Prinz Eitel Friedrich (ship, 1904)
Prince Eitel Friedrich (NDL) .svg){kind=small} 
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| Launch : | June 18, 1904 | |
| Commissioning: | September 27, 1904 | |
| Builder: | AG Vulcan Szczecin | |
| similar: | Prince Ludwig | |
| Passengers: | 158 Class I 156 Class II 48 Class III 706 tween deck (not as RPD) |
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| Crew: | 222 men | |
| Building-costs: | 4.895 million marks | |
| Technical specifications | ||
| Measurement: | 8,865 GRT | |
| Load capacity: | 8200 dw | |
| Length over all: | 154.53 m | |
| Width: | 16.96 m | |
| Draft : | 9.8 m | |
| Machinery: | 2 quadruple expansion steam engines | |
| Number of screws: | 2 | |
| Power: | 7,500 PSi | |
| Top speed: | 15 kn | |
| Whereabouts | ||
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The Prinz Eitel Friedrich was a Reichspostdampfer owned by the North German Lloyd for the East Asia Service, which was used as an auxiliary cruiser in the First World War in 1914/15. It was named after Eitel Friedrich von Prussia , the second son of the German Emperor Wilhelm II.
Civil use
The double chimney was an extended version of the Feldherren class with 50% more passenger capacity. On October 13, 1904, he began his maiden voyage to East Asia. He was only used on this line.
On her way home from Japan, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich was ordered to Tsingtau in Shanghai on August 1, 1914, where she was converted to an auxiliary cruiser.
According to Article 17 of the Reichspoststampfer contract, the Reich government could make use of the Reichspostdampfer in the event of mobilization . In accordance with Article 13 of the contract, requirements of the Reichsmarineverwaltung were taken into account during the construction. According to Article 31 of the contract, the deck crew and the engine personnel of all Reichspostdampfer had to consist of members of the leave of absence of the imperial navy or persons who undertook in writing to enter the service of the navy as volunteers in the event of mobilization.
Auxiliary cruiser
In the shipyard in Tsingtau, the ship received the four 10.5 cm rapid loading cannons of the cannon boats SMS Tiger and SMS Luchs , which were disarmed, as well as six 8.8 cm guns. With parts of the crew of the gunboats, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich left under the previous commandant of the Luchs , Korvettenkapitän Thierichens, together with the small cruiser SMS Emden on August 6th and reached the Mariana Island of Pagan on the 12th , where the East Asian squadron under Vice Admiral Graf Spee with a number of supply ships anchored. Until August 30, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich led the squadron's entourage via Eniwetok to Majuro , Marshall Islands , in order to then be released to the cruiser war with the SMS Cormoran , an auxiliary cruiser from the Emden , after being released from the steamer Mark of the NDL had replenished their coal supplies. The auxiliary cruisers separated on September 15. The Prinz Eitel Friedrich ran to Angaur , Palau Islands , to take on board as much as possible of the 2000 tons of coal stored there. The Cormoran did not show up at the agreed meeting point. On September 28th, Thierichens learned in Alexishafen , New Guinea that the German colony was largely occupied and that the Cormoran had escaped the guarding British warships.
Without finding an enemy ship, the lack of coal eventually forced the Cormoran to call at Guam , where the crew sank the ship themselves when the USA entered the war.
Since the Prinz Eitel Friedrich had not discovered any enemy ships either and still had coal for five weeks, the commander decided to run to South America in order to reconnect with the East Asia Squadron. After initial radio contact, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich met the squadron at Más a Tierra . He should run to Valparaíso , take care of himself within the allowed 24 hours and prepare the arrival of the cruisers. During the successful sea battle at Coronel on November 1, 1914, the auxiliary cruiser was back at sea and then met with the squadron again at the old anchorage (November 8-15).
Trade war
After the prizes left behind were cleared, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich went to sea alone on November 29, 1914 and landed her first booty on December 5 with the British steamer Charcas (5067 GRT) at Corral . The crew was put ashore in Papudo near Valparaíso. When coal was running out, the auxiliary cruiser met the French Bark Jean (2207 GRT) with 3500 tons of coal on December 10th . Since a takeover at sea seemed impossible, the sailor was towed to empty it at Easter Island, 1600 nm away . The British barque Kidalton (1784 GRT) was sunk on the way . On December 23, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich reached Easter Island. After the slaughter of 50 semi-wild oxen and the emptying and sinking of the Jean , the auxiliary cruiser went back to sea on December 31, 1914 for a voyage around Cape Horn in the Atlantic. The crews of the two sailors stayed behind voluntarily. It was not until January 26, 1915 that the Prinz Eitel Friedrich captured the Russian barque Isabela Browne (1315 GRT) with a cargo of saltpetre in the South Atlantic, and on the following day two sailing ships loaded with wheat on their way to Great Britain. The French barque Pierre Loti (2196 BRT) followed shortly afterwards, followed by the William P. Frye (3605 BRT). This was the first US ship to be sunk in the World War. There should be 38 other grain ships to Great Britain at the same time. The following day the barley-laden French Bark Jacobsen (2195 GRT) could be brought in. The next success came on February 12th with the Bark Invercoe (1421 GRT) that had loaded wheat. On the 18th, the British steamer Mary Ada Short (3605 GRT) was landed with a load of corn and on the 19th the French steamer Floride (6629 BRT) with 86 passengers and on the 20th the steamer Willerby (3630 GRT), which was ballasted to La Plata . All ships were sunk immediately after taking over the crews, passengers and supplies. With dwindling coal supplies, heavy wear and tear on the engines, more than 350 prisoners on board and a lack of water, the commander decided to call at the USA so as not to let the ship fall into the hands of the enemy.
