In the year 1884

The schooner, 106 lasts, was built in Lemland in 1838, and clinker construction was applied in 1843. At that time, the vessel was owned by Per Andersson from the Andersas farm in Flaka. In 1851, Erik Petter Eriksson married Per Andersson’s daughter. Erik Petter became the owner of Trefanten, but it is unknown whether this happened before or after the marriage. Trefanten was shipwrecked in a dramatic snowstorm on 4 December 1871 at cable length (approximately 200 metres) from the coast of Öland. The vessel was thrown aground and so severely damaged in the storm that it immediately filled with water. The ship’s crew of eight made it ashore to Öland by their own efforts. Johan Jansson (Johansson Friman) was the captain of Trefanten when the accident happened. The wreck was soon sold to an Ålandian at an auction. The same stormy night, two other vessels were shipwrecked in the same area; Swedish Sädesärlan’s crew survived, and the Finnish vessel Oskar’s whole crew died. Per Anton Lignell from Åland was the captain of Oskar.

Fredrika, schooner, 114 lasts

The vessel was built in Bergören, Granboda in 1859. It was clinker-built and the first schooner in Lemland. Erik Petter Eriksson was its master builder and head shipowner. In 1875, E.G. Söderlund became the head shipowner. The vessel ran aground and became a wreck near Starholmen on 15 December 1879. Jansson was the captain.

Alexandra, galleass, 67 lasts

The construction site and year are unknown. E.P.E bought the vessel and brought it to Lemland. The vessel was shipwrecked in 1868 while transporting a load of wood over the Sea of Åland to Stockholm.

Eugenia, barque, 190 lasts

The vessel was built in Sastmola in 1865 for Lemland’s shipping company, whose head shipowner was E.P.E. Eugenia was shipwrecked off Gotland on 29 December 1872 when it was ballasted on its way home from Grimsby. The captain was Anders Nylund.

Alina, barque, 367 nrt

The vessel was built in Skaftung, Ostrobothnia in 1866. E. Silverberg was the master builder. The vessel was built for Lemland’s shipping company, whose head shipowner was E.P.E., and was sold to Norway in 1872.

Elina, barque, 357 nrt

The vessel was built in Sideby in 1866 (Josef Jansson is thought to have been the master builder) for Lemland’s shipping company, whose main shipowner was Erik Petter Eriksson. E.G. Eriksson from Flaka became the head shipowner in 1870, followed by Anders Nylund from Knutsboda in 1878. The vessel ran aground and was wrecked on Jutland’s north-western coast in February 1882, with Mats Sjölund as the captain.

Leo, schooner, 289 nrt

The vessel was built at the Kilens shipyard in Sideby in 1870. Josef Jansson was the master builder. It took only six months to build the vessel, and it was ready to sail on 20 July. The shipping company’s construction supervisor was shareholder Carl Carlsson from Kallas, Granboda. In addition, he was the vessel’s captain for the first two years. Leo was considered to be a vessel that brought good luck, which is why it was commonly called Penningdraken (Money Dragon). Erik Petter Eriksson and Carl Carlsson acted as the head shipowners by turns, and from 1885, Erik August Eriksson was the head shipowner. Leo was taken out of service in 1898, and its wreck is located in the strait of Lumparsund.

Linnéa, schooner, 300 nrt

The vessel was built at the Kilens shipyard in Sideby in 1872. It was made for Lemland’s shipping company, whose head shipowner was Erik Petter Eriksson. Josef Jansson was the master builder. Anders Johan Eriksson from Söderby was the shipping company’s supervisor of construction. He bought the vessel in 1895 Linnéa was taken out of service in 1897.

Ceres, schooner, 273 nrt

The vessel was built at the Kilens shipyard in Sideby in 1873. It was made for Lemland’s shipping company, whose head shipowner was Erik Petter Eriksson. Josef Jansson was the master builder. Johan Johansson Friman (who used the name Jansson for a short period of time) supervised the construction in Sideby. He was the vessel’s first shareholder (5/32) and its captain for the first 21 years. The vessel was commonly considered “a ship that brings wealth”. Ceres was taken out of service in 1897.

