"Voyage of the Damned" American line SS St. Louis. Razor by Said Shaheen & Bros

http://traskrom.users.photofile.ru/p.../141810081.jpg

Voyage of the Damned

"In April 1939, Germany's Hamburg-America Line announced a special voyage to Havana on the luxury liner St. Louis, departing May 13. The 937 tickets were quickly sold out, with more than 900 of them purchased by Jews. Most had purchased landing permits for Cuba, where they hoped to wait for the United States to call their quota number. Unknown to them, their landing permits, issued by the corrupt Cuban director of immigration, had already been invalidated by the Cuban government.

The St. Louis arrived in Havana harbor on May 27, but Cuban officials denied entry to all but 28 passengers. For a week, while the ship sat at anchor in sweltering heat, representatives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) negotiated with Cuban president Federico Laredo Brú. The Cuban government rejected the JDC's proposals and forced the ship to leave the harbor.

The ship's captain, Gustav Schröder, piloted the St. Louis to the Florida coast in hopes that the U.S. would accept the passengers or that Brú would reverse his decision. The State Department, however, refused to intervene in Cuban affairs, and the Coast Guard denied the ship entrance into American waters. The St. Louis turned back to Europe.

Fearful of returning to Germany, the passengers pleaded with world leaders to offer them refuge. Through the efforts of the JDC and other agencies, the governments of France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Belgium granted the refugees temporary haven. After being at sea for over a month, the St. Louis docked in Antwerp on June 17, 1939."
from here - The Voyage of the St. Louis


MS St. Louis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tragedy of the S.S. St. Louis

Interesting Razor, thanks for posting the history.

Hello, Traskrom:

Thank you for that fascinating bit of history. No wonder there is something intriguing about the razor.

Regards,
Obie

Nice razor and great piece of history to go along with it. Thanks for sharing it :)

First, I am not a Straight Razor collector; to be honest, I am an ocean liner buff and author. I stumbled on to this thread while doing research.

As lovely as the razor with the image of the s.s. St. Louis on it is, it is not the St. Louis that carried the unfortunate refugees to Cuba and back...that St. Louis belonged to the "Hamburg" America Line, not the American Line.

Fortunately, what you have is, at least within the circle of ocean liner geeks (myself included!), far more historically important....and rare.

The ship so beautifully etched on the blade was built in Philadelphia in 1894 (launched by Grover Cleveland's wife), served in the Spanish-American War as well as World War I (renamed u.s.s. Louisville) and was suppose to return to transatlantic service in 1920. Unfortunately, she caught fire during the refit and was lost. She was scrapped in Italy in 1924.

I apologize if I've stuck my nose in where it usually wouldn't belong; but I've always felt that the truth should always triumph. Besides, you've got nothing to feel bad about: the razor is a hundred times more rare than if it had come from the German St. Louis.

Thanks!

Russ Willoughby

Great info Russ! A super nice historical find!!! Love it!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by linerguy

First, I am not a Straight Razor collector; to be honest, I am an ocean liner buff and author. I stumbled on to this thread while doing research.

---

We collect to use, though. :)

Some really neat information and thanks for sharing -- have you ever been interested at all in shaving as gentlemen did aboard that S.S. St. Louis? I suspect that traditional wet shaving would compliment historical ocean liners and authorship quite well!

I appreciate the history behind this razor - I did not know the story until now. About two years ago I purchased a razor just like this one, I believe it is a good one. But I never knew the story. Wow!

Glad I could be of some assistance.

And to answer commiecat's question: no, I've never been interested; just thought I would chime in to set the record straight.

I do, however, appreciate people's various interests and am always in awe of the different things that folks are into.

'cept for the guy who collected postcards with pictures of brooms on them...that was just plain weird!

Kind regards,

-Russ

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by linerguy

As lovely as the razor with the image of the s.s. St. Louis on it is, it is not the St. Louis that carried the unfortunate refugees to Cuba and back...that St. Louis belonged to the "Hamburg" America Line, not the American Line.

