June 6 First Friday Program

FIRST FRIDAY on June 6 @ 6:00 p.m. at Ft. Stanton
This program is a follow up of the program earlier this year with Larry Pope, Fort Stanton Site Manager. Meet at Ft. Stanton Museum.  If you need a ride, please be at the library by 5:30 p.m.

Attendees will not only be able to visit the museum, but will be viewing a documentary on the S. S. Columbus (Germany's Merchant Ship).

At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Columbus was on a cruise when she was ordered to return to Germany at once. The Royal Navy was on the lookout for enemy ships. Putting her passengers ashore at Havana, Cuba, her captain and crew spent two months evading the British by taking refuge in several South American ports.

On 19 December the British destroyer HMS Hyperion sighted Columbus about 400 miles off the coast of Virginia. The still neutral American heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa was also in the area, and silently observed the two ships. Rather than surrender the ship, her crew scuttled her, and she burned and sank. Her passengers and crew, 567 men and nine women, were taken aboard Tuscaloosa as rescued seamen, not as prisoners of war as they would have been had the British picked them up. Tuscaloosa took all personnel to New York City. After the end of war many returned to Germany.

Many of these German seamen were housed at Ft. Stanton until the end of the war.

Please join us for an entertaining evening.  Light refreshments will be provided.