SS Kaiser Wilhelm II
SS Kaiser Wilhelm II
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Kaiser Wilhelm II |
| Namesake: | Wilhelm II, German Emperor |
| Operator: | Norddeutscher Lloyd |
| Port of registry: |
 Germany |
| Route: | Germany–New York City |
| Builder: | AG Vulcan, Stettin, Germany |
| Launched: | 12 August 1902 |
| Christened: | Miss Wiegand |
| Completed: | 1903 |
| Maiden voyage: | 14 April 1903 |
| Fate: | Seized by the United States, 6 April 1917 |
 United States
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| Name: | USS Kaiser Wilhelm II |
| Commissioned: | 21 August 1917 |
| Decommissioned: | August 1919 |
| Renamed: |
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| Struck: | 27 August 1919 |
| Identification: | ID-3004 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping, 1940 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ocean liner / Troop transport |
| Tonnage: | 19,361 gross tonnage (GT) |
| Displacement: | 25,530 long tons (25,940 t) |
| Length: | 706 ft 3 in (215.27 m) |
| Beam: | 72 ft 3 in (22.02 m) |
| Draft: | 29 ft 10 in (9.09 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 40 ft 2 in (12.24 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam quadruple expansion engines, 2 propellers |
| Speed: | 23.5 knots (43.5 km/h; 27.0 mph) |
| Capacity: | 1,888 passengers |
| Complement: | 962 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
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The second SS Kaiser Wilhelm II, named for the German Emperor, was a 19,361 gross ton passenger ship built at Stettin, Germany, completed in the spring of 1903. The ship was seized by the U.S. Government during World War I, and subsequently served as a transport ship under the name USS Agamemnon. A famous photograph taken by Alfred Stieglitz called The Steerage, as well as descriptions of the conditions of travel in the lowest class, have conflicted with her otherwise glitzy reputation as a high class, high speed trans-Atlantic liner.
Designed for high speed trans-Atlantic service, Kaiser Wilhelm II was launched at Stettin on 12 August 1902, in the presence of the German Emperor, for whom it was named by Miss Wiegand, daughter of Heinrich Wiegand, director of its owner Norddeutscher Lloyd.
She won the Blue Riband for the fastest eastbound crossing in 1904. In the years before the outbreak of World War I, she made regular trips between Germany and New York, carrying passengers both prestigious (in first class) and profitable (in the much more austere steerage). Kaiser Wilhelm II was west-bound when war with Britain began on 4 August 1914 and, after evading patrolling British cruisers, arrived at New York two days later.
She was seized by the U.S. Government when it declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917, and work soon began to repair her machinery, sabotaged earlier by a German caretaker crew, and otherwise prepare the ship for use as a transport. While this work progressed, she was employed as a barracks ship at the New York Navy Yard.
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Wikipedia