S.2d 377 (Sup.Ct.N.Y.County 1947).
  Anticipating the Soviet claim, Estonia's Consul General, Kaiv, had already organized a new company, Estoduras Steamship Company Inc., registered in the Honduras, and transferred title of Kuressaar to this entity in order to preserve the ship for her original owner, Merilaid & Co. American courts did not recognize the Soviet claims made on this ship and ownership of the vessel remained with Estoduras. Somewhat ironically, Soviet attempts to get control over other Estonian vessels continued to 1943, even though by this time Germany had invaded Estonia and had taken control of the country from the Russians.
  Estoduras changed the name of the ship to SS Mérida and continued to own and operate the ship, largely under the auspices of Peter Mender and his son-in-law Erich Harkna (1911–1991), who both lived in the U.S.
  Some years later, Johannes Mänder, who lived in Sweden, wished to manage Mérida from Stockholm and sought support for this from other Swedish-Estonian shareholders, including a group led by Arved Mägi.
  According to Mägi's memoirs, an agreement was eventually made with Harkna to transfer control of the Mérida. The total cost for doing so grew to about £250,000 and comprised £100,000 for the ship plus the assumption of various other liabilities, which the Swedish Estonians financed through equity, loans and personal guarantees. This was an unexpectedly large amount and fortunately the subsequent 1956 Suez Crisis resulted in charter rates increasingly substantially. After a few charters from Portugal to England with a cargo of cast iron, Mérida earned enough to repay all of the loans and have monies left over to refurbish the ship. At this time some of the ship's shareholders, and perhaps also those that were shareholders in Mägi's company, Ola de Navegación Estoco S.A. of Panama City, that held the majority interest, wanted to sell their shares. Mänder wasn't among the sellers but wasn't a buyer himself, and Mägi's group ended up acquiring all of the shares in Mérida that they didn't already own. However, Lydia Soone, the daughter of Capt. Soone, one of Merilaid's founders, had by then completed her sentence in Siberia, returned to Estonia and retained a lawyer. Mägi ended up making a deal that resulted in Lydia Soone exchanging her interest in the Mérida for the house owned by Arved Mägi's parents in Tallinn, with his parents being able to live on the lower level of the home as long as th
caption: Foredeck of SS Kuressaar, 1936
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