USS Freedom (ID-3024)

USS Freedom (ID-3024), c. 1919
History
Germany
Name	Wittekind
Namesake	Wittekind (c. 730–808), Duke of Saxony
Owner	North German Lloyd
Builder	Blohm & Voss, Hamburg[1]
Launched	3 February 1894[1]
Maiden voyage	Bremen–Hoboken, New Jersey, 14 April 1894[1]
In service	1894
Refit	lengthened in 1900
Out of service	8 August 1914[2]
Fate	Seized by the United States, 6 April 1917[2]
History
United States
Name	USAT Iroquois
Acquired	1917
In service	1917
Renamed	Freedom, 1918
Out of service	1919
History
United States
Name	USS Freedom (ID-3024)
Acquired	24 January 1919[3]
Commissioned	24 January 1919[3]
Decommissioned	23 September 1919[3]
General characteristics
Tonnage	4,997 gross register tons (GRT)
Length	124.69 m (409 ft 1 in)[1]
Beam	14.03 m (46 ft 0 in)[1]
Propulsion	Triple expansion steam engine 2,500 hp (1,900 kW) twin screw[1]
Speed	12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)[1]
Capacity	Passengers:[1] 105 second class 1,009 steerage
Crew	70[1]
After lengthening (1900):[1]
Tonnage	5,640 GRT
Length	140.51 m (461 ft 0 in)
Capacity	Passengers:[1] 177 second class 1,039 steerage
Differences as USS Freedom:[3]
Displacement	9,674 tons[4]
Length	383 ft 5 in (116.87 m) (between perpendiculars)
Beam	46 ft 4 in (14.12 m)
Draft	24 ft 11 in (7.59 m)
Complement	60
Armament	2 × 4-inch (102 mm) guns

USS Freedom (ID-3024) was a cargo and transport ship in the United States Navy in World War I. Originally Wittekind for the North German Lloyd line, the ship also served as USAT Iroquois and USAT Freedom after being seized by the United States in 1917.

Wittekind was built in Germany for the Bremen – New York service of the Roland Line service of North German Lloyd, and was the sister ship of Willehad. In March 1900 Wittekind was lengthened because her cargo capacity was found lacking. Later that same year, Wittekind was among the first transports to carry German Empire troops as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance intended to put down the Boxer Rebellion in China. In August 1914, at the start of World War I, the ship was interned at Boston in the neutral United States.

When the US entered the war in April 1917, Wittekind was seized and turned over to the United States Shipping Board. Renamed Iroquois, the ship was chartered to the United States Army as a cargo ship after a refit, and, in 1918, was renamed Freedom. In January 1919 the ship was commissioned into the United States Navy, and carried almost 5,000 troops home from Europe before her decommissioning in September. Held in reserve for transport duty, the ship was laid up for five years before being scrapped in 1924.