TWO SHIPS PASSING

Steve told a story about his voyage across the Atlantic. He said that while his ship was sailing west toward America it passed a ship that was travelling east toward Europe.  He said that the ships got close enough to exchange mail. The passengers on the  other ship yelled to the American-bound ship, “Go back! Go back to Europe! People are starving in America!”  

I suspect that this story was one of Steve’s tall tales.  It is unlikely that ships would get close enough for the passengers to exchange vocal messages.  But it is true that in June 1930 the Great Depression was starting to have devastating economic impacts on the lives of many Americans.  But even then the unemployment rate was just under 9%. It got as high as 25% in 1933.

Here is a picture of the SS Berlin that brought Štefan to America.  An interesting piece of family history, Helena (Rumbova) Jondle, Steve’s mother in-law, came to America aboard the SS Berlin in 1920.