Åland, schooner, 311 nrt

The vessel was built in Sideby in 1873. The construction site and master builder are unknown; Erik Petter Eriksson was the head shipowner. The supervisor was A.J. Eriksson, who later became the vessel’s first captain. Åland ran aground and was shipwrecked on 13 July 1882, near Ulkokrunni pilot station in the Uleåborg archipelago.

Cedia, schooner, 228 nrt

The vessel was built at the Kilens shipyard in Sideby in 1874. Josef Jansson was the master builder. Carl Gustaf Nylund from Granboda supervised the construction, and he became the vessel’s first captain. Shipbuilder Josef Jansson (1/4) and some other people from Sideby were Cedia’s shareholders. Businessman Berndt Sundahl was one of the major shareholders. The vessel was shipwrecked on the North Sea on 10 March 1879 and repaired, then taken out of service in 1897.

Eli, schooner, 190 nrt

The vessel was built at the Flada shipyard in Sideby in 1874. Karl-Johan Jossfolk was the master builder. Erik Petter Eriksson was Eli’s head shipowner and E. Sjölund its first captain. The vessel survived without extensive damages and was taken out of service in 1897.

Augusta, barque, 374 nrt

The vessel was built at the Werkflada shipyard in Närpes in 1874. Mats Ivars was the master builder. The vessel had 18 shareholders, all but one of whom were from Lemland. Shipmaster Erik August Eriksson from Granboda was the vessel’s head shipowner from 1874 to 1879. He was the biggest shareholder, with 24/288 shares. Erik Petter Eriksson became the head shipowner in 1880, and he also was one of the biggest shareholders. Augusta was sold to France in 1900 for 3200 francs.

Primus, schooner, 237 nrt

The vessel was built at the Långvik shipyard in Närpes in 1874. Rural tradesman Berndt Sundal and Erik Petter Eriksson from Granboda were the owners. E.P.E was the first head shipowner. Later, Berndt Sundal became the head shipowner, and after him, K.G. Lundberg. The vessel was sold after running aground on 16 December 1888 by Barhöft near Stralsund.

Wendla, schooner, 197 lasts

The vessel was built in Lillholmen, Vessingboda in 1875 by a shipyard whose head shipowner was Erik Gustav Mattson from Mellangård. The schooner was sold to Erik Petter Eriksson, then sold and taken out of service in 1896.

Freja, schooner, 263 nrt

The vessel was built in Söderby sjö, Lemland in 1882–1883. Isak Nordström from Ostrobothnia was the master builder. Söderby’s farmers/sea captains, Emil Nylund from Seffer and Matts Sjölund from Skallfogdas/Mattas, set the building project in motion as they signed a timber supply contract with farmer Anders Nylund from the Nybonds farm in Söderby. According to the contract, Nylund would supply half of all timber, approximately 140–150 standards, for the construction of a ship, and the price was “3,000 Finnish gold marks”. The shipyard had about ten owners, most from Granboda. Erik Petter Eriksson and Erik August Eriksson were the head shipowners. Emil Nylund became the captain for the first 15 years. Nylund was from Seffers, Söderby, and he owned approximately 1/4 of the vessel. On 3 February 1906, Freja was sold to shipmaster Karl Johan Johansson from Hellestorp (12/96 shares) and others at the price of 8,030 Finnish marks. In 1908, inn owner Erik August Eriksson became the head shipowner. Freja and its crew of eight were shipwrecked in a violent snowstorm on 9 October 1909 by Jurmo near Utö. Karl Oskar Johansson from Hellerstorp was the vessel’s captain and major owner.

Tähti, barque, 489 nrt

The vessel was built in Vasa in 1857. Erik Petter Eriksson and others bought the vessel and brought it to Lemland in 1890. The price was 15,000 Finnish marks. The vessel was shipwrecked by Windau in 1897, and the SS Titano rescued the crew. Tähti was Erik Petter’s largest vessel.

