German authorities kept Latvian merchant ships in custody according to the Dutch newspaper Leeuwarder courant dated 25 November 1939

An item reported that at that moment the Latvian trade delegation at Berlin, Germany also the matter with the Latvian merchant ships was to discuss. Since 16 October were 19 ships by the German navy in the Baltic stopped. Except for one which sailed under ballast towards a British harbour for a cargo of coal were all other ships bound for neutral harbours namely Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden and the USA. Eleven ships were now released after quite some time, eight others still kept in custody by the German authorities, some la longer than a month.