04/12/2024
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Today in Hampton History
1915 - German raider Kronprinz Wilhelm eludes Allied warships near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay and steams past Old Point Comfort to Newport News.
In the first seven months of World War I, the Kronprinz Wilhelm had captured or sunk 16 Allied ships. However, low on vital supplies and with illness spreading among the crew, the ship had no choice but to find a neutral port.
The United States, neutral in World War I until 1917, allowed the giant steamship to dock at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock for repairs for one week but required it to leave American waters afterwards. Unable to complete repairs in time, the captain accepted internment, and the ship was moved to Portsmouth. There, it joined the Prinz Eitel Friedrich, which had been interned the previous week.
The two crews, “guests” of the American government, freely interacted with local visitors, and their confinement was so lax that several escaped. The crews also constructed “Eitel Wilhelm,” a German village that became a local tourist attraction.
After the United States entered World War I on the Allied side in 1917, the crews were moved to Georgia as prisoners of war, and the ships were moved to Philadelphia, where they were converted to American service as USS DeKalb and USS Von Steuben.
SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm, still flying the German naval ensign, at Newport News or Portsmouth, April 1915.
For more about the Prinz Eitel Friederich, see our post from April 7.
https://www.marinersmuseum.org/sites/micro/cbhf/century/wwi006.html
https://www.pilotonline.com/news/article_26dcbf24-41a1-5946-9017-d421060a8e43.html
https://www.dailypress.com/history/dp-daring-german-sea-raiders-bring-world-war-i-to-hampton-roads-20150417-post.html
