Background
In 1920, the number of ocean liners carrying passengers on the North Atlantic gradually increased, but was still far below the pre-war years; arrivals at Atlantic ports in the United States were still down some 60% from pre-war numbers. With the fewer ships and sailings available, the AOC made arrangements with both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Navy to transport the United States Olympic team to Antwerp. The Navy agreed to carry team members who were affiliated with their branch of the service, and the Army, to carry civilian and Army-affiliated competitors. The Olympic trip got off to a bad start when the Army's scheduled ship, Northern Pacific, was declared unseaworthy, requiring a last-minute substitution. The last-minute selection of the Matoika meant the original planned departure date, July 20, had to be pushed back by six days to ready the liner to sail.
The ship chosen, Princess Matoika, had been in the service of the U.S. Army as a transport ship since September 1919, and, until the time of her selection, had been returning American soldiers from Europe and repatriating the remains of Americans killed during the war. Before World War I, the Matoika had been a passenger liner for North German Lloyd by the name of Princess Alice. After the United States joined the conflict in 1917, the liner had been pressed into service for the U.S. Navy carrying American troops to Europe; she was renamed Princess Matoika, after one of the given names for Pocahontas, as part of an order to replace Germanic names of seized ships with American names.
Read more about this topic: Mutiny Of The Matoika
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