John Leonard Nordlander (1894–1961) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

sea captain A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel.Aragon and Messner, 2001, p.3. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficie ...

and

Commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...

commissioned by the

shipping line A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...

Swedish American Line Swedish American Line ( sv, Svenska Amerika Linien, abbr. SAL) was a Swedish passenger shipping line. It was founded in December 1914 under the name Rederiaktiebolaget Sverige-Nordamerika and began ocean liner service from Gothenburg to New Y ...

, crossing the Atlantic Ocean 532 times. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, while serving as

Master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

of , Captain Nordlander was responsible for rescuing thousands of victims of war uniquely through hostile waters in collaboration with the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

and effectively with the Allied powers, with approval of the

Swedish royal family The Swedish royal family ( sv, Svenska kungafamiljen) since 1818 has consisted of members of the Swedish Royal House of Bernadotte, closely related to the King of Sweden. Today those who are recognized by the government are entitled to royal ti ...

Biography

John

Nordlander {{Infobox family , name = Nordlander , crest = , crestcaption = , image = Norrlands gård i Bjärtrå socken.jpg , imagecaption = Norrland estate in Bjärtrå, Ångermanland, Sweden (1930), origin of the Nordlande ...

was born in 1894 in

Härnösand Härnösand () is a locality and the seat of Härnösand Municipality in Västernorrland County, Sweden with 17,556 inhabitants in 2010. It is called "the gate to the High Coast" because of the world heritage landscape just a few miles north of H� ...

Västernorrland County Västernorrland County ( sv, Västernorrlands län) is a county (''län'') in the north of Sweden. It is bordered by the counties of Gävleborg, Jämtland, Västerbotten and the Gulf of Bothnia. The name ''Västernorrland'' means "Western Norrl ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, to a family of

seafarer A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. The profession of the s ...

s, and was educated there as a captain. Initially serving in the

Swedish Navy The Swedish Navy ( sv, Svenska marinen) is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet () – as well as marine units, the Amphibious Corps (). In Swedish, vessels o ...

and aboard international sailing ships, Nordlander was first educated as a First Officer in

and then as a Captain at the Marine Officer's School of Gothenburg. Nordlander died in 1961 in Gothenburg and was buried there at Östra kyrkogården.

Swedish American Line

Nordlander was commissioned by the

in 1920 and subsequently served as naval officer on all its ships on transatlantic cruises as well as in other directions, including the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. Ships that Nordlander commanded include: * (1941, 1942, 1947), as ''John Ericsson'' (1947) * * (1942–1948) * MS ''Stockholm'' (1948–1953, 1954), later renamed MV ''Astoria'' * Flagship 1953–1954, 1955–1957 Besides his war activities, later in his career Nordlander was also directed other rescue missions. Among these were the 1950 incident of the Norwegian ship ''

Crown Prince Olav Olav V (; born Prince Alexander of Denmark; 2 July 1903 – 17 January 1991) was the King of Norway from 1957 until his death in 1991. Olav was the only child of King Haakon VII of Norway and Maud of Wales. He became heir apparent to the Norw ...

'' which caught fire off

Halland Halland () is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden (''landskap''), on the western coast of Götaland, southern Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Scania and the sea of Kattegat. Until 1645 and the Second Treaty of Brömsebro ...

, on the west coast of Sweden. Despite no visibility due to heavy fog, helped only by radar, Nordlander managed to find and tow the deteriorating ship and her 120 passengers safely to the nearest port. In 1955, Nordlander rescued the British which caught fire off

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

World War II

Nordlander served throughout

US ship requisition in New York

In 1942 after the USA entered World War II, , commanded by Nordlander, was seized at

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, compulsorily purchased by the

United States government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

for the

War Shipping Administration The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the United States needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Co ...

, converted into a

troop ship A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...

and registered under the

US flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the ca ...

Allied prisoner exchanges and rescue missions

Göteborg (Gothenburg), Västergötland, Sweden

After the purchase of his former ship, Nordlander was appointed Master of 1942–1948, carrying out several prisoner transport missions, totalling thousands of displaced victims and

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

, notably in collaboration with the

. Under signs such as "Freigeleit – Protected, Drottningholm Sweden", she was one of the few ships that sailed hostile waters with all lights shining at night. In 1942 ''Drottningholm''s sides were marked "Diplomat – Drottningholm Sverige" when carrying disabled prisoners of war, victims of Nazi

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

and

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

s from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. In September 1944 she was deployed by the

to transport prisoners of war and

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

s being repatriated from

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

to the United Kingdom via

. Another voyage in April 1945 docked in Liverpool that included 212 ex-interned

Channel Islanders The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

. One of the voyages is indicated to have safely relocated 1,362 individuals at once.

In popular culture

In tribute to the vessel under Nordlander's command, a short illustrated movie, ''The S.S. Drottningholm'' (2014), was produced by Molly DeVries about her ancestors, the Jewish-American concert pianist

Walter Hautzig Walter Hautzig ( he, ולטר האוציג; September 28, 1921 – January 30, 2017) was a pianist born in Vienna, Austria. Biography The Austrian-born American pianist and teacher, Walter Hautzig, studied at Public and High School in Vienna, and t ...

and writer

Esther Hautzig Esther R. Hautzig ( he, אסתר האוציג, born October 18, 1930 – died November 1, 2009 in America) was a Polish-born American writer, best known for her award-winning book ''The Endless Steppe'' (1968). Esther Hautzig (previously known a ...

