Alfred Von Niezychowski - Career

Career

As an adult, Niezychowski joined the German merchant marine of the Hamburg-American Line, and was an officer on such ships as the Hamburg-American liner Victoria Louise and the North German Lloyd liner Prinzess Irene in 1914, before being transferred to his most famous assignment, the German passenger liner Kronprinz Wilhelm, where he held the rank of Lieutenant. He was later promoted to Lieutenant Commander in the German naval reserve and became second in command. The ship was one of the fastest in the world, having won the Blue Riband a few years earlier for the fastest-ever Atlantic crossing, in 5 days, 11 hours, and 57 minutes.

Germany entered World War I in August 1914, while the ship was in port in New York, and the Kronprinz Wilhelm was ordered into service with the Imperial German Navy as an auxiliary cruiser. She left port and rendezvoused with the SMS Karlsruhe to have deck guns installed, and then spent the next 251 days capturing and sinking commercial vessels off the coast of South America, while simultaneously evading capture by the Allies. The ship eventually ran out of supplies, and dozens of the men in her crew had become sick with beri-beri from the restricted diet on the long voyage. Her captain headed for Virginia, and successfully evading the British ships guarding the port, entered safe harbor at Newport News, in 1915. At the Norfolk Navy Yard, the ship and crew were originally interned as neutrals by the United States, until that country entered the war in 1917. At that time, Niezychowski and the rest of the crew became American prisoners of war and the ship was officially seized by the US Navy. Renamed the USS Von Steuben, she was turned into a troopship.