SS Otsego

File:Retrato do Príncipe Eitel Frederico da Prússia.jpg]]

{{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} 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 {{SS|Prinz Waldemar||2}}, which was launched in May 1902 and completed that August. AG "Neptun" in Rostock built Prinz Sigismund. Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft in Flensburg built {{SS|Prinz August Wilhelm||2}} and Prinz Joachim.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1904|loc=PRI}}{{sfn|Haws|1980|pp=75–76}}

At the same time, Bremer Vulkan in Bremen built {{SS|Prinz Adalbert||2}} and {{SS|Prinz Oskar||2}}. These were slightly larger, had twin screws, and thus form either a sub-class or a separate class.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1904|loc=PRI}}{{sfn|Haws|1980|p=76}}

{{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}}{{'}}s registered length was {{cvt|371.0|ft|abbr=on}}, her beam was {{cvt|45.3|ft|abbr=on}}, her depth was {{cvt|26.8|ft|abbr=on}}, her hold depth was {{cvt|26|ft|8|in|abbr=on}}, and her draft was {{cvt|25|ft|4|in|abbr=on|2}}. She had two continuous decks and nine watertight bulkheads. Her holds had capacity for {{cvt|152209|cuft|0}} of cargo. She had four cargo hatches: two forward, and two aft. Her tonnages were {{GRT|4650}}, {{NRT|2921}}, and {{cvt|8755|LT|t|abbr=on|lk=in|0}} displacement.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1904|loc=PRI}}United States Shipping Board 1920. [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3763049?urlappend=%3Bseq=254 p. 246].American Bureau of Shipping 1919. [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433019094345?urlappend=%3Bseq=557 p. 551].Johnson 1920. [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015021113686?urlappend=%3Bseq=267 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".{{sfn|Stadum|1983|pp=121–122}}

Her single screw was driven by a quadruple-expansion engine that was rated at {{convert|2400|ihp|lk=in|abbr=on|0}} and gave her a speed of {{convert|12|kn|km/h}}. Two double-ended, coal-fired Scotch boilers supplied steam at {{convert|220|psi|abbr=on|lk=on|0}}. Her bunker capacity was about 1,400 tons, giving her a range of {{convert|11,000|nmi|km}}. She had one smokestack and two masts.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|pp=121–122}}

HAPAG registered {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} at Hamburg. Her code letters were RMLJ.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1904|loc=PRI}} 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.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=122}}

File:SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich 1912 Atlas Line advertisement.jpg

In 1901 HAPAG had taken over the Atlas Line.{{sfn|Haws|1980|p=16}} In 1906 it transferred {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} to this service, as one of five ships offering winter cruises.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=122}}{{cite news |date= 1906-06-21 |title=PEF I announcement of new service to tropics Jun 1906 |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4363952/pef_i_announcement_of_new_service_to/ |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Post |page=12 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} To join this service she left Hamburg carrying 572 passengers, reaching New York on 26 April.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=122}}

The Atlas Service eventually offered round trip cruises from New York of either 11, 18, or 25 days.{{cite web |url= https://www.timetableimages.com/maritime/images/hapag.htm |title=Hamburg-American Line |work=marine timetable images |publisher=Björn Larsson |access-date=5 February 2024}}{{cite news |date=1914-05-11 |title=Ocean Steamships |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4371193/pef_i_summer_rates_may_1914/ |newspaper=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |page=15 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} with one ship leaving New York each week,{{cite news |date=1913-03-10 |title=Steamships |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4364142/pef_i_25day_cruises_with_sigismund/ |newspaper=The New York Times |page=17 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{cite news |date=1914-03-20 |title=Ocean Steamers |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4371251/pef_i_atlas_line_weekly_cruises_150_25/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |page=11 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} By 1913 it had eight ships on this service.

