Interesting story in the paper today about the crew of a German liner, the Columbus.
I didn't know this bit of local history. She sailed from New York to the Caribbean in August 1939 on a twelve day cruise with 750 passengers and 579 crew. Arriving at Martinique, she was denied entrance to the port, and returned to New York.
During the return, she received notice to divert and return to Germany or seek refuge in a neutral port. She went to Havana and disembarked the passengers. After Germany invaded Poland, she sailed to Mexico, was painted gray, and took on fuel for the trans atlantic trip. She was waylaid by a British destroyer 400 miles off Virginia, scuttled, and the crew taken into custody by the USS Tuscaloosa.
Interned on Ellis Island, then repatriated to Germany via a train to San Francisco, they were to be picked up by three Japanese ships. In the event, those ships never arrived, and they were interned on Angel Island. With some freedom, they wandered around San Francisco, went to the World's Fair, and lived well until 1941, when we entered the war, and they were interned for the rest of the war in Roswell, NM.
Attempts by Mars to free them failed.