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SS Kronprinz Wilhelm

Encyclopedia : S : SS : SSK : SS Kronprinz Wilhelm

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Shipyard: AG Vulcan, Stettin, Germany
Launched: March 30, 1901
Maiden voyage: September 17, 1901
Names: Kronprinz Wilhelm, Von Steuben, Baron Von Steuben
Flags: Germany 1901-1917 (North German Lloyd firm), U.S. 1917-1923
Fate: scrapped in 1923
General Characteristics
Length: 663 feet (202 m)
Beam: 66 feet (20 m)
Draught: 28 feet (8 m)
Tonnage: 23,500
Propulsion: 2 4-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engines, generating 33,000 hp
Speed: 23.09 knots (1902 record for crossing the North Atlantic)
Complement: As passenger liner, crew of 520, with 301 passengers. As an auxiliary cruiser, crew of 420. As a troop ship, once carried 1223 passengers, and once carried 2000+ in an emergency
Armament: Two 88 mm guns (as auxiliary cruiser)

This page is about the passenger liner Kronprinz Wilhelm, built in 1901, temporarily converted to a WWI warship in 1914, and broken up in 1923. Names were: "Kronprinz Wilhelm", "USS Von Steuben", and "Baron Von Steuben". For similarly named ships see the Koenig class battleship SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm launched in 1914 as the "Kronprinz" but renamed to "Kronprinz Wilhelm" in 1918 (and then sunk in 1919), or a list of ships with the Von Steuben name.
The German ship Kronprinz Wilhelm was built by the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, Germany in 1901. She took her name from Crown Prince Wilhelm, the son of the German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II, and was a sister ship of the same class as the SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Große.

She had a varied career, starting off as a world-record-holding German passenger liner, then becoming a temporary warship from 1914-1915 for the Imperial German Navy, sailing as a commerce raider for a year, and then surrendering to the United States when she ran out of supplies. She then served as a US Navy troop transport until she was decommissioned and turned over to the United States Shipping Board, where she remained in service until she was scrapped in 1923.

Contents

1901-1914 German passenger liner

Launched on March 30, 1901, her maiden voyage was on September 17, 1901, Bremerhaven-Southampton-Cherbourg-New York, and she stayed on that run until 1914.

She had the reputation as one of the fastest passenger liners on the North Atlantic. In September 1902, captained by Kurt Grahn, she won the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing yet from Cherbourg to New York in a time of 5 days, 11 hours, 57 minutes, with an average speed of 23.09 knots.

On July 28, 1912 she had an unusual association with the history of swimming. A pier in Binz on the island of Rügen, Germany collapsed under the weight of 1,000 people who were waiting for the arrival of the Kronprinz William, dumping many of them into the water. Sailors of the German navy were able to save most of them, but 17 people drowned because they could not swim, including seven children. This catastrophe led to the founding of the DLRG (Deutsche Lebens-Rettungs-Gesellschaft), the German lifesaving organization, in Leipzig in 1913.

1914-1915 German auxiliary cruiser

In 1914 when Germany entered World War I, the Kronprinz Wilhelm was on the western side of the Atlantic. She was commissioned into the Imperial German Navy, and ordered to rendezvous with the SMS Karlsruhe, where she took on two 88 mm guns and some smaller weapons and became an auxiliary cruiser warship.[link] Lieutenant Commander Paul Thierfelder became her wartime commander, and Grahn was made 1st Officer.

For the next several months, the former passenger liner was one of the most successful commerce raiders in the central and southern Atlantic. Allied newspapers often reported that the Kronprinz Wilhelm had been sunk, torpedoed, or interned, but between September 4, 1914 and March 28, 1915, she was responsible for the capture (and often sinking) of fifteen ships – 10 British, four French, and one Norwegian – off the east coast of South America.