Pellas is as much a literature museum as it is a seafaring museum. The museum was inspired by two novels that describe Pellas and the surrounding area’s life from the second half of the 19th century to the 1950s. Ulla-Lena Lundberg, whose paternal great-grandmother Erika (“Kristina” in the novel) was born at Pellas, wrote the novel Leo in 1989. In the book, she portrays “Erik Petter’s” life at the “Simons” farm in Granboda and his offspring’s destinies in the great world. The sequel Stora världen follows the same family’s life. The “Simons” farm is Pellas in reality, and “Erik Petter” is the man who built the grand house on Pellas’ hill – the house that today is a museum. The photograph shows Erik Petter’s grandchildren – Erika’s children – who are “Mauritz”, “Isidor”, “Leonard”, “Artur”, and “Richard” in the novel. In the real world, they are August, Carl, Algot (Ulla-Lena’s paternal grandfather), Erik, and Gustaf. The novel Leo aroused interest in peasant seafaring, Pellas, and its people. As a result, the Pellas museum was established.

An invaluable resource of information about bygone days at Pellas is Pamela Eriksson’s book about the last voyage of the Duchess (the original book: The Duchess: The Life and Death of the Herzogin Cecilie, 1958; Swedish translation Hertiginnans sista resa, 1960; not available in Finnish). The book portrays a writer’s life at Pellas and on the Herzogin Cecilie. Pamela was married to Sven, who was the second-youngest son of the Pellas farm and the captain of Gustaf Erikson’s four-masted barque Herzogin Cecilie. Pamela describes life at Pellas until the end of the 1930s. It is likely that between the years 1884 and 1930, only small changes were made at the farm, as Pamela writes that it seemed as though time had been frozen for 50 years when she arrived. In the book, we follow her life on the vessel, the shipwreck of 1936, its rescue work, and life at Pellas after the couple left the vessel and travelled home to Granboda.

The books have been a great source of inspiration in the museum planning. During the first years of the museum in the mid-1990s, when Lundberg’s books were still fresh in people’s minds, visitors were eager to see the books’ scenes. People were also interested in the books’ characters and how the “Simons” looked in reality. Many visitors wanted to know if reality matched the novel. Even today, the books attract visitors to Pellas. Pamela Eriksson’s book has reached a larger audience, along with its new edition. Per-Ove Högnäs’ film The Last Voyage of the Duchess (2013) and Ulla-Lena Lundberg’s book Hertiginnan och kaptenskan (The Duchess and the Captain’s Wife) (2017), both of which are about Herzogin Cecilie and its captain’s wife Pamela Eriksson, attract new visitors to Pellas and maintain interest in the farm and its life.

Sven Eriksson, born at Pellas in 1903, became known as the young captain of Herzogin Cecilie. It was the flagship of Ålandian major shipowner Gustaf Erikson’s grand sailing fleet. Sven started his seaman career on the barque Prompt. After that, he sailed as a mate on Killoran, Baltic, and Jenolin before becoming the youngest captain of Gustaf Erikson’s sailing ship in 1929.

Sven was Herzogin Cecilie’s captain when the vessel ran aground on the coast of Devon, England in 1936. Sven’s wife Pamela Eriksson was on board on the vessel’s last journey. The couple had met on the boat on an earlier voyage, when Pamela was aboard as a passenger. After the shipwreck of Herzogin Cecilie, Sven and Pamela Eriksson came home to Pellas before moving to South Africa with their two children after the Second World War.

To Sven and the family, the shipwreck was a sad event that cast a shadow on their lives. At that time, a shipwreck was big news, and the spot attracted legions of people who wanted to see the vessel and watch the rescue work that lasted for months. After Herzogin Cecilie, Sven did not act as a captain again but became a farmer, first at Pellas and later on his own farm in South Africa. He died in South Africa in 1954 and is buried in the family grave in the Lemland cemetery. His wife, Pamela, lived the last years of her life in Åland and died in 1984. The excerpt from Lundberg’s book below describes how Sven introduced his wife, whom Lemland’s farmers considered exotic and different.

