Prinz Eitel Friedrich/Mount Clay

[smp]

At the beginning of WWI, the German Auxiliary cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich had a successful cruise in the Pacific and South and Mid Atlantic. Due to lack of supplies, she was forced to put in to neutral America at Newport News, Va in March of 1915 where she was interned.
When America entered the war in 1917 she was taken as a war prize and pressed into service as a troop transport. She carried my Grandfather and the 649th Aero Supply Squadron of which he was a member to France where they helped build the Air Production Center #1 at Romorantin, France. This is where the American DH.4 Liberty planes were uncrated and assembled as well as supplies and spare parts handled for those few DH.4s which became operational.

After the war the ship was operated as the Mount Clay by the United American Lines of New York. I do not know what name she went by as a troop ship, although Mount Clay is possible.
Is there a paper card model of this ship? Is there one of a sister ship which could be converted?
Thanks
sp

[David Hathaway]

Hi SP

An interesting subject for a model. According to Wikipedia she served as a troop ship named as USS DeKalb. Then as SS Mount Clay in civilian service until 1934 when she was scrapped.

A quick google would find a picture of her in WWI dazzle camouflage as USS DeKalb - I would love to see a model of her like that!

Unfortunately she seems to have been a one-off design for NDL (Nord Deutsche Lloyd) and I know of no card model of her. Asking on the German kartonbau.de forum may get you more information. Plans of her may be somewhere in the US as she was refitted several times. There should be surviving drawings of her dazzle camo design as these have mostly all survived.

David Hathaway
Paper Shipwright

[smp]

Thanks David.
The only model I can find is a 1/1250 scale from some outfit in Germany who will not ship to the US.

I found a photo of USS DeKalb in dazzle camo and I would really like to do a model of her in those colors.
I have a copy of the official history of the 649th Aero Supply Sqdn. (Grandfather's unit). It relates them seeing what was thought to be a submarine periscope and it was fired on it with a deck gun. It turned out to be some floating debris. Since that little model is a waterline model, I thought some debris in the acrylic gel water along with some splashes might make an interesting display.
sp