SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich (1904)
SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich on 28 March 1917, interned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania
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| History | |
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 German Empire
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| Name: | Prinz Eitel Friedrich |
| Builder: | Vulcan. Stettin |
| Launched: | 1904 |
| Commissioned: | 5 August 1914 |
| Fate: | Interned 1915, seized 1917 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 153.3 m (503 ft) |
| Beam: | 16.9 m (55 ft) |
| Draught: | 7.1 m (23 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × 4 cylinder expansion |
| Speed: | 15 kn (28 km/h) |
| Range: | 10,000 nm |
| Complement: | 402 |
| Armament: |
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SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich was a German passenger liner which saw service in the First World War as an auxiliary cruiser of the Imperial German Navy. Though largely overlooked, Prinz Eitel Friedrich was, after SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, 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 33,000 GRT.
Prinz Eitel Friedrich was built for the Norddeutscher Lloyd, a former shipping company of the Hapag-Lloyd, by the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, 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, with orders to proceed to the German naval base at Tsingtao for conversion as an auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer).
At Tsingtao Prinz Eitel Friedrich was equipped for her role as a commerce raider, transferring the armaments and crews of the aging gunboats Luchs, and Tiger. KK Max Therichens, of Luchs, took command.
She was commissioned on 5 August 1914 and sailed from Tsingtao the same day to join company with Admiral Graf von Spee and the German East Asia Squadron. These were at Pagan in the Caroline Islands, and Prinz Eitel Friedrich arrived there on 12 August.
On 13 August she was detached for independent operations and a remit to attack and destroy allied commerce. She sailed south to start this mission along the coast of Australia.
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Wikipedia