SS was a passenger and cargo steamship that was built in Germany in 1894 for Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL). For her first few years she took emigrants from Bremen to the United States. In 1900 she made one round trip between Bremen and Australia via the Suez Canal. Between 1901 and 1903 her route was between Bremen and South America. For a few months in 1904 she sailed between Stettin in Germany (now Szczecin in Poland) and New York. From the end of 1904 to the beginning of 1907 she was a mail ship between Japan and Australia. From 1911 until 1914 she ran transatlantic services between Hamburg and the United States, and also between Hamburg and Canada.
When the First World War began in 1914, she sheltered in Boston. In 1916 she became the first foreign ship to use the recently built Cape Cod Canal, as she moved to New London, Connecticut to be a submarine tender to the cargo submarines and . The US government seized her in 1917 and gave her to the United States Shipping Board (USSB), who in 1918 renamed her Wyandotte. After the end of the First World War she made at last two round trip voyages between the US and France, and repatriated a few dozen US troops. In 1920 she tramped as a purely cargo ship. She was scrapped in the US in 1924.
Building and identification In 1894 Blohm+Voss in Hamburg built a pair of twin-screw steamships for NDL. Wittekind was launched on 3 February and completed in April. was completed in May.
s registered length was , her beam was , and her depth was . Her tonnages were and . She had berths for 1,114 passengers: 105 in second class, and 1,009 in third class. Her ballast tanks carried 600 tons of fresh water, instead of sea water. This gave her enough of a fresh water supply for her third class passengers to bathe daily. In her third class dining saloon, the tables could be hoisted to the ceiling after dinner, clearing the floor for dancing. Her sick bay had five rooms, each with berths for ten patients. She had steel-hulled lifeboats.
had a pair of three-cylinder triple-expansion engines. Their combined power was rated at 514 NHP or 1,100 ihp, and gave her a speed of . She had a crew of 70. NDL registered at Bremen. Her code letters were QFVL.
New York and Baltimore On 24 May 1894 left Bremen with 432 passengers on her maiden voyage. On 7 June she reached Hoboken after a voyage of 13 days and 13 hours. She remained on this route until October, and then on 10 November left Bremen on a voyage to South America. By March 1895 she was back on the Bremen – Hoboken route, on which she remained until September 1895. In October 1895 NDL transferred her to its route between Bremen and Baltimore. For the rest of the 1890s her usual route was between Bremen and Baltimore, apart from three voyages between Bremen and Hoboken in 1896, and another three in 1899–1900.
In January 1896 sailed to Hoboken, arriving on 1 February, but by mid-March she had reverted to the Baltimore route. She made two trips to Hoboken in early November and early December 1896. She then reverted to the Baltimore route, and on 1 January 1897 ran aground off Cape Henry when leaving Baltimore for Bremen in dense fog. The steam pilot boat from Norfolk, Virginia helped to refloat her at high tide. In April 1897 she made another trip to Hoboken, but in August and November 1897, and April 1898, her voyages were to Baltimore. By July 1898 NDL was offering weekly sailings between Bremen and Baltimore, with each ship completing a round trip on the route every six weeks.
On one westbound crossing, was slowed by gale-force winds from 26 December 1898 until 1 January 1899. Her passengers were kept below decks for days. A wave swept the stock of an anchor, weighing , from her fo'c's'le to her main deck. A reel with of steel cable was also swept to the main deck. One of her steam winches was torn from its mountings, and its steam pipe ripped up. About of the railing of her fo'c's'le was swept away. One of the doors of her third class accommodation burst open, causing flooding with water deep. reached Baltimore on 10 January, six days late.
On 19 March 1899 left Bremen with 850 passengers. On 24 March, at position , her starboard propeller shaft broke, and she lost her starboard propeller. She turned back, and on 28 March reached Falmouth, Cornwall. After repairs she resumed her voyage, and on 11 April she reached Hoboken. She then continued to Galveston, where she arrived shortly after 3 May. She loaded a cargo of cotton, and left for Bremen on 15 May. She then returned to her route between Bremen and Baltimore.
In 1898 an electrician in s crew, Adolph Pahlmann, had courted a Viennese passenger, Marie Brenner, and the couple had become engaged. Brenner went to stay with her uncle in Kansas, but the next year, on 13 August 1899, the couple were married in Baltimore. They held their wedding reception at a German-owned restaurant there, and spent their wedding night in a room over the restaurant. The couple planned to move to Pahlmann's home city of Hanover, Germany, with the bride sailing as a passenger aboard . Early the next morning Pahlmann went to rejoin his ship, and his bride went back to bed for a few hours. A few hours later, the restauranteur found her dead from coal gas poisoning. She had turned off a gaslight, but the valve was not fully closed, and she was poisoned in her sleep. Her funeral was held on 16 August, and the next day Pahlmann left Baltimore aboard . A few hours after sailing, Pahlmann and another crewman were on deck when a great wave hit the ship and threw them against a bulkhead. Pahlmann was knocked unconscious, and his shipmate's leg was broken in two places. The ship's doctor treated the two men, but 20 minutes later Pahlmann was dead. At 17:00 hrs on 18 August, stopped in mid-ocean and lowered her colors. Pahlmann's funeral was held, and he was buried at sea.
remained on NDL's Baltimore route until November 1899, and then in December 1899 and January 1900 made two voyages between Bremen and Hoboken.
