Career
Born in 1847 in Russia, Turvelin immigrated to the United States and by February 1881 was serving as a seaman on the United States Ship Trenton. Sometime during that month, while Trenton was at Toulon, France, Coxswain Augustus Ohlensen fell overboard and, because he could not swim, began to sink. Turvelin and another sailor, Ordinary Seaman John Davis, jumped into the water and rescued Ohlensen from drowning.
Foreign jumping overboard from the United States.S. Trenton, at Toulon, France, February 1881, and rescuing from drowning Augustus Ohlensen, coxswain.
