Lot
2654 
Hawaii, 1917 Hawaii Prisoner of War S.M.S. "Geier" Mail, blue straight line handstamp on legal size cover addressed to the Oahu Railway & Land Co. in Honolulu, with entered the mails with "Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, Mar 16, 1917" cds; couple edge tears, still Very Fine, a rare prisoner of war cover from German ship interned in Honolulu. Estimate $500 - 750.
SMS "Geier" was an unprotected cruiser of the Bussard class built for the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) and commissioned in 1895. "Geier" was still en route to the German base in Tsingtao when war broke out in Europe in August 1914. She slipped out of still-neutral British Singapore days before Britain declared war on Germany and crossed the central Pacific in an attempt to link up with Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron. While at sea, she captured one British freighter, but did not sink her. In need of engine repairs and coal, "Geier" put into the neutral United States port at Honolulu, Hawaii in October 1914, where she was eventually interned. After the American entrance into the war in April 1917, the US Navy seized "Geier" and commissioned her as USS "Schurz" and placed her on convoy duty.
Realized: $950