HAPAG service
HAPAG registered Prinz Eitel Friedrich at Hamburg. Her code letters were RMLJ. Her first voyage or two were from Wilhelmshaven, Germany, to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, cayying general cargo outbound and fresh fruit inbound. In June 1902 HAPAG transferred her to its route between Hamburg and Brazil. She remained on this route for the next four years.
In 1901 HAPAG had taken over the Atlas Line. In 1906 it transferred Prinz Eitel Friedrich to this service, as one of five ships offering winter cruises.[4] To join this service she left Hamburg carrying 572 passengers, reaching New York on 26 April.
The Atlas Service eventually offered round trip cruises from New York of either 11, 18, or 25 days.[5][6] with one ship leaving New York each week,[7][8] By 1913 it had eight ships on this service.[7]
Prinz Eitel Friedrich seems to have worked almost entirely on the 25-day cruises, usually with her sister ship Prinz Sigismund.[5][7][9] Prospective customers were offered "accommodations equal to those of the well-known Trans-Atlantic liners of the Hamburg-American Line",[4] and "excellent cuisine and service".[10]
Cruise itineraries varied from year to year, but typically included Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama.[6][10][11] From Panama, passengers were offered a connecting service to Peru and Chile.[11] The call at Panama was usually a two- or three-day stay, with optional shore excursions, while ships exchanged cargoes and connecting passengers.[12] The Panama Canal was still being built, and HAPAG ships often brought construction supplies.
In her first winter cruise season, Prinz Eitel Friedrich encountered the aftermath of the 1907 earthquake in Jamaica. She left Colón, Panama on 12 January 1907, and was due in Kingston, Jamaica on 14 January when the earthquake struck, killing 1,745 people and causing much destruction.[16][17] She was at first misreported to have been stranded in the harbor along with several other ships.[16] In fact it was her sister ship Prinz Waldemar that ran aground,[18] and was written off as a total loss.[19][20]
Over the next three days, Prinz Eitel Friedrich embarked 160 US refugees. With her first-class cabins "taxed to their capacity".[21] On 23 January, she became the first ship to reach New York from the disaster.[21] On arrival, her passengers passed a resolution condemning the British authorities in Jamaica for "inactivity and utter inefficiency" after the earthquake, and alleged neglect of US citizens in favour of British refugees.[22]
By 1910 Prinz Eitel Friedrich was equipped with submarine signalling and wireless telegraphy. By 1911 HAPAG was running Atlas Line cruises all year round.[23] Fares started at about $115 for summer cruises[6] and $135 to $150 for winter ones.[7][8][23] In February 1914 Michel Oreste, President of Haiti, abdicated in the face of advancing rebels, and with his family and entourage fled aboard Prinz Eitel Friedrich. They disembarked at Kingston on 9 February.[24][25]
By 1913 Prinz Eitel Friedrich's wireless telegraph call sign was DSI.
On 1 August 1914, with the First World War imminent, HAPAG announced the immediate suspension of Atlas Line services. HAPAG ships already in US ports were ordered to remain there, and ships in transit to a US port were ordered to complete their voyage and then cease operation.[26] On 4 August Prinz Eitel Friedrich was still in transit from the Bahamas to New York. She hugged the New Jersey coast for the remainder of the voyage, staying within the neutral US' three-mile territorial limit to evade capture by Allied naval ships.[27] Before dawn on 5 August, with all but her navigation lights covered, she entered New York Harbor.[28] She remained there for the next two years and eight months.