{{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} seems to have worked almost entirely on the 25-day cruises, usually with her sister ship {{lang|de|Prinz Sigismund}}.{{cite news |date=1910-08-24 |title=New Line to Cuba and Jamaica |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4371177/pef_i_and_sigismund_to_run_together_to/ |newspaper=The Wenatchee Daily World |place=Wenatchee, WA |page= 6 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} 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".{{cite news |date=1912-01-09 |title=Tours |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4312314/pef_i_9_jan_1912_advert/ |newspaper=The Sun |place=New York |page=16 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}

Cruise itineraries varied from year to year, but typically included Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama.{{cite news |date=1914-05-11 |title=Ocean Steamships |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4371193/pef_i_summer_rates_may_1914/ |newspaper=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |page=15 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}{{cite news |date=1911-08-14 |title=Travelers' Guide—Steamships |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4363999/pef_i_connecting_service_to_peru_chile/ |newspaper=The New York Times |page=16 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} 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.{{cite news |date=1912-04-09 |title=Ocean Steamships |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4364045/pef_i_shore_excursions_apr_1912/ |newspaper=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |page=16 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} The Panama Canal was still being built, and HAPAG ships often brought construction supplies.{{efn|Examples:{{cite magazine |date=1907-09-04 |title=Sources of Canal Supplies |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4371319/pef_i_canal_supplies_jul_1907/ |magazine=The Canal Record |volume=I |issue=1 |page=8 |publisher=Isthmian Canal Commission |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}{{cite magazine |date=1912-11-13 |title=Supplies for Canal Work |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4371296/pef_i_canal_supplies_nov_1912/ |magazine=The Canal Record |volume=VI |issue=12 |page=100 |publisher= Isthmian Canal Commission |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}{{cite magazine |date=1914-05-13 |title=Supplies for the Canal |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4371302/pef_i_canal_supplies_may_1914/ |magazine=The Canal Record |volume=VII |issue=38 |page=372 |publisher=Panama Canal |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}}}

In her first winter cruise season, {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} 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.{{cite news |date=1907-01-19 |title=Seven Hundred Persons Killed by Jamaica Quake |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4363759/pef_i_incorrect_stranding_report_after/ |newspaper=Harrisburg Telegraph |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}{{cite news |title=1,745 Bodies Found |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1907-01-21 |page=2 |url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/01/21/106736890.pdf |via=Times Machine}} She was at first misreported to have been stranded in the harbor along with several other ships. In fact it was her sister ship {{lang|de|Prinz Waldemar}} that ran aground,{{cite news |title=Prinz Waldemar Ashore |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19860586/prinz_waldemar_ashore/ |newspaper=The Hartford Courant |date=1907-01-19 |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} and was written off as a total loss.{{cite news |title=Angered Swettenham |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/19860816/prinz_waldemar_wrecked_1907/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=1907-01-31 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}{{cite ship register |register=MSI |id=5614944}}

Over the next three days, {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} embarked 160 US refugees. With her first-class cabins "taxed to their capacity".{{cite news |date= 1907-01-21 |title= First Boat Due To-Morrow |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4363653/pef_i_first_to_return_from_earthquake/ |newspaper=The New York Times |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} 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.{{cite news |date=1907-01-23 |title=Refugees Condemn British Officials |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4363597/pef_i_american_refugees_complain_after/ |newspaper=The Allentown Leader |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}{{efn|The American refugees were particularly scathing in their criticism of Captain Parsons, commander of the British ship Port Kingston in Kingston Harbour, whom they accused of neglecting to provide any sort of assistance. A very different perspective of the role of Port Kingston in the crisis is provided in the account of Arthur Evans, a medical doctor aboard the ship. He reported that the vessel was overwhelmed with casualties within an hour of the earthquake, and that the ship{{'}}s crew were "unremitting" in providing aid, with Evans himself performing some 200 medical procedures, including numerous amputations, over the next few days.{{sfn|Evans|1907|p=348}}}}