Ni ska tro att det blir uppståndelse när Stella kommer till Granboda. Som skökan i Babylon i hatt och eldröd sidenklänning står hon i Lemlands kyrka medan prästen läser upp lysningen för henne och Josef. Och Josef njuter, han har slagit hela bygden med häpnad och fått alla halsar att vändas. […]  ”Ja, nog er det en vacker körka, fan ta mig”, konverserar hon […] Och mera i samma stil som ger oss anledning att betvivla att hon är döpt och konfirmerad. Hon använder vad hon har lärt sig av jungmän och matroser, för med Josef och styrmännen talade hon engelska. […] Nu står hon i Simons sal och säger: ”Her har jag bodd i ett tidigare liv. Ner jag kom in tenkte jag att no er jag hemma.

Ulla-Lena Lundberg in her book Stora världen. 

Writer Ulla-Lena Lundberg’s books Leo and Stora världen are based on and inspired by life at Pellas and in Granboda. Ulla-Lena Lundberg’s paternal great-grandmother, Erika Lundberg (“Kristina” in the novels), was born at Pellas in 1851. The tie between the Eriksson and Lundberg families was created when Erika from Pellas married Carl Gustaf Lundberg (born in 1839) from the Hansas farm in the same village. Carl Gustaf was a shipmaster and farmer – a great match for young Erika. Carl Gustaf owned shares of many vessels and was the captain of schooner Leo for a couple of years.

It is said that the marriage was happy. However, they both died at young ages, leaving behind five sons. The two youngest were only one year old when their mother died in 1885 and five years old when their father died in 1889. Their mother’s father, Erik Petter from Pellas, became their guardian. The second-oldest son, Erik, became a farmer at Hansas. He was only fourteen years old when he got possession of the farm after his father, Carl Gustaf, died. Erik was of the same age as his mother’s father, Erik Petter, had been when he got possession of Pellas.

Erika and Carl Gustaf’s oldest son, Carl, became a priest, Erik a farmer, the middle child Algot a teacher, and the two youngest, Gustaf and August, who were twins, became sea captains. These orphan boys succeeded in life, and four of them lived long lives. Sea captain August died at the age of 40 in Cádiz after becoming ill on one of his trips there. In the following excerpt from Leo, “Kristina” talks about wanting to marry “Carl Gustaf”.

Får man fråga vem lilla hjärtat går och tänker på? […] “Eskils Carl Gustaf!” Erik Petter har på tungan att ropa: “Det måste jag förbjuda!” för så ropar fäder när deras döttrar hittar någon som de vill ha. All erfarenhet säger att unga flickor inte kan välja med förstånd. Nu får han bita ihop käften om orden i sista ögonblicket. Eskils Carl Gustaf är sjökapten och arvtagare till en gård som är större än Simons.

Ulla-Lena Lundberg in her book Leo.

August (born in 1856) got possession of Pellas after his father, Erik Petter. He also became the shipowner of Freja after his father. August started his seaman career at the age of 13 as a ship’s boy. After passing a merchant marine examination, he became captain of schooner Cedia, barques Augusta and Tähti, and schooner Freja before becoming a full-time farmer at Pellas in 1902. August was known as a very careful shipmaster who did not take unnecessary risks.

August was a member of the municipal council and parish board, and he was interested in politics. August’s wife, Irene, was a member of Åland’s maritime nobility and was Mathias Lundqvist senior’s daughter from the Hinders farm, Flaka. Mathias was one of the most important shipowners in Lemland; rumour has it that it was a marriage of convenience between two important families. August died in 1931 and Irene in 1954.

