John Nordlander
Swedish sea captain (1894–1961)
John Leonard Nordlander (1894–1961) was a Swedish sea captain and Commander commissioned by the shipping line Swedish American Line, crossing the Atlantic Ocean 532 times.
During World War II, while serving as Master of SS Drottningholm, Captain Nordlander was responsible for rescuing thousands of victims of war uniquely through hostile waters in collaboration with the Red Cross and effectively with the Allied powers, with approval of the Swedish royal family.
Biography
John Nordlander was born in 1894 in Härnösand, Västernorrland County, Sweden, to a family of seafarers, and was educated there as a captain.
Initially serving in the Swedish Navy and aboard international sailing ships, Nordlander was first educated as a First Officer in Härnösand 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 Swedish American Line 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. Ships that Nordlander commanded include:
MS Kungsholm (1941, 1942, 1947), as John Ericsson (1947)
MS Gripsholm
SS Drottningholm (1942–1948)
MS Stockholm (1948–1953, 1954), later renamed MV Astoria
MS Kungsholm 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 which caught fire off Halland, 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 7,130 GRT MV Argobeam which caught fire off Ireland.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Nordlander” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.