By 1910 {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} was equipped with submarine signalling and wireless telegraphy.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1910|loc=PRI}} By 1911 HAPAG was running Atlas Line cruises all year round.{{cite news |date=1911-03-27 |title=Travelers' Guide—Steamships |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4364427/pef_i_yearround_sailings_mar_1911/ |newspaper=The New York Times |page=13 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} 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 {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}}. They disembarked at Kingston on 9 February.{{cite news |date=1914-02-09 |title=No title |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4362308/pef_i_takes_haitian_expresident_9_feb/ |newspaper=The Star-Independent |place=Harrisburg, PA |page=9 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}{{cite news |date= 1914-02-10 |title= Haytien Ex-President in Jamaica |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4362175/pef_i_takes_haitian_president_to_exile/ |newspaper=Olean Evening Herald |place= Olean, NY |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}

By 1913 {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}}{{'}}s wireless telegraph call sign was DSI.{{sfn|The Marconi Press Agency Ltd|1913|p=241}}{{sfn|The Marconi Press Agency Ltd|1914|p=374}}

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.{{cite news |title=English Lines Stop Ships to Continent |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1914-08-02 |page=3 |url= https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/08/02/105456186.pdf |via=Times Machine}} On 4 August {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} 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.{{cite news |date=1914-08-05 |title=Anxiety Felt for Great Ocean Liners |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4361906/pef_i_hugging_coast_5_aug_1914/ |newspaper=The Decatur Herald |place= Decatur, IL |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} Before dawn on 5 August, with all but her navigation lights covered, she entered New York Harbor.{{cite news |date=1914-08-06 |title=At the Docks |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4362046/pef_i_slips_into_new_york_before_dawn/ |newspaper=The Anderson Daily Intelligencer |place=Anderson, SC |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} She remained there for the next two years and eight months.{{efn|Stadum 1983. pp. 122–23. The source erroneously states that {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} was already in port in New York when the war broke out, a statement disproven by contemporary newspaper reports.}}

File:SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich (1901) guarded by police, New York, February 1917.jpg (right). In the background are Prinz Joachim (left) and {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} (center).]]

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.{{cite news |date=1919-02-06 |title=German Ships in New York Harbor Guarded by Police |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4334592/pef_i_under_police_guard_feb_1917_after/ |newspaper=The Coffeyville Daily Journal |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} On 6 April the US declared war on Germany and seized more than 90 German ships, including {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}}. The German crews were interned,{{cite web |url= https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/history/dolchp01 |title=Start-up of the Department and World War I 1913–1921 |work=History |publisher=United States Department of Labor |access-date=4 February 2024}} and the ships were turned over to the USSB for possible war use.{{cite web |url= http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/WWIDOLrev02.htm |title=DOL Plays Key Role at the Start of World War I |last=MacLaury |first=Judson |website=United States Department of Labor |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130702014440/http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/WWIDOLrev02.htm |archive-date= 2013-07-02}} Shortly after, the USSB changed her name from {{lang|de|Prinz Eitel Friedrich}} to Otsego.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=123}}{{efn|The ship was named after various counties and towns in the United States.{{cite web |url= https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/o/otsego-iii.html |title=Otsego III (Str) |work=Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships |date=2015-08-18 |publisher=Naval History and Heritage Command}} }}

During the war Otsego took US munitions and materiél to Europe, and carried some troops.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=123}} 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. [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435057109712?urlappend=%3Bseq=1292 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. [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435057109712?urlappend=%3Bseq=1295 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.{{sfn|United States Department of Commerce|1920|p=491}}{{efn|A crew complement of 203 according to DANFS. }}

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.{{cite news |date=1919-04-18 |title=Troops Arrive From Marseilles |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4333686/uss_otsego_arrives_ny_18_april_1919/ |newspaper=The Ogden Standard |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} Her passengers on this voyage included 74 men convalescing from illness or wounds, most of whom had had a leg amputated.{{cite news |date=1919-04-19 |title=Wounded Veterans Return |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4334652/uss_otsego_arrives_ny_with_amputees_18/ |newspaper=The Gazette Times |place=Pittsburgh |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}

On her next trip from France, Otsego left Bordeaux on 11 May{{cite news |date=1919-05-25 |title=Marine Intelligence |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4335088/uss_otsego_departs_bordeaux_11_may_1919/ |newspaper=The Gazette Times |place=Pittsburgh |page=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} 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.{{cite news |date=1919-05-26 |title=Argonne Heroes From Jersey Get Rousing Welcome |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4335214/uss_otsego_rousing_welcome_ny_26_may/ |newspaper=The Evening World |place=NewYork |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} 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.{{cite news |date=1919-05-23 |title=More 311th Boys Coming on Otsego |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4333677/uss_otsego_arrives_ny_23_may_1919/ |newspaper=Trenton Evening Times |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} 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.