The couple had nine children: Filip, Nils, Sally, Adele, Mery, Ebba, Jens, Sven, and Peder. Filip died at a young age after getting ill on his way to New York, where he was also buried. Filip, Nils, and Sven followed in the footsteps of their father and grandfather and became sea captains. After disembarking, Nils became a farmer in Norrby. Sven also disembarked and was a farmer at Pellas for a while before moving to South Africa. Jens and Mery settled on their own farms near Pellas. Sally and Adele moved to their spouses’ farms in Lemland’s Norrby and Flaka. Ebba never married, remaining at Pellas. The youngest son, Peder, moved to the USA.

Erik Petter Eriksson was born in 1823 as the oldest sibling of five. Erik Petter was very young when he got the possession of his fathers’ farm, Pellas. The father died in 1837 and left behind a house burdened with debt. According to the story, the intention was to sell the farm and its movables at auction, but enterprising 15-year-old Erik Petter managed to talk all creditors into waiting with their payment demands. Erik Petter’s plan was to build a cargo vessel and save money to pay his father’s debts.

Erik Petter married Brita Stina Persdotter (born in Rörstorp in 1830 and died in 1913). The couple had two children, August and Erika, who lived to adulthood. August started taking care of the farm, and Erika moved to the Hansas farm in Granboda after getting married.

For Erik Petter Eriksson, Trefanten was the first vessel of which he was head shipowner. Erik Petter Eriksson’s vessel Fredrika used to be Lemland’s biggest vessel and the first schooner in the district. In 1869 and for two years after that, Erik Petter Eriksson was the head shipowner of the brand-new schooner, Leo. He and the other shareholders had the vessel built in Sideby. From 1874 to 1875, Erik Petter Eriksson was the head shipowner of ten vessels, seven of which were built in Sideby. Erik Petter Eriksson’s last vessel, Freja, was built in Söderby, Lemland.

Erik Petter had a good reputation as an honest man, and he made good profits with his vessels. He was called the “bank of Lemland” because he ran his own private loan business for other peasant shipowners who wanted to build vessels. He could write, which was not common in the region that time. He was self-educated and held auctions, drew up estate inventories, and performed distributions on estates in Lemland and Lumparland. When the profitability of small wooden peasant vessels decreased, Erik Petter thought that it was time to invest his money in a new house instead of building new vessels. Erik Petter died in 1908.

The following excerpt from Leo describes Erik Petter’s thoughts on building the Pellas house:

Erik Petter har fortfarande kvar en del av skulden därför att det är mera lönsamt att satsa på nya skepp än att använda hela överskottet till skuldens betalning. Han känner inte längre ett lika skriande behov av att göra sig fri från den. Stora penningsummor har upphört att förskräcka honom, och sedan länge är seglationen ett större intresse än skulden. Men föresatsen står fast: innan skulden är betald byggs här inget hus.

Ulla-Lena Lundberg in her book Leo.

The Eriksson family has roots far back in the history of Pellas. The family’s ancestor Erik Petter Eriksson built the house that is now a museum. Many generations have lived on the farm before and after Erik Petter. The family’s last farm owner, Peder Eriksson (Erik Petter’s grandchild) donated his childhood home, which made it possible to turn it into a farm and family museum. Erik Petter’s offspring have kept running the museum, so the Eriksson family saga continues on the farm.

The Shipmaster’s Homestead Pellas is taken care by the members of the large Eriksson family and a group of volunteers interested in the history of Pellas. Some of the people who participated in the museum’s foundation are still active in the association. Freya Darby, Erik Petter Eriksson’s great-grandchild, has been the farm hostess since the beginning. The association’s chair is Folke Engblom, Erik Petter’s great-great-grandchild. Leif Lindvall has also been involved since the beginning, taking care of various tasks on the farm. Leif is Erik Petter’s great-grandchild. Rita Nordberg, Erik Petter’s great-grandchild, has also been helping on the farm.

Journalist, writer, and Granboda summer resident Kiki Alberius-Forsman has written profiles of four members of the Eriksson family who recounted bygone days at the Pellas farm, where the family spent many lively years. The profiles are fully available to read in the museum guide. Freya, Folke, Leif, and Rita can be seen in the short films about life at Pellas.

