User:Bellhalla/USS DeKalb (ID-3010) research

Trail of the 61st
Brief detail about German cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich (later USS DeKalb (ID-3010)).
 * Summary


 * Citation
 * Harlow, p. 203–4.


 * Excerpt
 * Page 203

The U.S.S. DeKalb was a converted German cruiser built in 1904 for service between Germany and China and named the Prince Eitel Frederick She was used in oriental service until 1914 when war was declared then was equipped with guns and placed on the Atlantic ocean as a raider being termed a German auxiliary cruiser and carrying a crew of 13 officers and 356 men She was equipped with three 8 inch guns two 6 pounders and 14 machine guns besides torpedo launching equipment Between August 5 1914 and March 10 1915 she cruised 30,000 miles without returning to her home port While on this cruise she sank eleven allied vessels which had a total tonnage of more than 26,000 tons She was driven into port at Norfolk Virginia by two enemy battle cruisers one British and the other French and was ordered by the United States to leave American ports She failed to comply with the order and was seized and held as a prisoner of war until the entry of the U.S. into the European war when her German crew was removed and an American one substituted therefor She was immediately given a general rehauling in preparation for transport service and was placed on the sea to carry troops to Europe At the time she was transporting home the troops of the 61st she was concluding her fifteenth round trip voyage across the Atlantic as an American transport While in the service of the U.S. navy she experienced no excitement from submarines or German naval craft the only experience that even approached excitement having occurred on her fourteenth voyage when she sank a German mine in the Bay of Biscay after having been compelled to fire on it for more than three hours
 * Page 204

Under American control she had a crew of 547 men and 90 officers and though she was known to have had an average speed of 22 or 23 knots per hour while in German hands the fastest rate of speed her American crew was able to develop from her German machinery was 16 knots per hour She carried 16 American guns which with the exception of two were located just where her German guns had been

Trail of the 61st
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