Check maximum on 10 Pounds Sterling 21.07.1934, Kingdom of Great Britain
| no number in katalog | - |
| Years of issue: | 21.07.1934 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | no signature |
| Serie: | Travel cheques |
| Specimen of: | 1934 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 264 x 128 |
| Printer: | K7462, USA |
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Description
Watermark:
An inscription "La Monte".
Safety paper for this check was produced by "George La Monte & Son" company, whose head office was in New York, and the paper factory was located in Nutley, New Jersey.
In 1871 La Monte opened a factory for the production of safety paper with increased protection, used in the printing of checks and money orders.
Avers:
Check of transatlantic steamship company "United States Lines Operations Inc.". More information about the company please read in the comments!
Printed in the United States for their office in London, UK. The check could be used in an amount not more than 10 pounds, as evidenced red lettering at the bottom.
The bearer could get cash, without any fees, not later than six months after the date of issue. It could be done by the company's offices in England, Ireland, France, Scotland and Belgium.
Transfer offices in these countries, and relevant inscriptions made on the left side of the check.
On check is SS Washington.
SS Washington was a 24,189-ton luxury liner of the United States Lines, named after the US capital city.
Washington was ordered by Transatlantic Steamship Company and laid down on 20 January 1931 in Shipway O at New York Shipbuilding in Camden, New Jersey. By the time the vessel was launched on 20 August 1932, Transatlantic Steamship's assets had been acquired by International Mercantile Marine, and the Washington went into service for the United States Lines following delivery on 2 May 1933.
At the time of their construction, Washington and her sister ship SS Manhattan, also built by New York Shipbuilding, were the largest liners ever built in the United States, a status they held until the 1939 launch of SS America. Washington and Manhattan were two of the few pure ocean liners built by New York Shipbuilding, which had previously built a large number of cargo liners. Accommodations were 580 in Cabin class, 400 in Tourist, and 150 Third class. Both ships were to garner a reputation for a very high standard of service and luxury.
United States Lines signed contracts in 1931 for the Manhattan and Washington for approximately $21 million each. This was a substantial cost in a depression era and considered a gamble by men in the passenger liner business.
Washington joined her sister ship Manhattan on the New York-Hamburg route, a route she continued to serve with only one short break until December 1939, when Roosevelt invoked the 1939 Neutrality Act against Germany. Both ships then moved to the New York-Naples-Genoa run until Italy declared war on Great Britain and France in June 1940. With the increasing danger from German submarines, Washington and Manhattan were shifted to the New York-San Francisco service via the Panama Canal.
On 6 June 1941, Washington was requisitioned and leased by the US Navy, and was subsequently commissioned as the troopship USS Mount Vernon on 16 June 1941. The conversion was performed by the Philadelphia Navy Yard. In Navy service, Mount Vernon frequently sailed in company with the other United States Lines fast liners Manhattan (USS Wakefield) and America (USS West Point), most notably on a secret assignment carrying British troops to Singapore - a convoy mission, which began a month before Pearl Harbor.
In January 1946, Mount Vernon was decommissioned and returned to the U.S. Maritime Commission, regaining the name Washington at that time. Her luxurious appointments had been carefully removed and stored, and she returned to commercial service in February 1947. Only one deck was restored to its pre-war standards, however, and the ship now provided accommodations for 1106 passengers in a single class. United States Lines returned her to the U.S. government in October 1951, and the final phase of her career found her transporting soldiers and their families between New York and Bremerhaven (Germany). Laid up in reserve in the Hudson River in 1953, she was ultimately scrapped at Kearny, New Jersey in 1965. 
A small video for 3 minutes about the ships SS Washington and SS Manhattan.
And one more - Crossing Aboard the SS Washington.
Revers:
White face.
Comments:
United States Lines is a former transatlantic shipping company that operated cargo services from 1921 to 1989, and ocean liners until 1969, most famously, the SS United States. The lines became well known in the 1920's when two valiant historic rescues were made using her ship's, the SS President Roosevelt in 1926, and the SS America in 1929 by Captain George Fried.
The company was formed with three ships from the tonnage of the failed United States Mail Steamship Company. Two of the ships, the America and George Washington, were originally German vessels that had been seized during World War I and kept as reparations. Both the America and George Washington made New York–Bremen runs, while the Centennial State ran from New York to London. One of the founders was Kermit Roosevelt, son of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
Additional ships were acquired in 1922 and renamed after various U.S. presidents. The 52,000 ton Leviathan, formerly the Vaterland and one of the largest liners in the world, was acquired in 1923.
