Born: June 9, 1904
Ship: Rio Branco
Captain Kjell Markussen was one of a group of Norwegian merchant seamen curing in the Sageman Cottage in September of 1942. For a column named "Cottage Calls," The Guild News interviewed him: Captain Kjell Mirkussen (sic) of Sandefjord, Norway, arrived last Friday. He has been sailing since 1919 and has stopped at Japan many times. He had quite a bit to say on the subject of the Japanese.
"Even in 1938 when I first went there they hated all Americans," he said. "Never, never did I trust them. They do not say what they mean, nor do what they say. You never know what they are up to." We agreed.
On May 14th, Capt. Mirkussen was somewhere in the Atlantic who he was torpedoed by a German submarine. The men set out in life boats and five hours later were picked up by a Yugoslavian ship. At 2:30 A.M. on the morning of May 15th, that ship was sunk by a German U-boat. Again the men set out in life boats. It was seven hundred miles to the coast of Venezuela but they finally reached shore. There the British consulate took over, and now, six weeks later, Captain Mirkussen is resting in Saranac Lake.
By April 1943 when he was interviewed again for The Guild News, Captain Markussen was staying in the Schreiner Cottage at 29 Church Street. He added to the story of his adventures he had told previously: that he was sent from Venezuela to Saranac Lake "which he says he likes better. When we asked him if it was because this climate was much like Norway's he replied, "Oh, all Norway isn't like this." And we still don't know just how he meant it.
