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Kronprinzessin Cecile was the
fourth and last four stacker built for
the North German Lloyd Line. The other
three were, Kaiser Wilhelm Der
Grosse launched in 1897,
Kronprinzessin Wilhelm 1901 and
her near identical sister ship Kaiser
Wilhelm 1903. These four ships were
built for the Atlantic run to compete
against the White Star Line’s
‘Big Four’ and the Hamburg
Amerika Line’s three large liners.
The Cunard line had failed to match these
ships until their two 31,500-ton liners
Lusitania and Mauretania
entered service late in 1907.
Kronprinzessin Cecilie set out on
her maiden voyage from Bremen - New York
July 6th 1907. The emergence of this ship
gave the North German Lloyd Line the
four-large/fast liners they wanted for
their Atlantic express service.
At the outbreak of World War One,
Kronprinzessin Cecilie was
steaming from America - Germany carrying
a cargo of gold and silver. Fearing
capture by the British, her captain took
the decision to turn back to neutral
America. The US Authorities seized
Kronprinzessin Cecilie a
few weeks later with the intentions of
interring her at Boston until the
conflict came to an end. After America
entered the war in 1917,
Kronprinzessin Cecilie and the two
remaining Hamburg Amerika Line’s
four stackers were seized by the US
Shipping Board to serve as troopships.
Their other four stacker Kaiser
Wilhelm Der Grosse had been sunk off
the west coast of Africa in 1914 by the
British cruiser Highflyer.
Kronprinzessin Cecilie was mainly
used for transporting US troops to Europe
under the name Mount Vernon. While
returning to America loaded with wounded
servicemen in 1918, a German submarine
succeeded in hitting her with one
torpedo. Although the blast killed 37
people, her crew managed to contain the
damage until they reached America. The
end of the war saw Mount Vernon
laid up at Chesapeake Bay alongside her
sister ship Kaiser Wilhelm 11.
Both ships remained at Chesapeake Bay
until their scrapping at Baltimore in
1940.
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