SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich (1904)

The SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich was a German passenger liner and auxiliary cruiser built in 1904 by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg for the Norddeutscher Lloyd line. Initially a passenger ship sailing between Germany and the Far East, she was named after Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia, the second son of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich was requisitioned by the Imperial German Navy and converted into a merchant raider. Armed with guns and torpedo tubes hidden behind hinged panels, she preyed upon Allied merchant shipping in the Atlantic Ocean, capturing and sinking numerous vessels.

Under the command of Captain Max Thierichens, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich conducted her raiding operations from August 1914 to March 1915. To avoid detection, she often disguised herself as a neutral or Allied ship.

The ship's career as a raider ended when she entered Newport News, Virginia, on March 10, 1915, seeking repairs and supplies. As the United States was neutral at the time, she was interned by the U.S. Navy.

Following the United States' entry into World War I in 1917, the Prinz Eitel Friedrich was seized by the U.S. government and renamed USS DeKalb (ID-3010). She served as a troop transport for the U.S. Navy during the war.

After the war, the USS DeKalb was briefly used for repatriation duties before being decommissioned and laid up. In 1920, she was sold back to the United States Shipping Board and subsequently sold to a private company. The vessel was scrapped in 1934.