Otsego{{'}}s third voyage returned 1,020 troops to Charleston, South Carolina on 2 July, comprising mostly supply and transport units and "749 negro enlisted men".{{cite news |date= 1919-07-02 |title= Troops Arrive at Charleston Today |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4334210/uss_otsego_at_charleston_2_jul_1919/ |newspaper=The Index-Journal |page= 1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}{{cite news |date=1919-07-03 |title=Ostego [sic] Arrives With Troops at Charleston |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4334310/uss_otsego_arrives_charleston_2_jul/ |newspaper=The Wilmington Morning Star |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} 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{{efn|Actually French crullers}} in a single 24-hour period during a 4 July contest. His rival went to the hospital after eating 189.{{cite news |date=1919-08-29 |title=Doughnut Champion Here |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4334389/uss_otsego_arrives_ny_28_aug_1919_with/ |newspaper=The New York Times |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}{{cite news |date=1919-08-28 |title=Champion Cruller Eater With Record of 249 in 24 Hours Arrives Here |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4334417/uss_otsego_at_ny_28_aug_1919_details/ |newspaper=The Evening World |place=NewYork |page=5 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}

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.{{sfn|Gleaves|1921|pp=258–259}}

By June 1919 Otsego{{'}}s United States official number was 213813, her code letters were LJHB, and she was registered in New York.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1919|loc=OTS–OTT}} She was among 19 decommissioned German ships that the US government at first planned to auction.{{cite news |date=1920-02-18 |title=Ship Plan |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4353619/ss_otsego_failed_auction_feb_1920/ |newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer |page=1 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} However, on 5 November 1919 the USSB contracted J. W. Millard & Bro, naval architects, to redesign herUnited States Shipping Board 1920. p. [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3763049?urlappend=%3Bseq=138 130]. as a "modern passenger ship".{{efn|{{cite magazine |editor-last=Villard |editor-first=Howard G |date= 1920-03-06 |title=Jacksonville Yard Awarded Repair Contract |url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2603267?urlappend=%3Bseq=381 |magazine=The Nautical Gazette |place=New York |volume=98 |issue=10 |page=395 |hdl= 2027/uc1.c2603267?urlappend=%3Bseq=381 |via=HathiTrust}} The source erroneously states that the contract was awarded to Merrill-Stevens. In fact the USSB rejected all offers.}} 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.

The USSB proceeded with its alternative plan for Otsego, inviting tenders for her refit as a passenger ship ase designed by Millard. Tenders were received ranging from $970,000 to $1,477,576, but on 25 March the USSB rejected them all. On 17 May Otsego was towed to Portsmouth Navy Yard "to be reconditioned for cargo-carrying purposes only", with the work expected to completed by September. The refit included replacing her original boilers with three new Foster water-tube boilers; and reconditioning of her engine, propeller shaft and auxiliary engines.{{efn|{{cite magazine |date=1921-06-04 |title=Six ex-German Vessels |url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2603269?urlappend=%3Bseq=755 |magazine=The Nautical Gazette |place=New York |volume=100 |issue=23 |page=743 |hdl= 2027/uc1.c2603269?urlappend=%3Bseq=755 |via=HathiTrust}} The source erroneously describes Otsego as a "twin-screw" ship.}}

