SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie (1905)

Kronprinzessin Cecilie in Vera Cruz
History
Name	1905: Kronprinzessin Cecilie 1915: Princess
Namesake	Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Owner	1906: Hamburg America Line 1919: Shipping Controller
Operator	1915: Royal Navy 1919: Ellerman & Bucknall
Port of registry	1906: Hamburg 1919: London
Route	1906: Hamburg – Vera Cruz
Builder	F Krupp Germaniawerft, Kiel
Yard number	108
Laid down	1 January 1905
Launched	14 October 1905
Completed	20 February 1906
Maiden voyage	14 March 1906
Identification	1906: code letters RPCD by 1913: call sign DCI 1916: pennant number MI.57 1918: pennant number MI.91 1919:UK official number 143933 1919: code letters JQWM
Fate	scrapped May 1923
Commissioned	as dummy Ajax, March 1915
Decommissioned	as dummy Ajax, October 1915
Recommissioned	as AMC, 6 May 1916
Decommissioned	as AMC, 10 September 1917
General characteristics
Type	ocean liner
Tonnage	8,689 GRT, 5,053 NRT, 7,380 DWT
Displacement	14,350 tons
Length	471.4 ft (143.7 m)
Beam	55.3 ft (16.9 m)
Draught	25 ft (7.6 m)
Depth	30.0 ft (9.1 m)
Decks	2
Installed power	800 NHP; 6,070 ihp
Propulsion	2 × quadruple-expansion engines 2 × screws
Speed	14+1⁄2 knots (27 km/h)
Capacity	passengers: 326 × 1st class; 44 × 2nd class; 915 × 3rd class
Crew	200
Sensors and processing systems	by 1910: submarine signalling
Armament	as AMC: 8 × 6-inch QF guns 2 × 6-pounder anti-aircraft guns
Notes	sister ship: Fürst Bismarck

Kronprinzessin Cecilie was a Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) ocean liner. She was launched in Schleswig-Holstein in 1905. Her scheduled route was between Hamburg and Mexico.

The United Kingdom captured her in 1914, and converted her in 1915 into a dummy of the battleship HMS Ajax, as which she operated from northwest Scotland. In 1916 she was converted into HMS Princess, a real Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser, as which she took part in the East African campaign.

In 1919 she returned to merchant service as Princess. Ellerman & Bucknall managed her for the UK Shipping Controller. She was scrapped in 1923.

The ship is sometimes confused with the Norddeutscher Lloyd transatlantic liner Kronprinzessin Cecilie,^[1] which was launched only a year later. The NDL ship was a four-funnel liner, far larger than the HAPAG ship.