4

The North German Lloyd Line designed Kronprinz Wilhelm to be faster than the Hamburg America Line’s 16,502-ton Deutschland. This ships interior had few luxuries as she was intended to provide an inexpensive service for emigrants traveling from Europe - America. Her maiden voyage from Bremen - New York began September 17th 1901. Although that crossing showed Kronprinz Wilhelm lacked the speed her designers intended, she did succeed in taking the Blue Riband from Deutschland for a short time in 1902 with an average crossing of 23.09 knots. Also in 1902, Kronprinz Wilhelm was involved in two accidents, the first when she ploughed over and sunk the cargo ship Robert Ingham killing two of its crew and the second being a minor collision with the British Navy’s torpedo boat Wizard.

At the outbreak of World War One, the German Navy requisitioned Kronprinz Wilhelm to serve as an armed merchant cruiser. She spent the first eight months of the war operating in the North Atlantic raiding Allied merchant ships, this seeing her credited with the capture of 14 ships. Before these ships were sunk, their cargo and crews were transferred to German support ships. Wear and tear from the eight months at sea forced her to be put into New York for repairs. Although America was still neutral in the war at that time, US Authorities took the decision to intern Kronprinz Wilhelm at New York until the conflict had come to an end. America entering the war in 1917 led to her serving as a troopship for the US Navy under the name Von Steuben. Although the US Shipping Board took control of Von Steuben on her return from the war in October 1919, they failed to find an American shipping company prepared to invest in such a run down ship. Von Steuben was eventually sold for scrap to the Boston Metal Company in 1923.