On 29th July 1914, Kronprinz Wilhelm arrived in New York and proceeded to refuel and reprovision as usual. Two days later NDL ordered her to load additional large amounts of coal and fresh water. Then on 1st August NDL cancelled Kronprinz Wilhelm’s next sailing scheduled for 4th August. In the meantime they continued to load fuel wherever they could. Portholes and windows were sealed and blacked out. She then sailed, to become one of Germany’s armed raiders, seizing a number of vessels.
On 14th January Captain Thierfelder seized the Nelson liner Highland Brae, on passage from England to Buenos Aires with two thousand tons of coal, five hundred tons of fresh water and additional provisions. The passengers were transferred to Kronprinz Wilhelm. This meant that the raider now had some 219 prisoners on board that needed guarding and were consuming the limited supplies of food and water.
By 24th January Highland Brae was alongside, and the crew offloaded coal, provisions and fresh water as fast as possible, in spite of a deteriorating sea. After a break for bad weather the two ships came back alongside on the morning of 29th January, and the remaining coal and provisions were transferred. By late afternoon of Saturday, 30th January everything useful had been transferred, and soon after Highland Brae was scuttled by opening the seacocks.
After a successful time as a raider, time ran out for Kronprinz Wilhelm. Thierfelder timed his arrival off Chesapeake Bay for after dark on Saturday, 10th April. Once anchored, the ship and its crew were interned.
Extracted from “The German Greyhounds” – for more details see http://wp.me/P82xkB-40
On 14th January 1899 Oceanic (yard number 317) was launched at Harland & Wolff,. She was designed as a twin-propeller, steel-hulled vessel, with two sets of triple-expansion engines producing 28,000hp. Accommodation was 300 First Class, 190 Second Class and 1,000 Third Class.
On 26th August she left Belfast for Liverpool. Oceanic sailed from Liverpool on her maiden voyage on 6th September, with 1,456 passengers. However, because many of the stokers were untrained, she made the crossing with the engines operating at 75% of their potential and arrived at Sandy Hook on 15th September, at an average 19.57 knots. Oceanic left New York on 20th September on the return leg.
On 8th September Oceanic was on patrol. The naval captain, William Hayter, ordered a course to pass between the island of Foula and the Shaalds. The White Star captain, Henry Smith, strongly advised against going into such shallow water, but was over-ruled. Subsequently Oceanic ran aground: the crew were quickly transferred to Alsatian. It proved impossible to pull her off the rocks, and in the end it was accepted she was a total constructive loss. The guns and ammunition were removed and the instruments dismantled. Amazingly, at the later enquiry both captains were absolved of all blame!