The original cargo was still aboard the ship. It was admitted that it was contraband which was subject for capture, and it was thought that the ship might be sunk by a German submarine before it could land and unload its cargo.
The announcement of the release of the Flint came as a climax to two weeks of diplomatic activity on the part of the United States Government to obtain the release of the American vessel and its American crew.
The City of Flint was captured by the German pocket battleship Deutschland in the North Sea and put in charge of a German prize crew who took the ship to the Russian port of Murmansk. The ship was held at Murmansk by Russian authorities, but was released early this week, despite the protests of the United States Department of State, which claimed the vessel was held illegally.
The Nazi prize crew brought the City of Flint down the coast of Norway from Murmansk, keeping well within Norwegian territorial waters to avoid meeting British warships enforcing the British blockade against Germany. Dusk last night found the vessel steaming to and fro outside the harbour at Karmsund, near Haugesund,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.