Lot 338

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Description:

PHOTO ALBUM RECORDS THE SINKING OF THE GERMAN PASSENGER LINER "COLUMBUS"
Excellent album containing 29 original first-generation photographs and one photo postcard, all depicting the sinking of the German passenger steamer S.S. COLUMBUS, which was scuttled in the face of imminent capture by the Royal Navy, and the fate of her passengers and crew. At the outbreak of the war in September of 1939, the Columbus was on her usual passenger route in the Caribbean when she was ordered to return to Germany. She put her passengers ashore at Havana, and took shelter from the Royal Navy in the neutral port of Veracruz. In November, she was ordered to run the British blockade and return to Bremerhaven. She was escorted out of neutral waters by American ships, but was intercepted by the British destroyer HMS HYPERION on December 19, about 400 miles off the coast of Virginia. Her crew scuttled the ship and were picked up by the American cruiser USS TUSCALOOSA, which transported them to New York. The album opens with a pair of 3 1/2" x 2 1/4"b/w snapshots of the ship, taken from a lifeboat as she burns. Following a postcard image of the ship in her prime, the photographer inserts a view of her concert hall, filled with mattresses and utilized as a dormitory to facilitate a quick evacuation. Another view shows the ship's lifeboats, while still another shows ten crewmen decked out in lifebelts and with blankets under their arms, ready to abandon the ship. The following thirteen images were all taken the day of the sinking, and feature views of both the Hyperion and the Tuscaloosa, lifeboats being lowered, crewmen descending the side of the ship via cargo nets and ladders, and smoke billowing from the Columbus as she sinks. From here, the scene shifts to the arrival of the crew at Ellis Island in New York, showing crewmen playing guitars and peering out of a barred window. The final nine images depict the crew during their internment at Angel Island in San Francisco, where they waited out the remainder of the war. Each image is accompanied by a typed caption in German, offering a great deal of detail surrounding the sinking and its aftermath. The collection is rounded out by two inscribed envelopes, the first labeled, in German: "The fate of the passenger steamer Columbus and its crew inn World War II". The second envelope bears a dedication to an American benefactor from Karl Bergmann, the ship's elevator operator and almost certainly our photographer. A large leaf is tucked behind this second envelope, likely a memento of Angel Island. Several photos show slight silvering, else very good overall. A fascinating first-hand record of a particularly tense moment at the outset of the Battle of the Atlantic, one which incredibly ended without loss of life.

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July 31, 2018 10:00 AM EDT
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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