Cappy Amundsen was a man of many talents — and many names. In 1911, Casper Hjalmar Emerson III (1911-2001) was born to Casper Hjalmar Emerson II (1878-1948) and the former Elizabeth Ruth Groht (1894-1927) in New York City. Being the third of his name, the nickname “Cappy” was coined for him in childhood.
Growing up, Cappy was a decorated athlete, winning awards in basketball and swimming. His summers were spent at Camp Pine Bluff in Port Jefferson, where he learned to love sailing.
Cappy was also a talented artist. After graduation, he joined the Artists Union and co-founded the Washington Square Outdoor Art Show, where he and other artists sold many of their works. Along the way he published several controversial political cartoons, gaining him some notoriety.
Cappy supplemented his income by working as a commercial fisherman in the Northeast, inspiring much of his maritime artwork. Around this time he changed his name to C. (Cappy) Hjalmar Amundsen, adopting the surname of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He also painted under several pseudonyms, and many of his paintings bear signatures of nonexistent artists, such as J.C. Bonac, J.J. Enwright, and Andre Picot.
During World War II, Cappy’s paintings were exhibited and his illustrations were frequently featured on the cover of MotorBoating magazine, associating his name with the maritime scenes he drew inspiration from.
By 1946, Cappy and his wife, Nancy Denison Amundsen, had moved to Sag Harbor, where he taught art classes during the summer, fished, and helped organize various sailboat races and Sag Harbor’s first HarborFest. No stranger to pseudonyms, Cappy regularly wrote articles in The Sag Harbor Express under the names Old Whaler and Big Olaf.
A photo album in The East Hampton Star’s archive was kept by Everett T. Rattray (1932-1980) between 1947 and 1967. It includes fishing licenses and cartoons by Marvin Kuhn (1926-2008), and the photos depict Cappy through the lens of a friend, doing what he loved most: sailboat racing, fishing, and painting.
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Megan Bardis is a librarian and archivist in the Long Island Collection.
