Auxiliary cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich sails from Tsingtao
- Category:
- Military operations
- Front:
- War at sea
- Date:
- 6 August 1914
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
At the beginning of August 1914 the auxiliary cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich sailed from Tsingtao, today’s Qingdao, the German naval base on the coast of China. Contemporary chronicles give the date as 6 August; other sources point to 5 August, the day on which the ship was officially commissioned.
A liner with guns
Prinz Eitel Friedrich was a passenger ship of the Norddeutscher Lloyd company, serving routes in the Far East. The outbreak of war found her at Tsingtao. The German navy quickly converted her into an auxiliary cruiser, fitting guns taken from obsolete gunboats stationed in the port. Her crew was made up with sailors from those vessels.
A cruise across two oceans
The ship headed for a rendezvous with the East Asia Squadron of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee, which she joined at the island of Pagan in the Marianas. For the following weeks she accompanied the squadron and operated independently in the Pacific Ocean. After the Battle of Coronel she passed round Cape Horn into the Atlantic, where she waged war on commerce, sinking eleven ships.
Among her victims was the American sailing ship William P. Frye, sunk in January 1915. She was the first American ship sunk in the war, and the incident caused diplomatic tension between the United States and Germany.
The end of the raid
In March 1915, with worn-out engines, no coal and prisoners on board, Prinz Eitel Friedrich put into the neutral port of Newport News in the United States. She was soon interned there. After the United States entered the war in 1917, the Americans seized the ship and used her as a troop transport.
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Meanwhile
(04)Elsewhere in the same days.
- 6 August 1914 · Western FrontBattle of the Frontiers beginsIn early August 1914 the Battle of the Frontiers began, a series of clashes between French and German armies that lasted until the Battle of the Marne.
- 6 August 1914 · Balkan FrontSerbia declares war on GermanyOn 6 August 1914 Serbia declared war on Germany, ally of Austria-Hungary. The two states had no common border, but the declaration was a political statement.
- 6 August 1914 · Eastern FrontAustria-Hungary declares war on RussiaOn 6 August 1914 the Austro-Hungarian ambassador in St Petersburg handed over the declaration of war. The monarchy's main front shifted to Galicia.
- 6 August 1914 · PoliticsLord Kitchener becomes Secretary of State for WarOn 6 August 1914 Field Marshal Lord Kitchener took over the British War Office, replacing Prime Minister Asquith, who had headed it since March 1914.
Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 22 September 1914 · War at seaVon Spee shells PapeeteOn 22 September 1914 the cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau shelled Papeete on Tahiti. The French burned the coal stocks before the Germans could seize them.
- 1 November 1914 · War at seaBattle of CoronelOn 1 November 1914 off Chile Admiral von Spee's squadron sank two British armoured cruisers. Admiral Cradock and about 1,600 sailors were killed.
- 9 November 1914 · War at seaInternment of the gunboat Geier in HonoluluAt the beginning of November 1914 the Americans interned the German gunboat Geier and her accompanying collier Locksun in Honolulu.
- 14 December 1914 · War at seaInternment of Cormoran at GuamOn 14 December 1914 the German auxiliary cruiser Cormoran, formerly the Russian Ryazan, reached American Guam out of coal. The ship and her crew were interned.