Throughout the 1920s, the line accumulated debt, and in March 1929, the line was sold to P.W. Chapman Company, and reorganized as the "United States Lines Inc." of Delaware. The stock market crash made matters worse, and in 1931, the remaining ships were sold to "United States Lines Company" of Nevada. Later in 1931, United States Lines was acquired by the Roosevelt International Mercantile Marine Company, which had been formed earlier in the year from the merger of the Roosevelt Steamship Company and International Mercantile Marine Co..
1930s.
In 1932, the Manhattan, at a cost of approximately $21 million, became the first ship actually built for the line, followed the next year by the Washington. In 1940, a new America joined them.
In 1932, United States Lines had offered to build a new passenger liner, called the U.S. Express Liner, which would also double as a mail ship, and would dramatically decrease the time of delivery for trans-Atlantic mail by catapulting an aircraft when it was within range. Congress refused to give a guarantee on trans-Atlantic postal rates and it was never built.
During the 1930s, United States Lines' ailing parent company, Roosevelt International Mercantile Marine, began winding down its other operations and merging several of its divisions into United States Lines. United States Lines absorbed the American Line in 1932, the Baltimore Mail Line in 1937, and the American Merchant Line in 1938.
1940s.
The decade started with United States Lines absorbing the Roosevelt Line in 1940, leaving United States Lines as Roosevelt International Mercantile Marine's sole operating business. Roosevelt International Mercantile Marine Company finally changed its name to "United States Lines Inc." in 1942, reflecting its new focus.
In World War II, the ships were converted into troopships. The Manhattan became the USS Wakefield, and the Washington became the USS Mount Vernon. The flagship America became the USS West Point After the war, the company began to build smaller and cheaper ships, and operated a number of cargo ships, all named beginning with "American" or "Pioneer".
Duquesne Spy Ring.
In 1941, two Nazi spies, Franz Joseph Stigler and Erwin Wilheim Siegler, worked for United States Lines as members of SS America's crew. While on the SS America, they obtained information about the movement of ships and military defense preparations at the Panama Canal, observed and reported defense preparations in the Canal Zone, and met with other German agents to advise them in their espionage pursuits. They operated as couriers, transmitting information between the United States and German agents aboard. Stigler worked undercover as the chief butcher. Both remained on the SS America until the U.S. Navy converted that ship into the USS West Point.
Stigler and Siegler, along with the 31 other German agents of the Duquesne Spy Ring, were later uncovered by the FBI in the largest espionage conviction in U.S. history. Stigler was sentenced to serve 16 years in prison on espionage charges with two concurrent years for registration violations; Siegler was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment on espionage charges and a concurrent 2-year term for violation of the Registration Act.
Expansion and bankruptcy
With a government subsidy for her construction, the SS United States entered service in 1952. She was (and still is) the largest ocean liner built in the United States and the fastest ocean liner ever built. She immediately set transatlantic speed records, capturing the Blue Riband from the Queen Mary. But competition from airliners brought the glory days to an end; in 1964, America was sold to Chandris Line, and United States was withdrawn from service in 1969. She is presently docked along the Delaware River in South Philadelphia.
After the termination of passenger services, United States Lines continued to operate as a container ship line, being bought by containerization pioneer Malcom McLean in 1978. By the 1980s, the line operated 43 vessels and was a leader in international shipping. It spent over US$1 billion in rapidly expanding its fleet and acquiring two competitors, Moore-McCormack Lines and Delta Steamship Lines. In expectation of a worldwide surge in oil prices, United States Lines borrowed heavily to construct a new class of 12 fuel efficient container ships known as the Jumbo Econships that, at over 57,000 gross tons, were the largest cargo ships yet built. Just as the new vessels were delivered, international freight rates fell and oil prices collapsed to near historic lows. The giant and slow Econships left United States Lines overcapacity, deeply in debt, and unable to compete with faster ships that were once again economically viable. Straining under the debt accumulated by the fleet expansion, the company filed for bankruptcy on 24 November 1986 in one of the largest bankruptcies in US history at the time. Most of the vessels were sold to pay creditors and in the reorganization plan filed on 5 July 1988, the company was formally liquidated by 1992.
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