Rhenania 1/1250 GLR12B USS De Kalb, troopship, 1917
New for 2010! The former German liner, Prinz Eitel Friedrich, was taken over by the US government in 1917 and converted to a troopship.
Prinz Eitel Friedrich had been taken over in Tsingtau for conversion to an armed merchant cruiser using the guns from the gunboat Eber. She did not achieve much and was interned in the US when her coal ran out. The Americans took over the ship when they entered the war and converted her into a troopship to move the US army to France. As a troopship, she carried a heavier armament than as an AMC! Starting off in overall grey, she was re-painted into a low visability camouflage scheme and later into a dazzle scheme (see GLR12B (T)) before reverting to all grey when laid up after WW1.