SS ''Prinz Eitel Friedrich'' was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

passenger liner which saw service in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

as an

auxiliary cruiser An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in lo ...

of the

Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for ...

and named after

Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia Prince Wilhelm Eitel Friedrich Christian Karl of Prussia (7 July 1883 – 8 December 1942) was the second son of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany by his first wife, Princess Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg. He was bo ...

. Though largely overlooked, ''Prinz Eitel Friedrich'' was, after , the most successful of Germany's first wave of auxiliary cruisers. She was able to remain at large for seven months, from August 1914 to March 1915, and sank 11 ships, for a total tonnage of .

Early career

''Prinz Eitel Friedrich'' was built for the

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of th ...

, a former shipping company of the

Hapag-Lloyd Hapag-Lloyd AG is a German international shipping and container transportation company, the 5th biggest in the world. It was formed in 1970 through a merger of Hamburg-American Line (HAPAG) and Norddeutscher Lloyd. History The company was forme ...

, by the

AG Vulcan Aktien-Gesellschaft Vulcan Stettin (short AG Vulcan Stettin) was a German shipbuilding and locomotive building company. Founded in 1851, it was located near the former eastern German city of Szczecin, Stettin, today Polish Szczecin. Because of th ...

shipyard in

Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...

, in 1904. For the ten years prior to the First World War she served on NDL routes in the Far East. On the eve of war in August 1914 she was at

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, with orders to proceed to the German naval base at

Qingdao Qingdao, Mandarin: , (Qingdao Mandarin: t͡ɕʰiŋ˧˩ tɒ˥) is a prefecture-level city in the eastern Shandong Province of China. Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, Qingdao was long an important fortress. In 1897, the city was ceded to G ...

for conversion as an auxiliary cruiser (''Hilfskreuzer'').

Service history

At Qingdao ''Prinz Eitel Friedrich'' was equipped for her role as a

commerce raider Commerce raiding is a form of naval warfare used to destroy or disrupt logistics of the enemy on the open sea by attacking its merchant shipping, rather than engaging its combatants or enforcing a blockade against them. Privateering is a fo ...

, receiving the armaments and crews of the aging gunboats , and . KK Max Therichens, of ''Luchs'', took command. She was commissioned on 5 August 1914 and sailed from Qingdao the same day to join company with Admiral Graf von Spee and the German

East Asia Squadron The German East Asia Squadron () was an Imperial German Navy cruiser squadron which operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean between the mid-1890s until 1914, when it was destroyed at the Battle of the Falkland Islands. It was based at Germany's Ji ...

. These were at

Pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

in the

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the cen ...

, and ''Prinz Eitel Friedrich'' arrived there on 12 August. On 13 August she was detached for independent operations with a remit to attack and destroy allied commerce. She sailed south to start this mission along the coast of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. In the following seven months she operated in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

and

South Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for ...

, sinking 11 vessels, mostly sailing ships, for a total of . In March 1915, with her

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

s nearly empty and her engines worn out, ''Prinz Eitel Friedrich'' headed for the neutral United States, and on 11 March 1915 sailed into

Newport News Newport News () is an independent city in southeastern Virginia, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the fifth-most populous city in Virginia and 140th-most populous city i ...

harbour.

Armament

Four 10.5 cm SK L/40 cannons. Two each mounted fore and aft. The port aft gun pictured at right. An original 10.5 cm SK L/40 naval gun from ''Prinz Eitel Friedrich'' can be seen at Memorial Park in

Cambridge, New York Cambridge is a Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town in Washington County, New York, Washington County, New York, United States. It is part of the Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town population was 1,952 at the 2020 cen ...

Table

3 ships sunk by Prinz Eitel Friedrich Jacobsen - Mary Ada Scott - William P Frye

* '' William P Frye'' was the first U.S. ship sunk during World War I. Its sinking contributed to the neutral U.S. entering the war.

Internment and United States flag

''Prinz Eitel Friedrich'' failed to leave the neutral port in the time prescribed by international law and was interned on 9 April 1915. The ship, still under the German flag, was moved to the

Philadelphia Navy Yard The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy shipyard and was historically important for nearly two centuries. Construction of the original Philadelphia Naval Shipyard began during the American Revolution in 1776 at Front ...

where, upon the United States declaration of war with Germany on 6 April 1917, she was seized by U.S. Customs officials and then transferred to the Navy.

U.S. Naval service

Reconditioned and refitted as a troop transport and given the identification number (Id.No.) 3010, she was renamed and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 12 May 1917. ''DeKalb'' served for the remainder of the war as a troopship on the trans Atlantic route.

Immigrant ship

The ship was acquired by

W. Averell Harriman William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986) was an American politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was a founder of Harriman & Co. which merged with the older Brown Brothers to form the Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. investment ...

and included with ten previous ships acquired from the Kerr Navigation Company in a name change so that all were prefixed with an American mountain and thus renamed ''Mount Clay''. The ship was specially modified to be a steerage only immigrant ship for the United American Line of New York. ''Mount Clay'' made the initial voyage as an immigrant ship on Christmas Day 1920 (Marine Review) or 26 December (DANFS). ''Mount Clay'' made the last westbound voyage from Hamburg to New York on 15 October 1925 and was laid up until scrapped in 1934.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Prinz Eitel Friedrich (1904) Ships of Norddeutscher Lloyd World War I commerce raiders 1904 ships Auxiliary cruisers of the Imperial German Navy