1036

SUBMARINE "DEUTSCHLAND" GROUPING

Currency:USD Category:Firearms & Military Start Price:200.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 500.00 USD
SUBMARINE  DEUTSCHLAND  GROUPING
SUBMARINE "DEUTSCHLAND" GROUPING
The Deutschland was a blockade-running German merchant submarine in action during World War I. She was one of the first of seven U-151 class U-boats built and one of only two used as unarmed cargo submarines. After making two voyages as an unarmed merchantman, she was taken over by the German Imperial Navy on 19 February 1917 and converted into the U-155, armed with six torpedo tubes and a deck gun. During the war, she succeeded in sinking 21 vessels before her surrender. Fine group of items, includes a 13" tin American beer tray picturing the vessel and her captain upon their 1916 visit to Philadelphia, made by the "Beer Drivers Union Local 132", a postcard picturing the vessel in Baltimore Harbor, canceled Aug. 18, 1916, German book "The Travels of the Deutschland", by the vessel's Capt. Paul Konig (New York: Hearst International Library), 1916. First edition, 254pp. 8vo., covers worn and loosening, tear across spine, contents very good, and two 10" x 3 3/4" "Handels-U-Boot" German feldpost mailing boxes. Also present are two letters in German sent to a man in Baltimore. The vessel ran British blockades twice, visiting Baltimore and New London to load cargoes for Germany. Konig's book, likely ghost-written was intended to sway public opinion towards Germany. However, a third voyage in January, 1917 was canceled following Germany's sinking of American merchant vessels.