Finland-Swedish Ulla-Lena Lundberg’s Leo was published in 1989. The book is about the Ålandian schooner Leo, built in Sideby in 1870, and people related to the vessel. The book is mainly set on the “Simons” and “Eskils” farms in Granboda – which in reality are Pellas and Hansas – and tells about the people on these farms. This is the beginning of Ålandian museum history. In the book, the “Simons” farm – Pellas in reality – is an unoccupied house waiting to be awoken from sleep. Leo aroused interest in Ålandian sailing and set in motion the idea of establishing a museum.

The Shipmaster’s Homestead Pellas is a memorial to the Ålandian seafaring period. This form of seafaring is called peasant seafaring. The period extended from around the 1850s to the end of the First World War. During this period, farmers invested in cargo ship sailing and put money, with varying success, into increasingly larger sailing ships. As an indication of success, new grand main buildings were built on farms. These buildings were commonly called shipmaster’s homesteads and were especially popular in Lemland and Värdö, the biggest seafaring municipalities in Åland at the time. The farmers of Pellas also had a new, spacious house built on the Pellas farm – a house that probably became the biggest shipmaster’s homestead in Åland.

On 25 May 1992, Peder Eriksson donated Pellas to the Åland Maritime Museum. Peder was the last of the Eriksson siblings to grow up on the Pellas farm at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. The deed of gift was signed in Herzogin Cecilie’s beautiful captain’s saloon in the Åland Maritime Museum. Peder’s brother Sven Eriksson had been the vessel’s captain. The Åland Maritime Museum’s condition for the gift was that an organisation should be founded for maintaining the farm. Later that year, an association called Skeppargården Pellas r.f. was founded. After that, the Åland Maritime Museum transferred the farm and its possessions to the new association, and in 1995, the museum opened its doors.

The Pellas main building is impressive. The house is 21.5 metres in length and 11 metres in width. The downstairs living area is 250 square metres. In some of the downstairs rooms, the ceiling height is over three metres. The building also has a large, open attic. The current main building was built by shipowner Erik Petter Eriksson in 1884. The Pellas farm was owned by the Eriksson seafaring and farmer family from the 1670s to the 1990s, when the farm was turned into a museum.

The Pellas main building is one of the biggest shipmaster’s homesteads in Åland. Pellas was built relatively late for a shipmaster’s homestead; most shipmaster’s homesteads in Åland were built between 1850 and 1880. When Pellas was completed in 1884, the golden age of peasant seafaring was already over. When Pellas was under construction, the grand Andersas farm in the neighbourhood had been completed for over 20 years.

These two seafaring families have always competed with each other. It is said that Pellas was built one tier of logs higher and a couple of metres longer than Andersas, which, in turn, is wider than Pellas. It was important to Erik Petter for his house to be bigger. The new main building of Pellas was the last shipmaster’s homestead in the village, and it took several years to build. Erik Petter was already 62 years old when the new and impressive house was completed. This is how Pamela Eriksson describes the competition between the two neighbouring farms:

Pellas närmaste granne var Andersas, som också var en ark fast i något mindre skala. Andersas var i varje fall nästan lika imponerande. Faktiskt var det just för att granngården var så pampig som Pellas hade blivit ännu pampigare.

Pamela Eriksson in her book The Duchess: The Life and Death of the Herzogin Cecilie.

While operating as a shipowner, Erik Petter Eriksson was the head shipowner of the following vessels: Trefanten, Fredrika, Augusta, Leo, Linnea, Elina, Ceres, Åland, Eli, Cedia, Primus, Elida, Wendla, and Freja. In addition, he was a shareholder of many vessels. Of Erik Petter Eriksson’s vessels, Leo was the most infamous; it was called “Människoätaren” (maneater) because it had a reputation for claiming lives on each trip. Despite its bad reputation, Leo was a successful vessel, also called Money Dragon because it was Erik Petter Eriksson’s most profitable ship. 

