Vintage 1930s Norddeutscher Lloyd cruise ship hankie. Turbinen-Schnelldampfer Columbus. The handkerchief feels like silk. It is delicate, but in rather good condition. There are a few small snags/pulls and a few spots where the materiel is wearing thin. The red writing on "Columbus" has a bit of color bleed.
Columbus made her maiden voyage in 1924. She was refitted in 1929 with shorter, fatter smokestacks. When WWII broke out in 1939, she was in the Caribbean and ordered to return to Germany. She was escorted by American destroyers through the American coastal neutrality zone. On Dec 19, a British destroyer spotted her abut 400 miles from the coast of Virginia. A neutral American heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa observed both ships. Rather than surrender, the crew scuttled the Columbus, the 576 people onboard were picked up by the Tuscaloosa. When declaring war on the US in 1941, Hitler mentioned the presence of the Tuscaloosa at the scuttling of the Columbus as a hostile act against Germany, stating the Americans forced her into the hands of British warships. This was one of many similar acts which convinced Germany that America had defacto declared war on Germany well before Germany made it official after Pearl Harbor.
