SS Kronprinz Wilhelm

SS Kronprinz Wilhelm
History
German Empire
Name	Kronprinz Wilhelm
Namesake	Crown Prince William
Operator	Norddeutscher Lloyd
Port of registry	Bremen, Germany
Builder	AG Vulcan, Stettin, Germany
Yard number	522
Launched	30 March 1901
Maiden voyage	17 September 1901
Identification	code letters MDTW 1913: call sign DKP
Fate	Commissioned into the Imperial German Navy, August 1914
German Empire
Name	SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm
Commissioned	August 1914
Fate	Interned at Portsmouth, VA, April 1915 Seized by US, 6 April 1917
United States
Name	USS Von Steuben
Namesake	Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
Acquired	Seized, 6 April 1917
Decommissioned	13 October 1919
Renamed	Von Steuben, 9 June 1917
Stricken	14 October 1919
Identification	ID-3017
Fate	Scrapped, 1923
General characteristics
Class and type	Kaiser-class ocean liner
Tonnage	14,908 GRT, 6,162 NRT
Displacement	24,900 tons[1]
Length	registered: 637.3 ft (194.2 m) o/a: 663.30 ft (202.17 m)[3]
Beam	66.3 ft (20.2 m)
Draft	28 ft (8.5 m)
Depth	39.3 ft (12.0 m)
Installed power	3,534 NHP 33,000 ihp (25,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × quadruple expansion engines[2] 2 × screws
Speed	23.09 kn (26.57 mph; 42.76 km/h)
Capacity	Passenger liner: 367 first class, 340 second class, and 1,054 third class Troopship: once carried 1,223 passengers, and 2,000+ in an emergency
Complement	Passenger liner: 526 Auxiliary cruiser: 420 Troopship: 975
Armament	German auxiliary cruiser: 2 × 120 mm (4.7 in) guns 2 × 88 mm (3.5 in) guns 1 × machine gun US troopship: 8 × 5 in (130 mm) guns 4 × 3 in (76 mm) guns 2 × 3 in (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns 4 × 1-pounder guns 8 × machine guns

Kronprinz Wilhelm was a German ocean liner built for Norddeutscher Lloyd, a shipping company now part of Hapag-Lloyd, by the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland), in 1901. She was named after Crown Prince Wilhelm, son of the German Emperor Wilhelm II, and was a sister ship of SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse.

She had a varied career, starting off as a world-record-holding passenger liner, then becoming an auxiliary warship from 1914–1915 for the Imperial German Navy, sailing as a commerce raider for a year, and then interned in the United States when she ran out of supplies. When the US entered World War I, she was seized and renamed USS Von Steuben, and served as a United States Navy troop transport until she was decommissioned. She was then turned over to the United States Shipping Board, where she remained in service until she was scrapped in 1923.