Not only did we have a descendant of perhaps one of the oldest members of the U-DEUTSCHLAND'S crew (the captain himself) at the recent Paul Koenig 80th anniversary memorial observance at the Port of Baltimore, and a grandson of the youngest member of its crew (Ludwig Schwarzchild), we also had someone attend the observance who informs us that her grandfather was given one of those 'un-official' tours on-board U-DEUTSCHLAND by Captain Koenig himself. It seems that her grandfather owned a Baltimore restaurant where the undersea freighter crew were honored. She brought copies of autographed photos of the DEUTSCHLAND and indicated that she has more.
We also have been in contact with a descendant of the Tug THOMAS F. TIMMINS captain, Zach Cullison and those of a former British sailor who, in July of 1916, was aboard a warship which entered Chesapeake Bay one night looking for the merchant submersible, and, many years later settled in Baltimore.
the Honorable Helen Delich Bentley, who will be celebrating her 90th birthday on November 17th 2013, interviewed both Samuel 'Owen' Coleman, the Chesapeake Bay pilot who both brought U-DEUTSCHLAND up and then back out of Chesapeake Bay, and James M. Fesmire, the skipper of the tiny motor launch EFCO, who first spotted DEUTSCHLAND entering the Capes while on watch aboard the Tug TIMMINS.
Incidentally, October 9th is annually observed in the United States as German-American Day.
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