USS Von Steuben Passenger liner (4f/2m)
L/B/D:
637.3 × 66.3 (194.2m × 20.2m). Tons:
14,908 grt. Hull:
steel. Comp.:
1st 367, 2nd 340, 3rd 1,054; as cruiser, 402. Mach.:
quadruple expansion, 36,000 ihp, 2 screws; 22 kts. Built:
AG Vulcan, Stettin, Germany; 1901.
A successor to Norddeutscher Lloyd's
Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, Kronprinz Wilhelm quickly established herself as one of the fastest passenger liners on the North Atlantic. In September 1902 she won the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing from Cherbourg to New York—5 days, 11 hours, 57 minutes. Named for the son of Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II, Kronprinz Wilhelm ran between Bremen, Southampton, Cherbourg, and New York for thirteen years. On July 29, 1914, she arrived at Hoboken piers, two days before Germany declared war on Russia. Previously designated for service as a front-line auxiliary cruiser, she sailed from New York Harbor two days later and rendezvoused with the light cruiser
SMS Karlsruhe northwest of the Bahamas on August 6. She shipped two 88-millimeter guns, and Lieutenant Commander Paul Wolfgang Thierfelder came aboard as her wartime commander before the two ships were surprised by HMS Bristol; Kronprinz Wilhelm escaped to the south. Despite repeated Allied broadcasts that she had been sunk, torpedoed, or interned, between September 4, 1914, and March 28, 1915, she captured or sank fifteen ships (60,522 grt)—ten British, four French, and one Norwegian—off the east coast of South America. Without friendly ports in which to refuel, Kronprinz Wilhelm's mission was an impossible one, and on April 11, she entered Newport News, Virginia, where she was interned until the United States entered the war. On June 9, 1917, Kronprinz Wilhelm was commissioned USS Von Steuben—in honor of the German hero of the American Revolution. She sailed as a troop transport between the United States and Europe until 1919, and for five years thereafter she was operated by the United States Shipping Board, first as Baron Von Steuben and later as Von Steuben. She was broken up in 1923.
Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway. Hoyt, Ghost of the Atlantic Niezychowski, Cruise of the "Kronprinz Wilhelm.".
