An item reported that again a German steamship managed to leave a South American harbour namely the Uruguay of 5,846 tons. This ‘blockade runner’ left Pernambuco with a cargo of bacon, coffee, cotton and grain. She was the last of the ten German ships which were lying at Pernambuco. However her flight was not long during! The newspaper Nieuwsblad van het Noorden dated 9 March reported that she met a British warship on the Northern part of the Atlantic and her own crew scuttled the ship and was taken on board by the British. In February were tidings received that she was preparing to leave the Brazilian harbour of Recife. At that moment were 33 German merchant ships with a total capacity of 177,227 tons sunk. The Uruguay with a crew of 54 men was discovered by a British plane.
Note
1. Roger Jordan. The World Merchant Fleets 1939. Of the Hamburg-Südamerikanischen Dampfschiffahrts Gesellschaft. Her hull was black coloured and red boot topped.Ex-Einfeld renamed 1923, ex- Optima renamed 1925,build in 1922 at the shipyard of Krupp, 5,846 gross register tons and 9,180 deadweight tons and as dimensions 408’0” x 54’3” x 26’7” and as speed 11,0 knots. Scuttled by her own crew on 6 March 1940 when she could not escape from the British HMS Berwick.
