On The Week of 3-9 December 1939

US NAVY

Sunday, 3 December 1939

            German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee stops British freighter Tairoa; the warship then sinks the merchantman at21°30'S, 03°00'E. Ironically, the same day Commodore Commanding South Atlantic Station, Commodore Henry H. Harwood, orders his three cruisers to concentrate off the River Plate estuary on 12 December (see 13 December).

Monday, 4 December 1939

            U.S. freighter Examiner, detained at Gibraltar since 17 November by British authorities, is released.

Tuesday, 5 December 1939

            U.S. freighter Exochorda is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities, who maintain that the 45 tons of tin plate among the vessel's cargo is contraband. The latter maintain that the cargo must be taken to Marseilles and unloaded there; the manager of the shipping firm (Export Lines) maintains that the ship cannot proceed to a belligerent port without violating the Neutrality Act. Until the impasse is resolved, the merchantman remains at Gibraltar (see 13December). Freighter Exmouth, detained at Gibraltar since 22 November, is released.

            U.S. freighter Yaka is detained at the Downs by British authorities (see 6 December).

Wednesday, 6 December 1939

            U.S. freighter Yaka, detained at the Downs by British authorities the previous day, is released.

            German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee refuels from tanker Altmark in South Atlantic, roughly 1,700 miles from Montevideo, Uruguay.

Thursday, 7 December 1939

            Rear Admiral George J. Meyers, Commander Base Force, dies of coronary thrombosis on board his flagship, auxiliary Argonne (AG‑31), San Pedro, California (see 28 December).

            U.S. freighters Effingham and Winston Salem, detained at Ramsgate, England, by British authorities since 27 and 28 November, respectively, are released; the latter proceeds to Rotterdam where her cargo of 2,782 bales of cotton is seized by British authorities.

            U.S. freighter Exmoor is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities (see 15 December).

            German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee stops and sinks British freighter Streonshalh at 25°01'S, 27°50'W.

Friday, 8 December 8,

            Duties of the former Technical Division, Office of Naval Operations, concerned with matters of research and invention, is transferred to Office of the Technical Aid to the Secretary of the Navy.

            Secretary of State Hull urges U.S. Chargé d'Affaires in the United Kingdom Johnson to urge the Contraband Commission in London to release U.S. freighter Nishmaha (then at Marseilles, France), which has been held 25 days “a most unreasonable detention" (see 19 December).

            U.S. Consul General in Hamburg Keblinger reports that German prize control authorities are detaining more than 125neutral ships in German ports: at least 40 Swedish, 12 Danish, 5 Norwegian, 40 Finnish, 14 Estonian and 14 Latvian, comprising practically all neutral vessels clearing Baltic or Scandinavian ports with cargoes of goods that are on the German contraband list (see 27 December).

Saturday, 9 December 1939

            U.S. freighter Explorer is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities (see 23 December).

            German tanker Nordmeer sails from Curaçao, N.W.I. (see 5 January 1940).