Nelke's first assignment was as a mate aboard the smaller vessels in the company's fleet, fishing herring in the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Iceland.

Instead, Nelke set a course for Prangli Island, approximately 6 km to the south, beaching the sinking ship off the shore.

Under Nelke's command, the crew of the Eestirand aided the 2,700 surviving Estonian conscripts to disarm the Soviet military personnel aboard the ship and take control of the island, where Nelke and his crew raised the ship's Estonian flag up a tall pine.

At a service held in 2011, Viimsi Parish mayor Haldo Oravas stated that the actions of Nelke and his crew during the incident "showed the extent to which Estonians esteemed their country's and their own freedom".

[5] For his part in the revolt, Nelke was branded an "enemy of the people" by the Soviets and forced to flee Estonia to live in exile.