page_title: Barbarossa-class ocean liner
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: Barbarossa-class ocean liner / History / Early career
caption_attribution_description: SS Princess Alice (German Passenger Liner, 1900) Interned at Cebu, Philippine Islands, circa 1914-1916. This ship later served as USS Princess Matoika. Collection of C.A. Shively, 1978. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.
context_page_description: The Barbarossa class was a class of ocean liners of North German Lloyd and the Hamburg America Line of the German Empire. Of the ten ships built between 1896 and 1902, six were built by AG Vulcan Stettin, three were built by Blohm & Voss, and one was built by Schichau-Werke; all were built in Germany. They averaged 11,000 gross register tons and featured twin screw propellers driven by quadruple-expansion steam engines.
context_section_description: The first four ships of the class, Friedrich der Grosse, Barbarossa, Königin Luise, and Bremen, were launched in 1896 for North German Lloyd (German: Norddeutscher Lloyd or NDL) in a combination class usable on several of NDL's routes. The class was intended to be called the Bremen class, but delays in the building of that ship caused the class to instead be named after Barbarossa. Despite the name of the class, the first ship launched was Friedrich der Grosse in August—at 10,531 GRT, the first German ship over 10,000 GRT—followed by Barbarossa, Königin Luise, and Bremen at monthly intervals. These first four ships were used on Australian, Far East, and North Atlantic routes for NDL. On Australian and Far East voyages, the liners transited the Suez Canal, and were, along with NDL's Grosser Kurfürst, the largest ships regularly using the canal. The size of these liners was a principal reason for the canal's deepening; Bremen, on one trip to Australia, became the first ship to transit the newly deepened canal.
  The latter six ships, two for NDL and four for the Hamburg America Line (German: Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft or HAPAG) were launched between June 1899 and November 1901. NDL's two liners, König Albert and Prinzess Irene were launched a year apart in June 1899 and June 1900, respectively, and were used on Far East and North Atlantic routes. Beginning in 1904 they were mainly used on the Italy–New York route.
  Of the four HAPAG liners, two, Hamburg and Kiautschou, were launched in November 1899 and September 1900 for the Far East mail routes that HAPAG and NDL shared. Displeased with the Far East service, HAPAG withdrew and transferred Hamburg to North Atlantic service and traded Kiautschou to NDL for five freighters in 1904. Kiautschou, renamed by NDL to Princess Alice, became the only Barbarossa-class ship to sail for both of the major German passenger lines. She stayed on the Far East mail route until 1914.
  The last two Barbarossa ships were Moltke and Blücher, launched in August and November 1901. Moltke spent time on North Atlantic and Mediterranean routes; Blücher on North Atlantic and South American routes.
caption: SS Princess Alice, the ex-Kiautschou, interned at Cebu, Philippines, c. 1914–1916
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