104: SS PRES WARFIELD/EXODUS, HANS MARX STEAMSHIP ITEMS

1. From the collection of Award-winning Baltimore Sun photographer and steam boat enthusiast Hans Marx (1916-1999) - a Baltimore Steam Packet Old Bay Line placard on How To Adjust Life Preservers. PRICE OF THIS ROOM IS $4.50. Hans has written in pencil verso, 'From the S.S. President Warfield...state room 17...on last trip - Sunday, July 12, 1942.' Following this trip, the Warfield went to war, serving in the British Ministry of War Transport fleet where she was a near miss for a German torpedo. Then back to US command as a station and accommodations ship at Omaha Beach and Normandy. She saved the best for last when she was sold to the Zionist group Haganah and christened the S.S. Exodus. With her volunteer crew of Jewish-American sailors and a new name, she left the Chesapeake Bay for the last time, headed for France where she would load her last freightage: 4,500 Jewish refugees and their dream of a new home, perhaps in Palestine. She nearly made it. But her trip and their deliverance was interrupted 20 miles from Haifa near the coast of Palestine when she was rammed by two British destroyers as she tried to breach their blockade and land her passengers on new soil. She was later sunk nearby.

2. From the collection of Award-winning Baltimore Sun photographer and steam boat enthusiast Hans Marx - a Baltimore Steam Packet Old Bay Line placard on How To Adjust Life Preservers.

3. SeandBee Laws and Rules Fire and Boat Drill poster.

4. Chesapeake Steamship Co circa 1915 placard outlining various rules and regulations, along with 'Price of this Room 1.00.'

5. Baltimore Steam Packet placard, THE PRICE OF THIS ROOM $3.00.




Frames measure 10.5 to 21.25 inches.
Very good condition, noting toning and other effects of age.
$200 - $300