USS DeKalb

The ship underway as USS DeKalb, circa 1918
History
German Empire
Name	Prinz Eitel Friedrich
Namesake	Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia
Operator	North German Lloyd, then Kaiserliche Marine
Port of registry	Bremen
Route	Bremen - Tsingtao
Builder	AG Vulcan, Stettin, Germany
Cost	4.895 million German Goldmark
Launched	18 June 1904
Maiden voyage	13 October 1904
Reclassified	Auxiliary cruiser
Captured	Interned April 1915
Fate	Seized April 1917
United States
Name	USS DeKalb
Namesake	General Baron Johann de Kalb
Operator	United States Navy 1919 - United American Lines
Route	New York - Hamburg (as liner)
Recommissioned	12 May 1917
Decommissioned	22 September 1919
Renamed	SS Mount Clay
Reclassified	Troop ship transatlantic liner 1919–
Refit	1917 (as troop ship) 1920 (as immigrant ship, all 3d class)
Identification	ID-3010
Fate	Scrapped 1934
General characteristics
Tonnage	8,865 GRT
Displacement	14,180 long tons (14,410 t)
Length	506 ft 6 in (154.38 m)
Beam	55 ft 6 in (16.92 m)
Draft	26 ft (7.9 m)
Installed power	7,500 bhp (5,600 kW)
Propulsion	2 quadruple expansion steam engines, 2 screws
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h)
Capacity	(as passenger liner) 158 1st Class, 156 2nd Class, 48 3rd class, plus 706 'tween deck passengers (when not in mail service) (as immigrant ship, 1920) 1,452 3rd class/steerage
Complement	(as passenger liner) 222 men; (as troop ship) 534 officers and enlisted crew (as immigrant ship, 1920) 211 crew
Armament	4 × 105 mm (4.1 in) guns, 6 × 88 mm (3.5 in) guns

USS DeKalb (ID-3010) was the German mail ship Prinz Eitel Friedrich that served during the early part of the First World War as an auxiliary cruiser (Hilfkreuzer) in the Imperial German Navy and later after the US entry into the war, as a US Navy troop ship. Post war she returned to civilian service as the US transatlantic liner SS Mount Clay.^[1]