After her refit as a cargo ship, Otsego and five other former German ships were auctioned again on 10 June 1921. This time none of the vessels attracted a bid.{{cite magazine |editor-last=Villard |editor-first=Howard G |date=1921-06-18 |title=Few Bidders for Ex-German Vessels Offered by Board |url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2603269?urlappend=%3Bseq=805 |magazine=The Nautical Gazette |volume=100 |issue=25 |page=793 |place=New York |hdl= 2027/uc1.c2603269?urlappend=%3Bseq=805 }} In late June the USSB chartered Otsego to the Cosmopolitan Steamship Company,{{cite magazine |editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Charles H |date=1921-06-25 |title=Foreign Trade |url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015082625941?urlappend=%3Bseq=858 |magazine=Shipping |volume=XIII |issue= 12 |page= 24 |place=New York |publisher=Shipping Publishing Co., Inc |hdl= 2027/mdp.39015082625941?urlappend=%3Bseq=858 |via=HathiTrust}} a French-American company, to test the competition on a direct route between Boston, Massachusetts and Liverpool, England. She left New York, and on 8 July arrived at Boston, where she loaded 200,000 bushels of oats for Dunkirk, France, plus general cargo for Liverpool.{{cite news |date= 1921-07-03 |title= Along the Waterfront |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4361664/ss_otsego_oats_for_dunkirk_jul_1921/ |newspaper=The Boston Post |page=30 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}{{cite news |date=1921-07-09 |title=Along the Waterfront |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4361654/ss_otsego_at_boston_for_cosmo_line_9/ |newspaper=The Boston Post |page=10 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}} She left Boston on or about 18 July.{{cite news |date= 1921-07-18 |title= Shipping and Travel Guide |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4361720/ss_otsego_sails_for_liverpool_18_jul/ |newspaper= New York Tribune |via= Newspapers.com }} {{Open access}} By late August the ship was back in New York, where, having made only one round trip for Cosmopolitan Line, she was withdrawn from the service due to "depressed market conditions".{{sfn|United States Government|1925|p=5825}} Having exhausted its options, the USSB laid Otsego up. She remained laid up for the next two years and five months.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|pp=123–224}}

On 29 January 1924 the canned food company Libby, McNeill & Libby bought Otsego. It sent a crew to New York to bring the ship to Seattle, Washington. The Master was a Captain Neilson, and some of his crew were laid-off workers from Libby's salmon canneries in Alaska. They brought Otsego via Baltimore, Newport News, the Panama Canal, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and reached Seattle on 6 April 1924.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=124}}

Salmon canning was seasonal. Otsego{{'}}s main duty was to make a single round trip per year, taking packing supplies, cannery workers and provisions from Seattle to Alaska each spring, and canned salmon and returning employees to Seattle each fall. The company had previously used two slow motorboats and a small fleet of ageing sailing ships for this.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=124}}

Otsego was refitted again for her new role. New cabin berths were added, and her steerage was upgraded for cannery workers and fishermen. This gave her a total of 219 cabin berths and 214 dormitory berths. A new deck was added above the steering engine house at her stern, and the mahogany on the wheelhouse and bridge fronts was restored. Her radial lifeboat davits were also gradually replaced with more modern luffing davits when circumstances allowed.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=124}} She was registered in San Francisco.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1924|loc=OTA–OTT}}

After a trial trip on Puget Sound, Otsego entered service on 11 May, bound for Bristol Bay, Alaska. Throughout Libby{{'}}s service, she was manned largely by the company{{'}}s fishermen and cannery workers rather than professional seamen, an arrangement later became unviable due to unionization. After arrival at Bristol Bay, most of the 63-man crew would go ashore with the other employees to work "day and night" to finish the season{{'}}s canning, leaving only a skeleton crew to tend the ship.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=124}} Returning to Seattle on 20 August, Otsego showed her advantages by making two more trips to Bristol Bay the same season, something "unheard of in the trade at the time". In her second season for Libby's, she towed the old sailing ship Oriental both ways on the latter{{'}}s final voyages.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=124}}

