Schreib Lese Fibel, by shops German Evangelism Synod, Rev. R. Wobus - 1885, hardback, Antique Book

Schreib Lese Fibel
by German Evangelism Synod, Rev. R. Wobus
1885, first edition, published by Eden Publishing House
12mo, 92 pp. Hardbound; black and white woodcut illustrations

This antique book was from the library of our family sea captain, Captain R.C. Brennan (see below). It is is a German language ABC book with complete usage for fraktur (Old German). Charming illustrations, completely in German, it teaches children how to read and write in their new American home.

Condition: Good; owner's bookplate; owner's imprint
Cover: Good; ink strong and clear; staining scuffs, worn from use
Binding: inner front endpapers cracked at spine, but pages attached
Pages: aged toning; minor tears pages 16 & 25; no creases, no other markings

The Backstory:
Captain R.C. Brennan (1881-1942) had a long and illustrious nautical career. As a boy, more than once, he ran away from home to work on the sailing schooners. He subsequently graduated from the New York State Nautical School and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Later, in the Spanish American War, he served in the transport service between San Francisco and the Philippines.

While working for the Alaska Pacific Steamship Company in 1910, he helped aid in the capture of two highway men who held up his ship at sea and was presented a medal for it. He was master of the Yale for that company when it was commandeered by the U.S. Navy and he shops was commissioned as lieutenant commander in the reserve. Captain Brennan ran the Yale continuously between Southampton and Havre, and Cherbourg and Boulogne, crossing the English Channel without a single mishap, carrying 246,000 soldiers, wounded troops, and German prisoners in less than a year. This was the greatest single record made by any ship of any nation in World War I. For his effort he was decorated with the Order of the British Empire and promoted to commander. In 1919 he returned to private life.

At the age of 60, Captain R. C. Brennan was master of the Nathaniel Hawthorne, and was lost when the ship was torpedoed off the Isla de Margarita on November 7, 1942. A liberty ship of World War II was soon named after him.