shipping. The ships were ordered back to Germany or into neutral ports, catching Bremen in midArlantic bo und for N ew York. H er sixty-year old mas ter, Adolf Al1rens, co ntinued west to M anhattan to disembark his 1,770 passengers, including a group of high ranking German di plomars, and planned to sai l home immediately witho ut passenge rs. Pres ident Franklin D . Roosevelt, anti cipating war, was quietly assisting British naval intelligence to locate and track important ships, including SS Bremen. H e had received intelligence that Germany was preparing to convert m any of her most capable merchant ships into armed commerce raiders. On personal orders from the President, New York customs officials held the liner in port for for ty-eight hours, conducting derai led inspections fo r arms or contraband and testing all safety eq uipment. The W hite House was acting on a USCG il1(elligence report indicating that Bremen had a false deck beneath her swimming pool. It was reported that rhe deck could be opened at sea to gain access to a submarine to rake aboard weapons and contraband. The detentio n infuriated the G ermans, yet the New York C ustoms C ollector similarly detained several o ther forei gn liners to appear even-handed. O n
President Franklin D . Roosevelt personally ordered customs officials to stall Bremen's departure from New York in August 1939.
16
30 August, fo llowing two days of frustrating delays, the liner slipped her moorings and headed for the Verrazano Narrows. After clearing Sandy H ook in blinding rain, topside lighting glowing normall y, the liner fe inted to the south. After steaming through the fading light for ten minutes, the 52, 000-ton liner ab ruptly extinguished all lights, cranked on 29 kn ots and turned north, using the fo ul wea ther to throw off wo uld-be pursuers. Fearing the worst, and no t entirely certain how lo ng the precarious peace wo uld las t, Captain Ahrens risked collision by running full ahead th ro ugh the th ick fog, without runnin g ligh ts or fog signals, and headed fo r Nova Sco tia. U nderway, steaming at top speed in heavy seas, Bremen's crew rigged boatswain chairs and life boats over her eighty-foo t sides and pail1(ed her hull, superstructure, and funn els cam o uflage haze gray m minimize rhe chances of being seen. Taking full advantage of overcast weather, Bremen scoo ted by H alifax, just narrowly missing the heavy cruisers HMS Berwick and H MS York. Bo th were equipped with reconnaissance float planes, but these we re gro unded by poor fl ying conditions. While steaming northward, Bremen dodged US Coast G uard C urter George W Campbell, passing unseen w ithin ten miles of o ne another on reciprocal courses in heavy seas and poor visibility. Steaming northeast th ro ugh the D enmark Strait, Captain Ahrens risked the threat of icebergs and churned across the G reenland Sea, pas t Jan Maye n Island and into the Barents Sea. These were the days before radar navigation, so Ahrens
relied so lely on dead reckoning and celestial navigation (when possible). The ship maintained radio silence yet mo ni to red the il1(ernatio nal distress channels, the BBC and Ge rman state radio broadcast news. O n 3 September Ah rens learned that Germany and Britain were at war. Bremen entered M urmansk fo r fuel under the terms of the justconcluded, Hi tier-Stalin No n-Aggression Pact. Sh e bunkered, then suffered a frustrati ng three-m onth delay while most of the crew were sent overland to Leningrad and thence by ship to Germany. D uring this lo ng wait the Navy High Command formulated an escape plan by cam ouflaging Bremen electronically as the German fre ighter M/V H elene. Ahrens, now Commodore Ahrens after his success in gaining safe haven with one of Germany's mos t p rized sh ips, sailed on 10 D ecember with a crew of only 124 m en and in a swirling blizzard. H e passed close
(top and below): Underway and over the side-crew members paint the ship's freeboard and stacks camouflage gray while the ship charged on at fa ll speed through the North Atlantic.
SEA HISTORY 110, SPRING 2005