SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie (1906)

For other ships with the same name, see SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie.

Kronprinzessin Cecilie
History
German Empire
NameKronprinzessin Cecilie
NamesakeCrown Princess Cecilie
OwnerNorth German Lloyd
Port of registryBremen
RouteTransatlantic
BuilderAG Vulcan, Stettin, Germany
Launched1 December 1906
Maiden voyage6 August 1907
FateInterned, 1914; Seized by US, 1917
United States
NameMount Vernon
NamesakeMount Vernon
Acquired
  • by Navy: 3 February 1917
  • by Army: 17 October 1919
Commissioned28 July 1917
Decommissioned29 September 1919
FateReturned to Shipping Board by Army August 1920; scrapped 13 September 1940
General characteristics
Class and typeKaiser-class ocean liner
Tonnage
Length
  • 215.29 m (706 ft 4 in) LOA[1][2]
  • 208.89 m (685 ft 4 in) LBP
Beam22.00 m (72 ft 2 in)
Draft31 ft 1 in (9.47 m)
PropulsionFour quadruple-expansion steam engines, two screw propellers
Speed23–24 knots (43–44 km/h; 26–28 mph)
Capacity1,741
Complement1,030 (as USS Mount Vernon)
Armament
Notesfour funnels, three masts

SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie was an ocean liner built in Stettin, Germany in 1906 for North German Lloyd that had the largest steam reciprocating machinery ever fitted in a ship.[1][4] The last of four ships of the Kaiser class, she was also the last German ship to have been built with four funnels. She was engaged in transatlantic service between her home port of Bremen and New York until the outbreak of World War I.

On 4 August 1914, at sea after leaving New York, she turned around and put into Bar Harbor, Maine, where she later was interned by the neutral United States. After that country entered the war in April 1917, the ship was seized and turned over to the United States Navy, and renamed USS Mount Vernon (ID-4508). While serving as a troop transport, Mount Vernon was torpedoed in September 1918. Though damaged, she was able to make port for repairs and returned to service. In October 1919 Mount Vernon was turned over for operation by the Army Transport Service in its Pacific fleet based at Fort Mason in San Francisco. USAT Mount Vernon was sent to Vladivostok, Russia to transport elements of the Czechoslovak Legion to Trieste, Italy and German prisoners of war to Hamburg, Germany. On return from that voyage, lasting from March through July 1920, the ship was transferred to the United States Shipping Board and laid up at Solomons Island, Maryland until September 1940 when she was scrapped at Boston, Massachusetts.

  1. ^ a b Naval History And Heritage Command. "Mount Vernon iii". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History And Heritage Command. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference IME10-07 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Lloyds. "Lloyd's Register 1930–31" (PDF). Lloyd's Register (through PlimsollShipData). Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Fifty Famous was invoked but never defined (see the help page).