Price of Sanctuary

U. S. steamship brokers lately received a circular letter from one August Bolten, marine agent of Hamburg, Germany, calmly offering for charter or sale a dozen Nazi ships tied up in Western Hemisphere ports since war began. Herr Bolten said that these ships were available for "cash in U. S. dollars or other first-class neutral value." He found no quick takers in Manhattan, where idle U. S. tonnage was still seeking employment, and where everyone is well aware that the Allies will not recognize any shifts of nationality made by German ships after Sept. 3.

Not only foreign exchange did Herr Bolten's principals seek in their naïve offering. They sought to get out from under the drain of port charges on their idle ships and upkeep of their idle crews. Allied shipping quarters last week estimated that Germany still had tied up throughout the world, 400 to 500 ships, with some 1,800,000 tons of needed car goes, which were running up charges at £330,000 per month for harbor dues alone. To this situation could be added unrest among unpaid, underfed crews, to explain why, in recent weeks, one Nazi ship after another has left sanctuary and tried running the Allied blockade to get home. Rule No. 1 of Germany's sea war being to diminish Allied tonnage, Rule No. 1 for homing German ships is to scuttle rather than be seized. Last week Paris reported half the German fleet moving into the North Sea, perhaps to cover the return of Nazi merchantmen. Allied naval forces tensed themselves.

The safe passage of the Bremen from Murmansk to Hamburg* (TIME, Dec. 25) apparently cued North German Lloyd's 32, 581-ton Columbus, third biggest of the Nazi merchant marine — tied up at Veracruz since debarking her passengers at Havana in September — to make a dash for it. When he received the order to sail home, Columbus' Captain Wilhelm Daehne had no choice but to obey, though he knew his chance of getting through was paper-thin. For weeks he trained two picked squads in the fine art of scuttling and firing ship.

Last week the Columbus passed out of the Gulf of Mexico at Florida's tip, with U. S. destroyers escorting her. Off Charleston, S. C. the U. S. heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa (President Roosevelt's last cruiseship) took up the patrol, to see that no untoward incident occurred in neutral waters. She rode so close to the Columbus that the latter had to carry a night light to avert collision, but no ill befell her until fugitive and escort reached a point 320 mi. northwest of Bermuda. Then the British destroyer Hyperion, which had heard Tuscaloosa's radio speaking to someone, asked: "What ship are you escorting?" Captain Harry A. Badt of the Tuscaloosa replied (in effect): "Find out for yourself."