SS Otsego was a cargo liner that was launched in Germany in 1901 as . The USA seized her in 1917 and renamed her Otsego. In 1919 she served in the United States Navy as USS Otsego (ID-1628). She spent the 1920s and 30s in merchant service as Otsego. In 1941 she became the United States Army ship USAT Otsego. In 1945 she was transferred to the Soviet Union, which renamed her Ural. In 1947 she may have been renamed Dolinsk. She was either hulked or scrapped in 1955.
For HAPAG ran scheduled services between Hamburg and the east coast of South America until 1906, and then Atlas Caribbean cruises until 1914. She rescued US citizens from the 1907 Kingston earthquake in Jamaica. She was laid up in New York from the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 until the US seized German ships in its ports in 1917.
In 1917 the United States Shipping Board (USSB) assumed ownership of the ship and renamed her Otsego. She was in transatlantic war service as a merchant ship for the remainder of the war, and then in US Navy service as a troopship in 1919. She was converted to a pure cargo ship in 1920, but then laid up until 1923.
In 1924 Libby, McNeill & Libby bought her and had her refitted to carry passengers again. She carried supplies, canned salmon, and Libby's personnel, mostly between Seattle and Alaska, until 1941.
At the end of 1941 the War Shipping Administration chartered her for the US Army, who had her converted into a troopship. She carried troops and materiél between Seattle and Alaska until shortly before the end of the Second World War.
At the beginning of 1945 she was transferred under Lend-Lease to the USSR, which renamed her Ural. She operated in the Russian Far East. In 1947 she may have been renamed Dolinsk. She was either hulked or scrapped in or near Vladivostok in 1955.
Prinz-class cargo liners
was the first of a class of five single-screw steamships that German shipyards built between 1901 and 1903 for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). She was named after Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia. All were named after princes of the House of Hohenzollern. Reiherstieg Schiffswerfte & Maschinenfabrik built her in Hamburg as yard number 408. She was launched on 21 December 1901 and completed on 19 April 1902.
Reiherstieg also built , which was launched in May 1902 and completed that August. AG "Neptun" in Rostock built Prinz Sigismund. Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft in Flensburg built and Prinz Joachim.
At the same time, Bremer Vulkan in Bremen built and . These were slightly larger, had twin screws, and thus form either a sub-class or a separate class.
Description s registered length was , her beam was , her depth was , her hold depth was , and her draft was . She had two continuous decks and nine watertight bulkheads. Her holds had capacity for of cargo. She had four cargo hatches: two forward, and two aft. Her tonnages were , , and displacement.United States Shipping Board 1920. p. 246.American Bureau of Shipping 1919. p. 551.Johnson 1920. p. 179.
As built, she had berths for 100 passengers in first class amidships, and 634 in steerage on the main deck. Her crew of 46 was quartered in her forecastle. Her public rooms included a dining saloon and small social hall, both on her promenade deck, and a smoking room aft of her engine room casing. She carried eight lifeboats on radial davits. She was noted for the "lavish use of mahogany on the wheelhouse and bridge fronts".
Her single screw was driven by a quadruple-expansion engine that was rated at and gave her a speed of . Two double-ended, coal-fired Scotch boilers supplied steam at . Her bunker capacity was about 1,400 tons, giving her a range of . She had one smokestack and two masts.
HAPAG service HAPAG registered at Hamburg. Her code letters were RMLJ. Her first voyage or two were from Wilhelmshaven, Germany, to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, cayying general cargo outbound and fresh fruit inbound. In June 1902 HAPAG transferred her to its route between Hamburg and Brazil. She remained on this route for the next four years.
In 1901 HAPAG had taken over the Atlas Line. In 1906 it transferred to this service, as one of five ships offering winter cruises. To join this service she left Hamburg carrying 572 passengers, reaching New York on 26 April.
The Atlas Service eventually offered round trip cruises from New York of either 11, 18, or 25 days. with one ship leaving New York each week, By 1913 it had eight ships on this service.
seems to have worked almost entirely on the 25-day cruises, usually with her sister ship . Prospective customers were offered "accommodations equal to those of the well-known Trans-Atlantic liners of the Hamburg-American Line", and "excellent cuisine and service".
Cruise itineraries varied from year to year, but typically included Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama. From Panama, passengers were offered a connecting service to Peru and Chile. The call at Panama was usually a two- or three-day stay, with optional shore excursions, while ships exchanged cargoes and connecting passengers. The Panama Canal was still being built, and HAPAG ships often brought construction supplies.
In her first winter cruise season, encountered the aftermath of the 1907 earthquake in Jamaica. She left Colón, Panama on 12 January 1907, and was due in Kingston, Jamaica on 14 January when the earthquake struck, killing 1,745 people and causing much destruction. She was at first misreported to have been stranded in the harbor along with several other ships. In fact it was her sister ship that ran aground, and was written off as a total loss.
