page_title: SS Kroonland
section_title: Returning troops home
hierarchical_section_title: SS Kroonland / U.S. Navy transport duties / Returning troops home
caption_attribution_description: English: USS Kroonland (ID # 1541) Removing one of the ship's deck guns (Bethlehem Steel Co. 4 inch standard Mark IV), c. September 1919. Note the Battle Efficiency "E" and the ship's name painted on the gun's shield. The original image is printed on postcard ("AZO") stock. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
context_page_description: SS Kroonland was an ocean liner for International Mercantile Marine from her launch in 1902 until she was scrapped in 1927. Kroonland was the sister ship of Finland and a near sister ship of Vaderland and Zeeland of the same company. Kroonland sailed for IMM's Red Star Line for 15 years, and also sailed for IMM's American Line and Panama Pacific Line. During World War I, the ship served as United States Army transport USAT Kroonland through April 1918, and as the Navy auxiliary USS Kroonland from April 1918 to October 1919.
  Announced by the Red Star Line in 1899, Kroonland was completed in 1902 by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia. When launched, she was the largest U.S. steamship ever built. Kroonland sailed from New York City to Antwerp on her maiden voyage in June 1902, beginning service on the route she would sail for the next twelve years. According to The New York Times, Kroonland became the first ship to issue a wireless distress call at sea when she radioed for help during a storm in 1903. In another radio first, Kroonland heard the "first real broadcast of history" in December 1906.
context_section_description: At war's end, the task of bringing home American soldiers began almost immediately. Kroonland did her part by carrying home 26,152 passengers in eight trips. The ship departed from Brest in late November with her first load of nearly 2,000 wounded and convalescing soldiers, many of whom were from the U.S. 76th Infantry Division. The former liner arrived at the Quarantine Station on 10 December 1918, and docked in New York the next day. One of the men aboard was Captain Walter Camp who had been wounded and gassed in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive; Camp was the son of the Yale University football coach of the same name. Another passenger on board was Sarah Wilmer, an American YWCA front-line worker who had become lost in the Argonne forest and gassed when a German shell exploded nearby. Before departing on her next voyage, Kroonland hosted a party for 150 newsboys from New Jersey at her Hoboken, New Jersey, pier on Christmas Day. With a Christmas tree in the troops' mess, the newsboys were treated to a dinner and entertainment by the ship's band, and all received presents.
  Kroonland arrived at Newport News on 18 February with 2,805 passengers, including units from the U.S. 36th Infantry Division, after a rough trip from Saint-Nazaire. On her next voyage, she carried another 2,943 officers and men from Saint-Nazaire to Newport News, arriving there on 24 March. The 132nd Regiment of the 61st Field Artillery Brigade returned on the ship, and brigade historian Rex F. Harlow called Kroonland "probably the best vessel on which any units of the brigade returned to America".
  On 18 April, Kroonland began her next homeward journey, embarking several companies of the 111th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 28th Infantry Division among the 3,100 troops carried. Though the fighting was over, the men still wore life jackets for the first three days at sea amidst fears of striking floating mines. George W. Cooper, historian of the 2nd Battalion of the 111th Infantry, reported that some of the men had to serve as stokers during the trip because of a "shortage of help". In the middle of the crossing, the ship "sprung a leak" and took on 10 feet (3.0 m) of water; she had a list for a day or so, until repairs were made. The troops later disembarked at New York on 29 April.
  Kroonland returned to Saint-Nazaire in May and loaded Major General Joseph E. Kuhn and some 3,000 men of his U.S. 79th Infantry Division, which included the 304th Engineer Regiment, and departed France on 18 May. The band of the 304th Engineers gave concerts on deck every evening on the voyage home to entertain the men. Though initially bound for Newport News, Kroonland's crew received orders in mid ocean to head instead to New York, where they arrived on 29 May. After completing another passage to Newport News in late June, Kroonland sailed on 19 July with 3,642 passengers—including officers, men, thirteen war brides, and one war baby—from Saint-Nazaire, in the final transport departure from that port before it was closed as a port of embarkation by U.S. military authorities. Among the passengers was Brigadier General Samuel D. Rockenbach, the founder of the United States Tank Corps.
  On 21 August, the USSB announced that Kroonland would be released from government service after surveys for repairs had been completed. After leaving New York on 10 August, the ship was in the middle of what would be her final trip returning soldiers. After arriving at Brest, 1,532 officers and men boarded Kroonland for New York, where the transport arrived on 10 September. Also on board was Michael Gilhooley, a 15-year-old stowaway making his fourth unsuccessful attempt to sneak into the United States aboard a Navy transport.
  The ship was decommissioned and returned to the USSB on 13 September, and returned to International Mercantile Marine shortly thereafter. In her eight trips returning troops, Kroonland—affectionately called the "Empress of the Seas" by her crew—averaged just under 39 days per turnaround, beating the overall average of all ships by almost a full day, and edging out sister ship 
caption: After her Navy service ended, Kroonland's 4-inch (100 mm) guns were removed before she was returned to her owners, International Mercantile Marine.
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