---

Thanks for the info!

I keep repeating to myself - don't trust an internet :D

That's odd. I've got that exact same etching on a blade, but it is a Boker. I also honed another Boker for someone else and it had the same etching.

:thinking:

Fortunately for you, yours is in much better condition than mine.

I sometimes wonder if in it's early heyday the St.Louis just put these in every head and folks were free to take them. Like towels, you know. Why else would there be so many of them by so many makers? Souvenirs? SOMEONE should find out?:) I have one, by Alex Bossiff and Bros in Olean, NY ! So far, we seem to have English, German AND American makers! A NEW RAD! St LOUIS RAZORS! :banghead:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by linerguy

I apologize if I've stuck my nose in where it usually wouldn't belong; but I've always felt that the truth should always triumph. Besides, you've got nothing to feel bad about: the razor is a hundred times more rare than if it had come from the German St. Louis.Thanks!Russ Willoughby

---

Thank YOU,Russ! I always thought the same as the poster until now! I always found it kind of creepy! Now I am proud of it! NEAT! Now you should be the guy to find out if these things were souvenirs! :rock:
I don't know about the rare thing, though! In light of your knowledge shared,I think the German one would be more rare.......?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sharptonn

I sometimes wonder if in it's early heyday the St.Louis just put these in every head and folks were free to take them. Like towels, you know. Why else would there be so many of them by so many makers? Souvenirs? SOMEONE should find out?:) I have one, by Alex Bossiff and Bros in Olean, NY !

---

I have one that says from Sheffield cutlery ?

Nice story, very nice razor!

Just last week, I found one of these razors at a local antique store. There was some surface rust on the manuf name, so I couldn't make out the name, but it appears to be different from the previously noted makers of these. (I'm also new to SB razors, so it's very possible this is an already mentioned name, but I would still like to know)

Here's what I can make out: SALEM MARxxx&Bros
The xxx's being the unreadable part. Also after the capital letters the lettering gets smaller.

The antique store wants $75 for this razor, which I assume is way too much and both scales are broke. Certainly seems way too high to me, but mostly I thought if the maker of this razor is different it would be worth adding to the list of known makers.

-Jason

XCmtbJason, I have one that is SALEM MARos&Bros WARRANTED. Mine has an Ivory or whitish Bakeolite handle(scales?) with silver tips at both ends, in very good condition and as you was wondering on an age and value if someone could suggest one.

Thanks
Jerry

We don't do appraisals in this forum, so the "value" question is out.

Fair enough! Would anyone care to suggest an age?

Thanks
Jerry

I have a Boker with that same etch and the original box it came in had a the price printed on it so they must have sold them on board or at port somewhere.

Today I found my late father-in-laws long-rumored to exist (but "missing") straight edge razor. It turned out to be one of these American Line S.S. St. Louis razors. Barely perceptibly on the shank it says "Abraham."

The box the razor is in says "John Rodgers & Sons LTD" although is may well be improperly cased.

I had previously inherited my father-in-laws collection of classic Gillette safety razors, which I put to good (daily) use and now I'm thrilled to have my first straight edge razor. A Google search led me to this thread. While I've been a member here for some time I've had little to contribute. But I'm grateful to have found this razor and this thread.

Bill

Linerguy,

Thank you for your input. I am pleased to find out that my razor is even more rare than I thought. Traskrom, beautiful razor. I wonder how much of a significance there is in mine being made by Boker and Co?? Attachment 179505

Boker ones seem the most common to find, FME. I took the rotten yellow scales off of this one a few weeks ago.
Bossiff and Bros, Olean, NY. Gee, wonder who made this one? :D

Attachment 179510

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Boker ones seem the most common to find, FME. I took the rotten yellow scales off of this one a few weeks ago.
Bossiff and Bros, Olean, NY. Gee, wonder who made this one? :D

---

I dunno but this New Yorker is obviously a Geneva. :)

Seems about the best option is to figure out who didn't make one! :shrug: