Roald Ekholm's Story

Having met Roald during our reunion of 1994 I was curious how he became a B.F.C. student in 1943. How did a Finnish boy end up going to Feild?

It is 1941 and the war is raging in Europe. The Russians are threatening to invade Finland. Roald's father was the master of a 3 500 ton cargo vessel of Norwegian ownership but was under a Finnish flag. The owners kept their vessel the Oddvar II on the other side of the Atlantic and thus Roald's father was away from his family much of the time. While on a trip home to Finland Roald's father decided that it was far to dangerous for his family to remain there so he made plans to bring them to North America.

The problem was that the Baltic and North Seas were practically closed to commercial shipping so he had to try and get them to the northerly part of Finland to a port called Lilmahamari. First they took the train from Helsinki to Ronaviemi and then by bus to Lilmahamari. In the group were Roald's parents, his sister and Roald himself.

This trip took several days but they finally arrived and embarked on a ship called the S/S Hammerland. She was destined for Vera Cruz in Mexico. Roald tells of the cabin he was in which was filled with emergency equipment in case the ship was attacked by German U-Boats and sunk. It was not a comforting feeling at all. However, the S/S Hammerland was never to make it to Mexico