Figure 1: Prinz Eitel Friedrich (German passenger liner, 1904) interned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, on 28 March 1917. Behind her is the liner Kronprinz Wilhelm. These ships were seized when the United States entered World War I and subsequently served as USS DeKalb (ID No. 3010) and Von Steuben (ID No. 3017). US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: German passenger liners Prinz Eitel Friedrich and Kronprinz Wilhelm (left), interned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, prior to the United States entry into World War I. They are still flying German flags. During 1917-1919, these ships respectively served as USS De Kalb (ID No. 3010) and USS Von Steuben (ID No. 3017). Note US Navy target raft at right. Courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1983. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: German passenger liners Prinz Eitel Friedrich and Kronprinz Wilhelm (left), interned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, on 26 March 1917, shortly before they were seized by the United States. Photographed from on board USS Salem. During 1917-1919, these ships respectively served as USS De Kalb (ID No. 3010) and USS Von Steuben (ID No.3017). US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: German passenger liners Kronprinz Wilhelm and Prinz Eitel Friedrich (left), interned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, on 26 March 1917, shortly before they were seized by the United States. They are still flying the German flag, and German guns are visible on Prinz Eitel Friedrich's stern. During 1917-1919, these ships respectively served as USS Von Steuben (ID No. 3017) and USS De Kalb (ID No. 3010). US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: German passenger liner Kronprinz Wilhelm interned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, on 26 March 1917, shortly before she was seized by the United States. Visible on her opposite side are the masts and funnels of the interned liner Prinz Eitel Friedrich. During 1917-1919, these ships respectively served as USS Von Steuben (ID No. 3017) and USS De Kalb (ID No. 3010). Photographed by Replogle. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: Prinz Eitel Friedrich (ex-German passenger liner, 1904) sailors pose with empty beer barrels removed from the ship's hold, 20 April 1917, soon after she was seized by the United States. She was refitted for US Navy service at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, renamed DeKalb and commissioned on 12 May 1917. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: Prinz Eitel Friedrich (ex-German passenger liner, 1904) sailors on the pier at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, with items removed from the ship's hold, 20 April 1917, soon after she was seized by the United States. Empty wine bottles are specifically identified, in left center. The ship, seen in the background, was refitted for US Navy service, renamed DeKalb and commissioned on 12 May 1917. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS DeKalb (later ID No. 3010) moored at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, on 11 June 1917, the day before she sailed to transport US troops to the European war zone. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: USS DeKalb (later ID No. 3010) taking US Marines on board for transportation to Europe, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, 0600 hours, 12 June 1917. Note the automobiles in the foreground. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USS DeKalb (later ID No. 3010) leaving the pier at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, 0609 hours, 12 June 1917, en route to the European war zone with US troops on board. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: USS DeKalb (later ID No. 3010) tied up at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, after returning from France, 1917. Note sign on the lamp post in the foreground, marking the intersection of 2nd Street West and Preble Avenue. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 12: USS DeKalb (later ID No. 3010) tied up at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, 18 February 1918. Note her camouflage scheme, ice in the Delaware River, and battleships in the left background. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 13: USS DeKalb (ID No. 3010) underway, circa 1918, probably in New York Harbor. Note the pattern camouflage she wore during the latter part of World War I. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation, Washington, DC, 1969. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 14: USS DeKalb (ID No. 3010) in port, circa 1917-1919, with US battleships in the background. Built as the German passenger liner Prinz Eitel Friedrich in 1904, she was seized when the U.S. entered World War I. She was renamed DeKalb and placed in commission on 12 May 1917. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 15: USS DeKalb (ID No. 3010) in port, with a small tug alongside, 1919. The original image was printed on postcard ("AZO") stock as one of the "Ship That Brought Us Home" series produced as souvenirs for service personnel returning from Europe. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 16: SS DeKalb in the Hudson River near Sputtan Duyvill Creek, on 16 December 1919, after she had been damaged by fire. The fire broke out while the ship was lying ready to be converted to an oil burner for the South American trade. Her skeleton crew of 35 men was removed safely and the vessel beached. Built in 1904 as the German liner Prinz Eitel Friedrich, this ship served as USS DeKalb (ID No. 3010) from 1917 to 1919. US Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Prinz Eitel Friedrich was a 16,000-ton passenger liner that was built by the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, Germany, in 1904. The ship was built for the North German Lloyd shipping company and for nearly ten years this impressive ocean liner was used to travel the major shipping routes in the Far East. At the start of the First World War in August 1914, Prinz Eitel Friedrich was docked at Shanghai, China. She was given orders by the German Navy to proceed to the German naval base at Tsingtao, China, where she was to be converted into an auxiliary cruiser.
