U.S. soldiers cheering aboard the USS Agememnon upon arriving at Hoboken, New Jersey from France, 1919.
U.S. soldiers cheering aboard the USS Agememnon upon arriving at Hoboken, New Jersey from France, 1919. The USS Agamemnon was initially a German vessel by the name of SS Kaiser Wilhelm, built and launched in modern-day Poland on August 12, 1902. The SS Kaiser Wilhelm was designed for high-speed transatlantic crossing, making her maiden voyage to New York on April 14, 1903. Up until the First World War, the SS Kaiser Wilhelm made many crossings between Bremerhaven in Germany and New York. Under Captain Dietrich Högemann the SS Kaiser Wilhelm won the Blue Riband in 1904 for the fastest eastbound crossing of the Atlantic to date, with a top speed of 23.58 knots (43.67 km/h), completing the voyage in a week between June 14 - 20, 1904. On August 4, 1914, Britain and Germany found themselves at war, meaning crossing the Atlantic was no longer safe for the German SS Kaiser Wilhelm, but the ship was already heading towards the states at the time. After evading patrolling British cruisers in th...