Danzig, close to Gdynia, in her Free State days issued an excellent set of stamps showing liners built in the port's well-known shipyard. The 15 + 10 pf. stamp of this series shows the Norddeutsher Lloyd's Columbus with two tall raking funnels as she originally emerged from the Schichau yard at Danzig in 1923. In 1929 the Columbus was re-engined, single-reduction geared turbines replacing the original triple-expansion units and her speed was increased from 19 to 23 knots. At the same time she was given two squat funnels so that her appearance would conform with the Bremen and Europa.
Laid down at Danzig in 1914 the Columbus, owing to the First World War, was not launched until June 1922 and made her maiden voyage from Bremen to New York in November 1923. A sister to the White Star's Homeric, the Columbus was a twin-screw ship and at the time of her construction easily the largest vessel ever commissioned by the Norddeutscher Lloyd. She had a gross tonnage of 32,354, a length of 750 ft., a beam of 83 ft., and was the first large German liner to be completed after the First World War.
On the outbreak of the Second World War the Columbus took refuge in Mexican waters and was refuelled and re-victualled at Vera Cruz before receiving clearance papers for Oslo. Before departure however several members of her crew were drowned in the harbour when their launch capsized in a gale. The liner left Vera Cruz in December 1939 when the Germans thought that British naval units were making for Montevideo. She was escorted through coastal waters by warships of that country but on Tuesday, December 19, 1939 the ship was scuttled outside the neutrality zone to prevent capture by a British warship. The USS. Tuscaloosa, in the course of a neutrality patrol, found the Columbus sinking more than 400 miles off the coast between Norfolk, Va., and New York. The warship picked up 400 survivors who were taken to Ellis Island.
SG278 Sea Breezes 8/57