Over the next three days, embarked 160 US refugees. With her first-class cabins "taxed to their capacity". On 23 January, she became the first ship to reach New York from the disaster. On arrival, her passengers passed a resolution condemning the British authorities in Jamaica for "inactivity and utter inefficiency" after the earthquake, and alleged neglect of US citizens in favour of British refugees.
By 1910 was equipped with submarine signalling and wireless telegraphy. By 1911 HAPAG was running Atlas Line cruises all year round. Fares started at about $115 for summer cruises and $135 to $150 for winter ones. In February 1914 Michel Oreste, President of Haiti, abdicated in the face of advancing rebels, and with his family and entourage fled aboard . They disembarked at Kingston on 9 February.
By 1913 s wireless telegraph call sign was DSI.
On 1 August 1914, with the First World War imminent, HAPAG announced the immediate suspension of Atlas Line services. HAPAG ships already in US ports were ordered to remain there, and ships in transit to a US port were ordered to complete their voyage and then cease operation. On 4 August was still in transit from the Bahamas to New York. She hugged the New Jersey coast for the remainder of the voyage, staying within the neutral US' three-mile territorial limit to evade capture by Allied naval ships. Before dawn on 5 August, with all but her navigation lights covered, she entered New York Harbor. She remained there for the next two years and eight months.
Seizure and First World War service
On 3 February 1917 the US broke diplomatic relations with Germany over the latter's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. Shortly after, a police guard was posted over German ships interned in New York Harbor. On 6 April the US declared war on Germany and seized more than 90 German ships, including . The German crews were interned, and the ships were turned over to the USSB for possible war use. Shortly after, the USSB changed her name from to Otsego.
During the war Otsego took US munitions and materiel to Europe, and carried some troops. After the war the foreign contingent of the US Cruiser and Transport Force withdrew, so the US Navy rapidly expanded its troop transport fleet to return troops to the United States. Otsego was one of 56 ships in US government possession selected for conversion to troopships.United States Department of War 1920. pp. 4974-77. From 15 January to 3 March 1919 the W. & A. Fletcher Company of Hoboken, New Jersey converted her for $144,000.United States Department of War 1920. p. 4977. While still being converted, she was transferred to the US Navy on 7 February and commissioned the same day as USS Otsego (ID-1628). The conversion gave her a troop capacity of 28 officers and 984 enlisted men, and a crew complement of 21 officers and 168 enlisted men.
Otsego was assigned to the Newport News Division of the Cruiser and Transport Force.She made four round-trips to repatriate troops from France to the US between 10 March and 28 August 1919. On her first crossing, she carried hay and automobile parts to Le Verdon-sur-Mer and returned with 1,036 officers and men of the 19th, 20th, 30th, 35th, 36th, and 45th Balloon Companies from Bordeaux to New York 18 April. Her passengers on this voyage included 74 men convalescing from illness or wounds, most of whom had had a leg amputated.
On her next trip from France, Otsego left Bordeaux on 11 May with 24 officers and 987 enlisted men, including headquarters and medical detachments of the First Battalion and Companies A, B, and C of the 311th Regiment, 78th Division, arriving New York 26 May. She had been expected on 23 May but was delayed for four days by boiler trouble, apparently disrupting the plans of New Jersey Governor William Nelson Runyon, who had travelled to Brooklyn on 23 May to welcome her. However, she had a warm welcome on 26 May, greeted by a fleet of steamers "with bands playing and flags flying and banners indicating the different towns from which they hailed", while soldiers aboard Otsego "swarmed the decks cheering and seeking and finding their relatives in the aquatic escort". The returning soldiers on this voyage included seven men awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Otsegos third voyage returned 1,020 troops to Charleston, South Carolina on 2 July, comprising mostly supply and transport units and "749 negro enlisted men". Her final voyage from France returned 392 officers and men from a variety of supply, medical, veterinary, and other units, reaching New York on 28 August. Among those returning on this voyage was William J Long, the American Expeditionary Force's doughnut-eating champion, credited with eating 249 doughnuts in a single 24-hour period during a 4 July contest. His rival went to the hospital after eating 189.
On return to New York on 28 August, Otsego was decommissioned from the Navy and detached from the Cruiser and Transport Force the same day. She was delivered to the USSB at New York 19 September 1919. In her brief naval career she repatriated 3,446 troops from France to the US, including 79 sick or wounded.
Failed plans and lay-up By June 1919 Otsegos United States official number was 213813, her code letters were LJHB, and she was registered in New York. She was among 19 decommissioned German ships that the US government at first planned to auction. However, on 5 November 1919 the USSB contracted J. W. Millard & Bro, naval architects, to redesign herUnited States Shipping Board 1920. p. 130. as a "modern passenger ship". The Board accepted the proposed redesign on 10 February 1920, but the ship was auctioned on 17 February. The auction closed unsuccessfully, having attracted only a single bid for any of the 19 ships. The Acme Operating Corporation offered $550,000 for Otsego, which was rejected.