Several guns were stripped from small German gunboats based at Tsingtao and placed on board Prinz Eitel Friedrich. After her conversion into an “auxiliary” cruiser (which basically was a merchant ship or ocean liner with some guns welded on board the ship), Prinz Eitel Friedrich was commissioned on 5 August 1914 and set sail the same day from Tsingtao to join Vice Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee’s Far East Squadron. After meeting the Far East Squadron at Pagan in the Caroline Islands on 12 August, von Spee decided to detach Prinz Eitel Friedrich for independent raiding operations against Allied shipping. On 13 August, Prinz Eitel Friedrich left von Spee’s squadron and headed south to begin commerce raiding operations off the coast of Australia.
For the next seven months, Prinz Eitel Friedrich searched the Pacific and South Atlantic for victims. During that time, she sank 11 merchant vessels (most of them sailing ships) for a total of 33,423 tons. One of those ships was the schooner William P. Frye, captured on 27 January 1915 and scuttled the next day. William P. Frye turned out to be the first US flagged vessel to be sunk in World War I.
But by the beginning of March 1915, with her coal bunkers nearly empty and her engines almost worn out, Prinz Eitel Friedrich had no possibility of making her way back to Germany. With few options left and with British warships scouring the seas for German auxiliary cruisers, the captain of the Prinz Eitel Friedrich decided to give up. On 10 March 1915, Prinz Eitel Friedrich steamed into Newport News, Virginia, where she was interned by the United States and forced to stay in American waters for the rest of the war. Although she technically remained under the German flag, the ship was taken to the Philadelphia Navy Yard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for storage.
But when the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Prinz Eitel Friedrich was seized by US Customs officials and transferred to the US Navy. The ship was reconditioned and refitted as a troop transport and was renamed USS DeKalb, after General Baron DeKalb (1721-1780), a hero for the American cause during the Revolutionary War. The troop ship was approximately 506 feet long and 55 feet wide, had a top speed of 16 knots, and had a crew of 534 officers and men. DeKalb was armed with eight 5-inch guns and six 3-inch guns and carried roughly 1,000 passengers. USS DeKalb was commissioned on 12 May 1917.
DeKalb was assigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force, Atlantic Fleet, and on 14 June 1917 sailed in the convoy carrying the first troops of the American Expeditionary Forces to France. During the next 18 months, DeKalb made 11 such voyages, carrying 11,334 soldiers safely to Europe. After the war ended, she continued her transport duties returning 20,332 troops from Europe back to the United States in eight voyages. On 6 September 1919, the troop ship was turned over to the Commandant, Third Naval District. USS DeKalb was decommissioned on 22 September 1919 and returned to the Shipping Board for disposal the following day. The ship was sold to a private shipping company and was called SS DeKalb, but after 1920 she was re-named Mount Clay. After briefly operating for the United American Lines during the first half of the 1920s, the ship was laid up. She was scrapped in 1934.
Thus ended the strange career of a ship that started its life as a German ocean liner, was converted by the Germans into an armed auxiliary cruiser with 11 “kills” to her credit, then became an American troop transport, and ended her days as an ocean liner with an American company. But DeKalb also showed how important troop transports were to the war effort. The only way to transport large numbers of troops and equipment was still by sea and ships like DeKalb proved to be invaluable to the Allies during World War I.