. The two belonged to and met among the thousands of passengers on rescue missions aboard ''Drottningholm'', and later got married.

Distinctions

* Sweden:

Knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

1st Class of the

Order of Vasa The Royal Order of Vasa () is a Swedish order of chivalry, awarded to citizens of Sweden for service to state and society especially in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. It was instituted on 29 May 1772 by King Gustav III. It was u ...

(1945) * Denmark: Knight of the

Order of the Dannebrog The Order of the Dannebrog ( da, Dannebrogordenen) is a Danish order of chivalry instituted in 1671 by Christian V. Until 1808, membership in the order was limited to fifty members of noble or royal rank, who formed a single class known a ...

* Finland:

Order of the Lion of Finland The Order of the Lion of Finland ( fi, Suomen Leijonan ritarikunta; sv, Finlands Lejons orden) is one of three official orders in Finland, along with the Order of the Cross of Liberty and the Order of the White Rose of Finland. The President o ...

* United Kingdom:

Sea Gallantry Medal The Sea Gallantry Medal (SGM) (officially the 'Medal for Saving Life at Sea', and originally the ' Board of Trade Medal for Saving Life at Sea'), is a United Kingdom award for civil gallantry at sea. History The Merchant Shipping Act 1854 pr ...

in Silver for Saving Life at Sea (1956) by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

for the rescue mission of ''Argobeam'' * United States:

World War II Victory Medal The World War II Victory Medal is a service medal of the United States military which was established by an Act of Congress on 6 July 1945 (Public Law 135, 79th Congress) and promulgated by Section V, War Department Bulletin 12, 1945. The Wor ...

* Sweden: Emmery Medal of the

Royal Patriotic Society The Royal Patriotic Society ( sv, Kungliga Patriotiska Sällskapet) is a Swedish royal society founded in 1772 in Stockholm, Sweden, by royal charter of King Gustav III of Sweden, with the aim of improving Sweden's economy, particularly agricult ...

* Delaware: Medal of Delaware * Sweden: Medal of Merit

Plaque Plaque may refer to: Commemorations or awards * Commemorative plaque, a plate or tablet fixed to a wall to mark an event, person, etc. * Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military personnel after World War I * Pla ...

of the

Swedish Sea Rescue Society The Swedish Sea Rescue Society ( sv, Sjöräddningssällskapet, SSRS), formally the Swedish Society for the Saving of Shipwrecked Persons ( sv, Svenska Sällskapet för Räddning af Skeppsbrutne) is a Swedish voluntary organisation that works wit ...

* Sweden: Medal of Merit of the

, conferred by

King Gustaf V Gustaf V (Oscar Gustaf Adolf; 16 June 1858 – 29 October 1950) was King of Sweden from 8 December 1907 until his death in 1950. He was the eldest son of King Oscar II of Sweden and Sophia of Nassau, a half-sister of Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxem ...

for his "humanitarian efforts during ''SS Drottningholm's'' transports during wartime" * Cuba:

Order of Merit The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...

and Honour of the Cuban Red Cross

References

External links

Videos

Swedish ship Drottningholm arrives in US with diplomatic officers leaving Axis nations
(1942) (

The March of Time ''The March of Time'' is an American newsreel series sponsored by Time Inc. and shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was based on a radio news series broadcast from 1931 to 1945. The "voice" of both series was Westbrook Van Voorhis. Pr ...

Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive The Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive is dedicated to the preservation and research of Jewish documentary films. The archive is jointly administered by the Abraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and ...

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...

Refugee ship Drottningholm arrives
(1942) (

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

Archive)
Former US Diplomats From Europe Brought to New York on Ocean Liner
(1942),

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets— creative ...

Ship launching at Swedish Harbor; Red Cross Ships with POWS
(1944) (

Hospital Ship 'Drottningholm'
(1944),

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

Semester på Atlanten
(1954) aboard (English translation: "Vacation on the Atlantic"), Filmarkivet,

Swedish Film Institute The Swedish Film Institute ( sv, Svenska Filminstitutet) was founded in 1963 to support and develop the Swedish film industry. The institute is housed in the ''Filmhuset'' building located in Gärdet, Östermalm in Stockholm. The building, comp ...

(figuring Captain John Nordlander at 12.00 onwards)
The S.S. Drottningholm
(2014), a short illustrated movie by Molly DeVries about Jewish-American concert pianist

and writer

, who met at a rescue mission aboard SS Drottningholm and later eventually married

Images

"Princess Sibylla, Crown Prince Carl Gustaf and the royal princesses being greeted on board by Captain John Nordlander"
(1953),

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nordlander, John 1894 births 1961 deaths People from Härnösand 19th-century Swedish people 20th-century Swedish people Swedish sailors Sea captains Swedish people of World War II Swedish humanitarians Red Cross personnel Knights First Class of the Order of Vasa Knights of the Order of the Dannebrog Recipients of the Sea Gallantry Medal