U.S.S. Zeppelin Postcard, 1919
U.S.S. ZEPPELIN Postcard, 1919 (SS Zeppelin, RMS Ormuz, SS Dresden)
While flipping through some old postcards in Llano Texas, I ran into a fairly mundane picture of what appeared to be a military transport, the U.S.S. Zeppelin. Pictures of military sailing ships are literally a dime a dozen and I started to pass it by when I noticed the post mark date, June 3, 1919. Knowing that Germany formally surrendered in 1918, this set off a little spark. Also, isn’t a Zeppelin a hot air balloon?
Below is the post card and a translation of the content. Afterwards is the exciting part where we put the history together!
Post Mark:
New Port News VA Stuart Branch
Jun 3 4 PM 1919
Address:
Mr. F E Swanger
719 1/2 S Avenue
Altoona Pa
Message:
June 1 1919
Helo Brother here is a picture of the ship that I came over and I will be home in a week or 10 days
I am feeling fine and hope that you are all the same
From Sax
Good Day
Thanks to Wikipedia and numerous sources, we know that the ship originally was a passenger liner launched in 1914 as the SS Zeppelin by Bremer Vulkan, Bremen-Vegesack, Germany, for Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL). The ship was not used during WWI, but was handed over to the UK government as part of war reparations on March 28th 1919. This is where it gets exciting. The UK gave the ship to the United States to return troops home from the war. The US renamed the ship the U.S.S. Zeppelin. The U.S.S. Zeppelin made two round trip voyages between Europe and the United States returning 15,800 solders. After the second voyage the ship was turned back over to the UK on November 25, 1919. This postcard is from one of the soldiers who returned off one of the two voyages!
June 9, 1914 – Launch date
March 28, 1919 – UK acquires ship; US acquires from UK and becomes U.S.S. Zeppelin
June 1, 1919 – “Sax” writes postcard to brother
June 3, 1919 – “Sax” mails postcard to brother
November 25, 1919 – Ship returns to UK control
There is a rich history to the ship which is well documented on Wikipedia and other historical sites. As for the connection with the airship Zeppelin, the ship was named after Ferdinand von Zeppelin the famous German aristocrat and founder of the Zeppelin airship company.