300.115(39) City of Flint/1: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Steinhardt)
Washington, October
23, 1939—11 p.m.
202. Tass71 despatch from Moscow reports American steamer City of Flint has arrived at Kola Bay (other news agencies say Murmansk) [Page 985] with German Prize crew on board and that “crew” has been interned.72
Telegraph urgently such information as you can immediately obtain from Soviet authorities particularly whether it is the American crew or the German prize crew which has been interned.
Hull
- Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union.↩
- The City of Flint was an American steamer of the United States Maritime Commission operated by the United States Lines Company, Captain Joseph A. Gainard, master. The ship had left Philadelphia on September 20, 1939, and New York on October 3, with a mixed cargo for England and Europe. During the afternoon of October 9, it had been stopped by the German pocket battleship Deutschland, and a German prize crew placed on board, as a portion of the cargo was deemed to be contraband. The ship had stopped at Tromsø, Norway, on October 21 for supplies. From there, instead of proceeding to a German port as expected, it next appeared at the Soviet port of Murmansk.↩