Keri Lighthouse, Keri Island, Estonia
aka Kokskär Keri Tuletorn, Keri saar, Eesti
oli teatud Kokskär Tuletorn ka
aka Kokskär Keri Tuletorn, Keri saar, Eesti
oli teatud Kokskär Tuletorn ka
This photograph may give you a clue to the incredible tale about the shooting down of the Kaleva.
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| Ruhno and Anne at Pirita-Kose, Tallinn , Estonia on November 11, 2008 |
Under construction, work in progress.
Viirelaid Lighthouse, Viirelaid Island,
off Muhu, Saaremaa, Estonia
off Muhu, Saaremaa, Estonia
Photographs Taken: 4 Th June, 2006
My travels
have been varied in the pursuit of experiencing the places my father [Wello
Rattur] mentioned in his story. I have traveled by walking to, by using commercial airplane,
by taxi, by express coach, by bus, by car and by ferry.
But one of the most unusual was by fishing boat.
But one of the most unusual was by fishing boat.
Earlier on
in 2006, I had explored the various options for going to the lighthouses where,
my father had spent parts of his childhood, Kokskär light and Viirelaid light. In 2006
the only way I could find to visit Kokskär on Keri Island, some 30 kilometres from Tallinn by sea, was by Jet Ski. When I
offered this possibility to my companion, she was shocked by the suggestion.
Later on when I visited my cousin at Suur
Pahila I mentioned the Kokskär episode. We talked about visiting Viirelaid but I had a surprise when
we drove to Muhu, where she bought some gumboots for us.
In that
early June morning; a party of us went to a jetty, where we boarded a fishing
boat. No one was jolly except me and my cousin. As we slipped away into the
morning fog, we kept a sharp eye out for other boats. Passing Kuivastu, we saw
the ferries as we peered through the fog.
There was the sound of birds across the water but it was eerily quiet and we sat alone with our thoughts. More than once in the fog and mist I thought of our departure from our homeland more than sixty years before, when we slipped away in the grey mist and fog of Saaremaa.
As the fog began lifting as we glided through the mist, about an hour later, we saw Viirelaid island through the mist sitting on the grey mirrored surface of the water like a little fairytale setting with the red lighthouse tower amid a cluster of wooden buildings. Although I had never been there, this was the island of my dreams, the island of my father’s youth.
VIDEO of the Island
VIDEO of the Rowing
The fishing boat hove to off the island. My cousin fished the small rowboat alongside and began helping our party of cousins to board. Then he rowed my companion, my youngest son and his own family onto Viirelaid. I felt joy on stepping ashore. We had to be very careful in alighting from the rowboat, hopping carefully from rock to rock until I stepped onto the verge of the sandy shore.
VIDEO of the Rowing
The fishing boat hove to off the island. My cousin fished the small rowboat alongside and began helping our party of cousins to board. Then he rowed my companion, my youngest son and his own family onto Viirelaid. I felt joy on stepping ashore. We had to be very careful in alighting from the rowboat, hopping carefully from rock to rock until I stepped onto the verge of the sandy shore.
Although we
knew that we had to row ashore, it was still a surprise and an unusual event,
because it had been almost 40 years that I had travelled in a small boat.
Because the morning had passed as we journeyed to Viirelaid, the fog had lifted
and the mist had dissipated to reveal the mirrored surface of the strait under
an overcast, bright grey, early June day.
We walked
for a while alone in our own thoughts.In our thoughts about my family that had lived here so many years ago. a part of Estonian history, yet excluded as the focus is on the famous and prominent.
Then my cousin showed my companion a
flat round stone about the size of a fist on which someone had written her
name.
Viirelaid
is now an automatic light. No one lives on the island to tend it anymore. The
automation occurred during the Soviet occupation: as I recall, it happened sometime
in the 1970s
As an adventure it was just beginning as we made our way over to the
buildings on the island clustered around the tower of the lighthouse.Although I did not know it then, this site will become part of the history of the Estonian lighthouses in the 1920-30s.
On reaching
the buildings, it was noticeable that the lighthouse had been abandoned in the
same way that many of the former Soviet installations; with haste and a
disregard for the items and engines.
We collected some Saaremaa stones from the
shore and glass battery plugs. The mementos I took to Australia.
Behind the cluster of buildings the meadows stretched off into the distance.
My
grandfather was the lighthouse keeper on Viirelaid Island from 1925 to 1930.
When he
transferred to Viirelaid from Kokskär, it was still called Paternoster light, a famous landmark for those
sailing the straits between the islands of the west Estonian archipelago,
the name changing to Viirelaid Light in 1934
