DescriptionSouvenir handkerchief: Greetings, Hoboken N.J., Port of Debarkation, U.S.S. Leviathan. Printed silk, 10-1/8" square (originally folded to 5" x 2-3/4"). The imprinting includes a side profile depiction of the ship. The view of the ship is in its traditional hull paint format as a passenger vessel and not shown with the dazzle camouflage which it wore in this period. Text below the image: U.S.S. Leviathan World's Largest Ship 950 Feet Long 100 Feet Wide 58000 Tons See objects 2013.005.0041 for a handkerchief of U.S.S. Finland. A commemorative item presumed to be have been made for purchase as a gift for female relatives or loved ones by Army members returning from Europe on the Leviathan (it made nine westbound trips as a debarkation troopship from shortly after the Nov. 11, 1918 armistice that ended World War I to September 1919.) Hoboken served as the major U.S. Army Port of Embarkation and, after the war's end, as a one of the four Ports of Debarkation. The ship here was the former Vaterland of the Hamburg-America Line. The ocean liner was confiscated in 1917 and became the U.S.S. Leviathan. It left Hoboken for its final trip to Europe as part of the Transport Service on August 13, 1919 and returned for the last time as on Sept. 8, 1919. It was decommissioned in October 1919 and turned over to the the U.S. Shipping Board. It became a member of the passenger fleet of the United States Lines and operated as the S.S. Leviathan out of Hoboken. Whether this novelty was manufactured in Hoboken is unknown. Where and how this item was sold is also not known.