The Prinz Eitel Friedrich brought up eleven merchant ships (33,424 GRT) and sank them. After a steam stretch of 30,000 nm, the ship ran into Newport News in the US state of Virginia on March 11, 1915 to be interned .
On April 10th, the NDL express steamer Kronprinz Wilhelm, also used as an auxiliary cruiser, arrived there.
| No. | date | Surname | Type | nationality | Tonnage (GRT) |
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| 1 | December 05, 1914 | Charcas | freighter | British | 5.067 |
| 2 | 12/11/1914 | Jean | Sailors | French | 2.207 |
| 3 | 12/12/1914 | Kidalton | Sailors | British | 1,784 |
| 4th | 01/26/1915 | Isabel Browne | Sailors | Russian | 1,315 |
| 5 | 01/27/1915 | Pierre Loti | Sailors | French | 2.196 |
| 6th | 01/27/1915 | William P Frye | Sailors | United States | 3.374 |
| 7th | 01/28/1915 | Jacobsen | Sailors | French | 2.195 |
| 8th | 02/12/1915 | Invercoe | Sailors | British | 1.421 |
| 9 | 02/18/1915 | Mary Ada Short | Sailors | British | 3.605 |
| 10 | 02/19/1915 | Florid | freighter | French | 6.629 |
| 11 | 02/20/1915 | Willerby | freighter | British | 3,630 |
US missions
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From March 25, 1917, the crews of both ships began to incapacitate the units by damaging the engines and dismantling the ship's guns in anticipation of the entry into the war. When the USA entered the war in 1917, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich was confiscated and transferred to the US Shipping Board, which used it as a troop transport under the name DeKalb . In the first months after the USA entered the war, it was essential for shipping units of the United States Marine Corps . A notable guest on the DeKalb was Allen Melancthon Sumner , the namesake for a destroyer class in World War II. The crew of the auxiliary cruiser became prisoners of war and were detained in a camp near Chicago . She only returned to Germany via Rotterdam after the conclusion of the Versailles Treaty in October 1919 on the steamer Prinzess Irene . On June 14, 1917, the DeKalb was part of the convoy that brought the first US troops to France. In the following 18 months, she transported 11,334 soldiers across the Atlantic to France on eleven journeys. After the conclusion of the armistice, it brought 20,332 soldiers back to the United States on eight trips. In 1921 the ship came into service as Mount Clay in service with United American Lines . On December 26, 1920, she ran from New York to Hamburg for the first time. On October 15, 1925, she began her last journey from Hamburg via Queenstown (Ireland) to New York. It was then launched and finally scrapped in 1934.
Remarks
- In its service to Brazil and Central America, HAPAG operated the somewhat smaller chimney-ship Prinz Eitel Friedrich (4650 BRT, 1902 Reiherstieg shipyard ), which was confiscated in the USA in 1917, served as a transport ship for a salmon canning factory between Seattle and Alaska and from 1945 to 1955 in the Far East still sailed under the Soviet flag.
literature
- Otto Brauer: The cruises of the "Prinz Eitel-Friedrich" . August Scherl Verlag, Berlin 1917. (Digitized: [1] )
- Eberhard von Mantey : The German auxiliary cruiser. Berlin 1937, pp. 113-138. (Chapter SM auxiliary cruiser "Prinz Eitel Friedrich" )
- Carl Herbert: War voyages of German merchant ships. Broschek & Co, Hamburg 1934.
- Arnold Kludas : The history of the German passenger shipping 1850 to 1990. Ernst Kabel Verlag, 1986.
- Arnold Kludas: The ships of the North German Lloyd 1857 to 1919. Koehler's publishing company, 1991, ISBN 3-7822-0524-3 .
- Ulrich Schlüter: On a pirate voyage in the Pacific. Heinrich Spudeit was on board "Prinz Eitel Friedrich" - he kept a diary. The records were discovered by a granddaughter. They end in October 1919. Only then was the chronicler back home , in: Nordwest-Zeitung (ed.): The First World War. This is how the people in the Oldenburger Land experienced him. The illustrated non-fiction book , Oldenburg 2014, pp. 84–88. ISBN 978-3-944791-03-6