Australia via Suez In 1900 s passenger accommodation was refitted. Instead of a two-class ship with more than 1,000 third class and no first class, she became a three-class ship with berths for only 230 passengers: 150 in first class, 40 in second class, and 40 in third class. She made one round trip on the Reichspostdampfer route between Bremen and Sydney, New South Wales via the Suez Canal, as a temporary substitute for the liner . She left Bremerhaven on 18 July 1900, and called at Antwerp, Southampton, Genoa, Naples, Port Said, Suez, and Colombo.
Her reception in Australia was mixed. On 30 August she reached Western Australia, where she was greeted as "the smallest vessel of the Norddeutscher Lloyd that has visited Fremantle". One Perth newspaper said "From outward appearances the vessel does not give a favorable impression not being up to the standard of the Norddeutscher Lloyd liners in cleanliness or beauty". On 5 September she anchored in Largs Bay, South Australia with 236 passengers, of whom 40 were for Adelaide. On 8 September she reached Melbourne, Victoria, where she was described as "a shapely vessel" that was "bound to establish herself in the public favour". On 12 September she berthed in Woolloomooloo Bay in Sydney.
On 22 September she left Sydney on her return voyage to Bremen. She called at the same ports as on her outward voyage. As she left Adelaide on 29 September, she saluted the Australia Station flagship by lowering her German ensign, and by her band playing God Save the King. She reached Bremen on 15 November.
Changes of route NDL transferred to its route between Bremen and South America. She made 12 voyages on this route, the last of which began from Bremen on 23 May 1903.
In March 1904 NDL and Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) announced a joint service between Scandinavian ports and New York. Two ships would serve the route: NDL's and HAPAG's Adria. The service was to be called "Scandia Line" – not to be confused with the Danish Scandinavian America Line. HAPAG and NDL aimed to undercut Cunard Line, which also served this route. Fares were $18 from Scandinavia to New York, and $16 from New York to Scandinavia. worked the route from Stettin, from which she made her first Scandia Line sailing on 3 May 1904. She called at Helsingborg and Gothenburg in Sweden, and Kristiansand in Norway. She arrived in New York on 19 May, carrying 218 steerage class passengers. She made three round trips on this route. Her final Scandia Line voyage began from Stettin in August, and she was scheduled to leave New York for the return voyage on 17 September.
Far East During the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Empire expelled several hundred Japanese from Vladivostok, Port Arthur (now Dalian in China), and Outer Manchuria. Two railway trains had taken the refugees to Bremen, and from there NDL took them to Japan. Sources differ as to whether took them all the way from Bremen to Japan, or the NDL liner Großer Kurfürst took them to Fremantle, where on 21 November 1904 they were transferred to . They also disagree as to whether the number of refugees was 707 or 832.
Either way, took the Japanese via Singapore, where on 26 November, as she was leaving her wharf, she collided with the Burns, Philp steamship Airlie. Two plates on the starboard bow of Airlies hull were damaged, and a guard-rail at Airlies stern was damaged. She reached Nagasaki on 6 December, and continued via Moji and Kobe to Yokohama, where she arrived on 12 December. At each port the Japanese entertained s officers, and at Yokohama Emperor Meiji received them, and gave s Master, Captain Zurbonsen, an award.
NDL planned a new mail service between Yokohama and Sydney via Kobe, Hong Kong, German New Guinea, New Britain, and Brisbane. started on the route from Yokohama on 31 December 1904, and reached Sydney on 1 February 1905. Her running mates on the route were Prinz Waldemar and . By April 1906, s ports of call also included Manila in the Philippines. On 15 December 1906 she left Melbourne, for a voyage via Sydney, Newcastle, Manila, and Java. She then returned to Bremen, where she arrived on 20 March 1907.
From Hamburg to Boston By June 1910 was equipped with submarine signalling, and by June 1911 she was also equipped with wireless telegraphy. In November 1911 she made a voyage from Rotterdam to Baltimore. By May 1912 she was serving a route between Hamburg and Montreal via Rotterdam. In January 1913 she arrived in Philadelphia.
By 1914 s wireless call sign was DWH. On 10 July 1914 she left Hamburg on her twenty-fourth voyage to Quebec and Montreal. By the end of July 1914 she was in Montreal, loading a cargo that included wheat, barley, flour, and oil cake. In response to the July Crisis, 200 Austro-Hungarian reservists in Canada booked to sail on her to return home. However, on the eve of war the German government ordered her to leave Montreal and seek refuge in neutral Boston, to avoid being seized in Canada. She left Montreal early on the morning of 1 August. War was declared on 3 August, but evaded the cruiser , and reached Boston on 5 August. stayed at anchor near Boston's quarantine station until 27 August, when she moved to Charlestown, Boston to discharge her cargo into bonded storage, including 57,671 bushels of wheat and 29,950 bushels of barley to the Boston and Maine Railroad's grain elevator.