File:USAT General W. C. Gorgas (1902).jpg

In 1926 Libby's bought Otsego{{'}}s sister ship {{lang|de|Prinz Sigismund}}, by then called General W. C. Gorgas. In 1936 the company bought a third ship for the fleet, Santa Olivia, and renamed her David W. Branch.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=124}} By 1934 Otsego{{'}}s call sign was WQCJ, and this had superseded her code letters.{{sfn|Lloyd's Register 1934|loc=OSW–OTT}}

Otsego suffered few accidents in her long career with Libby{{'}}s. On 7 August 1933 she went aground in dense fog when heading for Shilshole Bay. She was refloated the next day by the tugboat Creole. On 31 July 1934 Otsego, carrying some 600 cannery workers and a full cargo of canned salmon, struck a rock off Cape Mordvinof in Bristol Bay. She was refloated, but was leaking badly. The next day the United States Coast Guard cutters Ewing and Bonham escorted her to Dutch Harbor, where her passengers and cargo were transferred to other ships. After temporary repairs, Otsego returned to Seattle escorted by the cutter Shoshone. At Seattle the Todd Corporation repaired or replaced about 70 of her hull plates.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=124}}{{cite news |date= 1934-08-01 |title=2 Government Ships Rush to Vessel{{'}}s Aid |url= https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4372667/ss_otsego_strikes_july_31_1934/ |newspaper=Santa Cruz Sentinel |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Open access}}

In her 18 years of Libby{{'}}s service Otsego made 42 shorter trips as well as her annual round trips to Alaska. Her total number of trips was about 60. The final one ended at Lake Union on 30 August 1941. The States Steamship Company of Portland, Oregon was going to charter her, but before she could be transferred, the War Shipping Administration (WSA) chartered her, and then the US Army in turn chartered her from the WSA. This was on 4 December, three days before the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the US into the Second World War.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=124}}

File:USAT Otsego (stern view).jpeg

On 19 December 1941 the ship left Seattle on her first voyage as USAT Otsego. From April to July 1942 she was refitted at Seattle as a troopship with berths for 793 troops.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=124}}{{sfn|Charles|1947|p=48}} Her service speed by this time was listed at {{convert|10+1/2|kn|km/h|0}}.{{sfn|Charles|1947|p=48}}

USAT Otsego was based at Seattle and spent the next 2½ years as an Army transport in "arduous" service to and from "most of the important ports and military bases in Alaska", making 31 voyages from 1941 through 1944. On 9 December 1944 she was returned to the War Shipping Administration.{{sfn|Charles|1947|p=48}}{{sfn|Stadum|1983|pp=124–125}}

Before the end of the war, unionization had made Libby's private fleet uneconomic and the company had no further use for her. In January 1945 he was transferred under Lend-Lease to the USSR, who renamed ner Ural.{{cite ship register |register=MSI |id=5373878}}{{sfn|Charles|1947|p=48}}{{sfn|Stadum|1983|pp=124–125}} She was placed under the control of the Far Eastern Steamship Company of Vladivostok and may have been used to carry political prisoners, forced laborers, and criminals from the eastern termini of the Trans-Siberian Railway to camps in Kamchatka and Northeast Siberia.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=125}}

