Cargo Submarine U-Deutschland Artifacts and Model

[STBaltimore]

... I had family members scour their keepsakes to find additional things to share with you. Below are two pictures that are interesting to me, and perhaps to you as well.

One is a telegram sent to my grandfather in care of the Deutschland from a woman arranging a date to meet him in Baltimore. The second picture is of my grandfather with, whom I assume is the woman. What I find fascinating is that no one in my family has any idea who the woman is, nor did any of us realize that he knew someone in Baltimore when he came here in 1916.

Attachment 592873

Attachment 592872

We may have a lead Howie:

New York, Naturalization Records, 1882-1944 Citizenship & Naturalization Records

Name: Hannah Morris
[Johannah Schwarzchild]
Spouse: Harry
Birth: 10 Mar 1864 - Germany
Civil: 21 Nov 1930
Arrival: 1884

This just may be the mother of the New York woman shown in your photo who would have been a cousin of Ludwig. Worth checking it out wouldn't you think?

Schwarzcheld - Ancestry.com

[STBaltimore]

Attachment 593093

Born somewhere about 1872 I'd say. Should we draw any conclusions from altered question number nine, e.g. the crossed-out segment that could cause one to wonder what the answer would have been if the crossed out wording wasn't.. well -- crossed out?

My sincere appreciation goes to my friend who provided us with a copy of the above.

Enjoy!

[STBaltimore]

We're so happy to have found out about the existence of U-DEUTSCHLAND'S crew roster.

The names from the crew roster document are:
[...]

The more we know, the better our understanding.

Might this be a good time to allow HPL2008 the opportunity of reviewing the rest of the names and associated information to be revealed from the crew roster? Can we also have his findings shared here on this forum?

Our thanks go to HPL2008 and Dwight for unlocking this particular deck hatch.

It will surely help with future genealogy searches.

[drmessimer]

We have very few photos of the Deutschland in New London, but I did find these two.

A number of features set New London apart from Baltimore, one being that the cargo handling facilities at New London were greatly superior to what was used in Baltimore. Shown here are the purpose-built cranes for handling cargo in New London. In Baltimore, the cargo cranes were the Deutschland's own on-board derrick cranes, which were small and very slow. You can see the Deutschland's own cranes in the photos of Steve's enormous model. It looks as though the Deutschland has dropped her anchor at pierside, but I think the anchor is not on the end of the chain. During the last thirty-six hours of her approach to the US three mile limit, the anchor broke loose in very heavy weather and pounded the hull with such force that several forward pressure hull plates were loosened, causing König to close all the watertight doors. The damage to the hull plates was partially repaired, but the boat was still taking water when she entered New London, where the anchor was removed and all the repairs were made. I think this photo was taken on or about 2 November 1916 while the anchor was still off.

I like this shot because there is so much detail to be seen. The Eastern Forwarding Company hired only African-American stevedores because they believed they were incapable of giving away any secrets, a pointless effort since there were no secrets to give away.

This is another of my favorite photos because it shows the three principal players at Baltimore and new London. This photo was taken in Baltimore on 10 July 1916. And here I'm going to give away as little as possible. Left to right they are, Friedrich Hinsch, NDL captain, German naval officer, and saboteur, Paul König, captain of the Deutschland, and Paul G. L. Hilken, American citizen, successful businessman, and the head of the Baltimore sabotage cell, the most successful German sabotage group in the United States during WWI. Dwight

[UBremen]

Gentelmen,
here are a picture showing the crew in New London. Did anyone can find Mr. Schwarzschild?



regrads

Claas

[drmessimer]

Claas: That's the first crew photo I have seen that was taken in New London. I count 27 crewmen in the photo and the one missing appears to be the steward Stucke, which if I am right makes that photo the first one he isn't in. That guy was a real lens hound and managed to get himself into every crew, or part-of-the-crew, photo I have seen. How long have you had it? Dwight

[UBremen]

It is in my collection for round about three month.
Claas

[drmessimer]

I am still organizing my photos and in the process I occasionally turn up one that I haven't seen in a long time, such as this engine room photo showing the electric motor control panal for the port motor. This photo always reminds me of a letter to the editor in the New York Times during the Deutschland's stay in Baltimore. The letter writer asked rhetorically, if it was possible that 28 service age men who were not in the service, but who were proficient in the operation of a complicated system like a submarine, could have been found in Germany to man the Deutschland? It was a good question and one that the State Department ducked. Dwight

[STBaltimore]

I like this shot because there is so much detail to be seen. The Eastern Forwarding Company hired only African-American stevedores because they believed they were incapable of giving away any secrets, a pointless effort since there were no secrets to give away.

If I were to speak in the terms of the times, American Negros were thought, in the main, to be rather disaffected as it related to the warring participants of the European War.

We know that a number of 'invited', and may I say learned, guests toured the vessel's interior spaces. If there were any secrets to be obtained and/or divulged, it would have most likely have come from one of the 'invited' guests such as Simon Lake, the American naval officers or others.

My take is that EFCO/DOR/NDL didn't want to lay themselves open to the possibility of a pro-Allied sabotage cell, doing to the U-DEUTSCHLAND somewhat like Confederate agent Thomas Edgeworth Courtenay did to some of the Union shipping during the American Volkskrieg.

Since we're into suppositions, might there have been a pro-Ally effort to sink the U-BREMEN by placing a depth-sensitive explosive charge aboard during the loading process? I don't think so but others might.

And yes... I think the photo above to be fascinating too. With loading hatches in the open position, it puts me in mind of the model known to me as Zuke's Zubmarine.

[STBaltimore]

What I find interesting about the obverse of this coin is that the word Captain is spelled the German way while König is spelled the English way. Is that usually an acceptable way of doing things in German?

I also would add that I think Hans Schuler did a somewhat better rendering of Koenig's image than this artist.

For more info and an enlargeable image please visit: CoinArchives.com Lot Viewer