SS Kronprinz Wilhelm

Postcard of SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, 1901
History
German Empire
Name:	SS Kronprinz Wilhelm
Namesake:	Crown Prince William
Operator:	Norddeutscher Lloyd
Port of registry:	Bremen, Germany
Builder:	AG Vulcan, Stettin, Germany
Launched:	30 March 1901
Maiden voyage:	17 September 1901
Fate:	Commissioned into the Imperial German Navy, August 1914
German Empire
Name:	SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm
Commissioned:	August 1914
Fate:	Interned at Portsmouth, Virginia, April 1915 Seized by the United States, 6 April 1917
United States
Name:	USS Von Steuben
Namesake:	Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
Acquired:	Seized, 6 April 1917
Decommissioned:	13 October 1919
Renamed:	Von Steuben, 9 June 1917
Struck:	14 October 1919
Identification:	ID-3017
Fate:	Scrapped, 1923
General characteristics
Type:	Ocean liner / Auxiliary cruiser / Troopship
Tonnage:	14,908 gross register tons (GRT) 24,900 tons Displacement
Length:	663.30 ft (202.17 m)
Beam:	66 ft (20 m)
Draft:	28 ft (8.5 m)
Installed power:	33,000 ihp (25,000 kW)
Propulsion:	2 × 4-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engines 2 × screws
Speed:	23.09 kn (26.57 mph; 42.76 km/h)
Capacity:	Passenger liner: 367 first class, 340 second class, and 1,054 third class Troopship: once carried 1,223 passengers, and 2,000+ in an emergency
Complement:	Passenger liner: 526 Auxiliary cruiser: 420
Armament:	German auxiliary cruiser: 2 × 120 mm (4.7 in) guns 2 × 88 mm (3.5 in) guns 1 × machine gun American troopship: 8 × 5 in (130 mm) guns 4 × 3 in (76 mm) guns 2 × 3 in (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns 4 × 1-pounder guns 8 × machine guns

SS Kronprinz Wilhelm was a German passenger liner built for the Norddeutscher Lloyd, a former shipping company now part of Hapag-Lloyd, by the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, in 1901. She took her name from Crown Prince Wilhelm, son of the German Emperor Wilhelm II, and was a sister ship of SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse.

She had a varied career, starting off as a world-record-holding passenger liner, then becoming an auxiliary warship from 1914–1915 for the Imperial German Navy, sailing as a commerce raider for a year, and then interned in the United States when she ran out of supplies. When the U.S. entered World War I, she was seized and served as a United States 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.

Kronprinz Wilhelm was launched on 30 March 1901 and started her transatlantic maiden voyage on 17 September 1901 from Bremerhaven via Southampton and Cherbourg to New York. She was one of the fastest and most luxurious liners on the North Atlantic and stayed on that run until 1914. The ship had a Marconi telegraph, electric central heating and 1,900 electric lamps on board. About 60 electric motors worked bridge cranes, fans, elevators, refrigerators and auxiliary machinery. Kronprinz Wilhelm had a control panel in the map room to close or open the 20 watertight doors. If a door was closed, this was shown by a lamp. This security system alone needed 3.2 km (2.0 mi) of special cables and 1.2 km (0.75 mi) of normal cables. At one point in 1907 the ship rammed an iceberg and suffered a crushed bow, but was still able to complete her voyage.

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