Ships were usually captured either by the Kronprinz Wilhelm simply overtaking them with superior speed and size, ordering them to stop, and then sending over a boarding party; or by pretending to be a ship in distress (or of a friendly nationality), and luring unsuspecting prey to her in that way. The targeted ships were usually caught by surprise (some did not even yet know that war had been declared), and their captain had to make the quick decision of whether to run, fight, or surrender. Since the captured ships were no match in speed, and usually had little to no arms, the unpleasant but expedient choice was to surrender. The Kronprinz Wilhelm would send over a boarding party to search the captured vessel. If they appeared to have nothing of value or military significance, they were sometimes simply released and sent on their way. If they did have valuable (or contraband) cargo, or were warships, or ships that might someday be converted to military use, the crew of the Kronprinz Wilhelm would then systematically (and quite politely) transfer all of the crew, passengers, and their baggage and other valuable cargo from the captured ship to their own, including coal and other supplies. Then they would scuttle the captured vessel by opening up the seacocks (valves in the hull below the waterline), thereby causing the captured ship to fill with water, and sink. (Niezychowski, 1928)

She also almost scored a major success, when on the 14 September 1914 she came across the British armed merchant cruiser HMS Carmania, badly crippled following an epic duel with the SMS Cap Trafalgar which had sunk shortly before the Wilhelm's arrival. Unfortunately the Wilhelm's commander was excessively cautious, and shied away before striking the damaged ship, believeing it to be a trap, and thus missing out on an important prize.

Lieutenant Alfred Niezychowski, author of The Cruise of the Kronprinz Wilhelm, the book about her 251 days as a commerce raider in WWI
Enlarge
Lieutenant Alfred Niezychowski, author of The Cruise of the Kronprinz Wilhelm, the book about her 251 days as a commerce raider in WWI

In this way she took the following:

1915-1917 internment

The long cruise had taken its toll on the ship which was in need of maintenance. Her crew were equally worn down and, short of supplies, she steamed for the neutral US and, evading her enemies, entered port at Newport News, Virginia on April 11, 1915 where she and her crew were interned. The ship was laid up at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, and her crew lived in a camp nearby, as "guests".

1917-1919 US troopship

The United States entered the war in 1917, at which time the Kronprinz Wilhelm was officially seized, and her crew imprisoned.

On June 9, 1917, she was commissioned into the US Navy as the USS Von Steuben, in honor of Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, the German hero of the American Revolution. In 1918 the Germans renamed their battleship the SMS Kronprinz as Kronprinz Wilhelm but this ship was then scuttled in 1919 with the remainder of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow.

Starting in September 1917, the newly named USS Von Steuben sailed as a troop transport. She operated along the eastern coast of the United States until late October, and then left New York to take U.S. troops and other personnel to Europe. On November 9 there was a collision with the USS Agamemnon (another Stettin-built passenger liner that had been the Kaiser Wilhelm II when confiscated by the US), but the Von Steuben successfully finished her voyage and delivered her passengers to Brest, France. In December, on the return leg of the trip, the Von Steuben was one of the ships that rendered assistance at Halifax, Nova Scotia, after the French ammunition ship, the Mont Blanc, had blown up, causing a tidal wave and the death of thousands in the horrific Halifax Explosion (the largest man-caused explosion until the 1945 nuclear tests).

For the next few months, the Von Steuben operated between the United States and Panama, before returning to trans-Atlantic troop transport duty in February 1918. Until Armistice in November 1918, the Von Steuben completed eight more round trips between the United States and France. Notable incidents during this time included the explosion of one of her guns in March, an unsuccessful attack by the German submarine U-151 in June, and the rescue of approximately 2,000 passengers from the burning transport USS Henderson in July. During September and October she weathered a severe storm, and suffered an outbreak of influenza that took nearly three dozen lives.

After repair, the Von Steuben resumed transport service in March 1919, ferrying thousands of American troops home from Europe over the next several months.

1919-1923 commercial service

In October 1919 she was decommissioned from the US Navy and turned over to the United States Shipping Board, where she operated in commercial service under the names Baron Von Steuben and then after 1921 as the Von Steuben.

After a long and distinguished career, she was scrapped in 1923 by Boston Iron & Metals Co.

See also

References

External links

 

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