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Name: SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse Owner: Norddeutscher Lloyd Port of Registry: Germany Builder: Stettiner Vulcan, Stettin Laid down: 1896 Launched: 4 May 1897 Christened: 4 May 1897 Maiden voyage: 19 September 1897 Fate: sunk (scuttled) after fighting HMS Highflyer 26 August 1914 wreck later scrapped in 1952 on the spot in the shallow waters General characteristics Tonnage: 14,349 gross tons Length: 655 feet (200.1 m) Beam: 65.8 feet (20.1 m) Installed power: 33,000 horsepower Propulsion: Triple expansion reciprocating engines driving twin screws Speed: 22.5 knots Capacity: 1506 passengers (206 first class, 226 second class, 1074 third class) Crew: 488 Kaiser Wilhelm I, was a German ocean liner of the Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) shipping line. She is notable for a number of things, including being the first German ship to win the Blue Riband and the first passenger ship (although acting as an armed merchent cruiser at the time) sunk in World War I. She was built by Vulcan shipyards in Stettin and launched on 4 May 1897. She made her maiden voyage on 19 September of that year, from Bremerhaven to New York. In November 1897, she set an eastbound North Atlantic crossing record from Sandy Hook to the Needles, and four months later she captured the westbound Blue Riband, taking it from Cunard's Lucania. She held these records until Hapag's Deutschland took the eastbound record in July 1900 and the westbound one in September 1903. The fact that German ships took over this famed prize eventually led the British to build their Mauretania and Lusitania duo. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse became the first liner to have a commercial wireless telegraphy system when the Marconi Company installed one in February 1900. Communications were demonstrated with systems installed at the Borkum Island lighthouse and Borkum Riff lightship 30 km northwest of the island, as well as with British stations. In August 1914 the ship was requisitioned by the Kaiserliche Marine and converted into an auxiliary cruiser, assigned to commerce raiding in the Atlantic. On 26 August, 1914. She was caught refuelling off the shore of the then Spanish colony of Rio de Oro in western Africa by the old British 6-inch gunned cruiser HMS Highflyer. Badly outgunned, the ship eventually ran out of ammunition. The crew abandoned and scuttled her in shallow water. British sources at the time insisted that Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse sank because of the damage inflicted by Highflyer. Whatever the cause, she was the first passenger ship sunk during World War I. rgds. sister ship of Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse SS Kronprinz Wilhelm -launched on 30 March 1901 . |
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