In 1947 Ural was reportedly renamed Dolinsk;{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=125}} She was either hulked or scrapped{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=125}} in the region of Vladivostok in 1955.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=125}} Her sister ship General W. C. Gorgas had also become a US Army troop transport in 1941, and the Soviet Lend-Lease ship Mikhail Lomonosov in 1945. Mikhail Lomonosov was scrapped in the USSR in March 1958.{{sfn|Stadum|1983|p=125}}{{cite ship register |register=MSI |id=5234943}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book |author=American Bureau of Shipping |author-link=American Bureau of Shipping |year=1919 |title=1919 Record of American and Foreign Shipping |place=New York |publisher=American Bureau of Shipping |url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433019094345?urlappend=%3Bseq=557 |via=HathiTrust}}
• {{cite book |last=Charles |first=Roland W |year=1947 |title=Troopships of World War II |place=Washington, DC |publisher=The Army Transportation Association |url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015012354554?urlappend=%3Bseq=62 |via=HathiTrust}}
• {{cite journal |last=Evans |first=AJ |date=9 February 1907 |title=Experiences during the recent earthquake in Jamaica |journal=British Medical Journal |place=London |volume=1 |issue=2406 |page=348 |pmc=2356668 |pmid=20763070 |doi=10.1136/bmj.1.2406.348}}
• {{cite book |last=Gleaves |first=Albert |date=1921 |title=A History of the Transport Service |place=New York |publisher=George H. Doran Company |url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t9474wd50?urlappend=%3Bseq=316 |via=HathiTrust}}
• {{cite book |last=Haws |first=Duncan |year=1980 |title=The Ships of the Hamburg America, Adler and Carr Lines |series=Merchant Fleets in Profile |volume=4 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Patrick Stephens Ltd |isbn=0-85059-397-2}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Johnson |editor-first=Eads |year=1920 |title=Johnson{{'}}s Steam Vessels of the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Coasts |place=New York |publisher=Eads Johnson, M.E. Inc. |url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015021113686?urlappend=%3Bseq=267 |via=HathiTrust}}
• {{cite book |year=1904 |title=Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping |volume=I.–Steamers. |place=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |url= https://archive.org/details/HECROS1905ST/page/n716/mode/1up |via=Internet Archive |ref={{harvid|Lloyd's Register 1904}} }}
• {{cite book |year=1910 |title=Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping |volume=I.–Steamers. |place=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |url= https://archive.org/details/HECROS1911ST/page/n840/mode/1up |via=Internet Archive |ref={{harvid|Lloyd's Register 1910}} }}
• {{cite book |year=1919 |title=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |volume=II.–Steamers. |place=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |url= https://archive.org/details/HECROS1920ST/page/n798/mode/1up |via=Internet Archive |ref={{harvid|Lloyd's Register 1919}} }}
• {{cite book |year=1924 |title=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |volume=II.–Steamers and Motorships. |place=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |url= https://archive.org/details/HECROS1925ST/page/n873/mode/1up |via=Internet Archive |ref={{harvid|Lloyd's Register 1924}} }}
• {{cite book |year=1934 |title=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |volume=II.–Steamers and Motorships of 300 tons gross & over |place=London |publisher=Lloyd's Register of Shipping |url= https://plimsoll.southampton.gov.uk/shipdata/pdfs/34/34b0639.pdf |via=Southampton City Council |ref={{harvid|Lloyd's Register 1934}} }}
• {{cite book |author=The Marconi Press Agency Ltd |author-link=Marconi Company |year=1913 |title=The Year Book of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony |place=London |publisher=The St Katherine Press}}
• {{cite book |author=The Marconi Press Agency Ltd |year=1914 |title=The Year Book of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony |place=London |publisher=The Marconi Press Agency Ltd}}
• {{cite book |author=United States Department of Commerce |year=1920 |title=Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States For the Year Ended June 30 1919 |place=Washington, DC |publisher= Government Printing Office |url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015026504616?urlappend=%3Bseq=509 |via=HathiTrust}}
• {{cite magazine |last=Stadum |first=Lloyd M |date=June 1983 |title=Otsego, the other Prinz Eitel Friedrich |magazine=The Sea Chest |volume=16 |place=Seattle |publisher=Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society |pages=121–25}}
• {{cite book |author=United States Department of War |year=1920 |title=War Department Annual Reports, 1919 |place=Washington, DC |publisher=Government Printing Office |volume=I (Part 4) |url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/osu.32435057109712?urlappend=%3Bseq=1292 |via=HathiTrust}}
• {{cite book |author=United States Government |year=1925 |title=Hearings Before the Select Committee to Inquire into the Operations, Policies, and Affairs of the United States Shipping Board and the United States Emergency Fleet Corporation: Exhibits to Testimony Part F |place=Washington, DC |publisher=US Government |url= http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015073756788?urlappend=%3Bseq=817 |via=United States National Library of Medicine}}

• {{DANFS |http://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/o/otsego-iii.html |ref={{harvid|DANFS}} }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Otsego}}

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