A couple of Pellas’ vessels were built in Lemland. These included Erik Petter Eriksson’s first sailing ship, schooner Trefanten, and Fredrika, the first schooner in the district. Seven sailing ships were ordered from Sideby, Ostrobothnia. Several sailing ships for Ålandian shipping companies were built in Sideby. After 1874, Pellas’ shipping company operations were reduced, and when the new Pellas main building was built, Erik Petter Eriksson directed two ships. 

The last vessel in Pellas’ ownership was Freja. Erik Petter Eriksson’s son August became the shipowner after his father. When the profitability of small, farmer-owned wooden vessels decreased at the end of the 19th century, August Eriksson left the sea and became a full-time farmer at Pellas. Many of August Eriksson’s sons became sea captains, and the shipmaster tradition continued through them.

Peasant seafaring was a form of seafaring that Ålandian farmers practised in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. During the golden age of peasant seafaring, a successful vessel could earn its acquisition costs in two or three seasons. The cargo ship traffic mainly focused on the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, but some voyages were made farther. Lemland and Vårdö were Åland’s biggest seafaring municipalities during the peasant seafaring period.

All population segments participated in peasant seafaring in one way or another. Men were shipowners or seamen, and women helped in equipping ships. Being a shipowner did not mean you were the only owner of a vessel; rather, you owned shares of it. The head shipowner was the primary owner, he was mainly responsible for the vessel, and he also received the biggest profits. It was possible to own shares of several vessels: a sixth, an eighth, a sixteenth, a thirty-second, and so on. The shareholding system made it possible for all classes to own shares. 

Peasant vessels usually transported timber or firewood that was loaded to the ship on the coasts of Norrland, Västerbotten, or Ostrobothnia, and resold in Denmark, England, Germany, or other countries on the North Sea coastline. Peasant vessels mainly sailed on the Baltic Sea and North Sea.

Överallt på Åland tycktes pojkar vara sjöman och snickare av naturen, men på Lemland låg gräddan av sjöfarare som ett tjockt lager över befolkningen. Var och varannan karl var sjökapten eller redare. 

Pamela Eriksson in her book The Duchess: The Life and Death of the Herzogin Cecilie.

During the second half of the 19th century, seafaring influenced the Ålandian cultural landscape to a considerable extent. Due to the increased income along with seafaring, farmers could build bigger houses. Bigger houses were status symbols and permanent proof of a shipowner’s wealth and success. Shipmasters and shipowners also reformed the Ålandian agricultural society; they modernised ways of living in a society that otherwise were traditional and conservative. 

Beginning in the mid-1800s when the farmers’ seafaring changed from domestic use to more organised cargo traffic, farmers could afford to enlarge and improve their old and old-fashioned houses. In addition to Pellas, the village of Granboda contains four other shipmasters’ homesteads: Andersas (Pellas’ closest neighbour), Nedergårds, Hansas, and Kallas. Pellas is one of the biggest and most magnificent farms remaining in Åland.

On Christmas Eve in 2005, a fire destroyed the Pellas main building. The fire started from a switchboard, and the house was already well ablaze when the neighbours called the fire brigade. The fire spread through the drawing room and up to the open attic. Both the drawing room and the attic were completely destroyed. The eastern part of the house survived better, and some of the objects from there were saved. Thanks to a full value insurance, the house was restored after the fire, and the construction work began right after the clearance work was finished. The timber frame survived the fire surprisingly well. The damaged timbers in the attic were replaced with old, recycled timbers and new timbers from Pellas’ forest. 

The fire revealed many interesting details in terms of what survived. Hand-painted wallpapers were found under the peeling, sooty, water-damaged wallpapers. In connection with the renovation, new decorative paintings were made based on the original paintings. The neighbouring Andersas farm has similar wallpaper patterns, and they have been also found in the Söderby shipmaster’s homestead, Lemland, and in a shipmaster’s homestead in Vardö. Painter Gabriel from Jomala made the paintings. The new wallpaper in the drawing room was hand-printed based on the original wallpaper. The renovated house was inaugurated in 2008.