Barbarossa - class ocean liner 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 F . Schichau ; all were built in Germany . They averaged and featured twin screw propellers driven by quadruple - expansion steam engine s . History . Early career . The first four ships of the class , , , , and were launched in 1896 for North German 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 , the first German ship over — 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 , 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 , and 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 , and , 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 freighter s 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 and , launched in August and November 1901 . " Moltke " spent time on North Atlantic and Mediterranean routes ; " Blücher " on North Atlantic and South American routes . World War I . At the outbreak of World War I , rather than face capture or destruction at the hands of the British Royal Navy , most of the " Barbarossa " - class ships were interned in neutral ports . " König Albert " and " Moltke " were interned at Genoa , while " Blücher " was interned at Pernambuco , Brazil . Five ships were interned at U . S . - controlled ports : four — " Barbarossa " , " Friedrich der Grosse " , " Prinzess Irene " , and " Hamburg " — were interned at Hoboken , New Jersey , and " Princess Alice " was interned at Cebu , Philippine Islands . Only " Königin Luise " and " Bremen " were in German ports , where they remained throughout the war . In September 1914 , " Hamburg " was briefly renamed and chartered to the American Red Cross . Sailing under the name " Red Cross " , she made one roundtrip voyage to Europe before returning to New York , and her previous name . As Italy , the United States , and Brazil successively joined the war , each seized the interned " Barbarossa " ships ( along with all other German and Austro - Hungarian ships ) and renamed them . In Italy , " Moltke " became " Pesaro " , while " König Albert " became hospital ship " Ferdinando Palasciano " ; in Brazil , " Blücher " became " Leopoldina " . The five ships interned under U . S . control all became United States Navy transport ships , and were renamed as follows : These five ex - German transports carried over 95 , 000 American troops to France before the Armistice . Postwar service . At the conclusion of World War I , war reparations permanently assigned the eight seized ships to the nations that held them . Further , " Königin Luise " and " Bremen " , safely laid up in Germany during the war , were assigned to the UK . Apart from those two , only two other " Barbarossa " - class ships changed national registry after the war . Brazil sold " Leopoldina " ( the ex - " Blücher " ) to the French " Compagnie Générale Transatlantique " which operated her under the name " Suffren " . " Pocahontas " ( the ex - " Prinzess Irene " ) was laid up in Gibraltar after mechanical failures and was purchased by NDL in 1923 . She became the only member of the " Barbarossa " class to resume sailing under the German flag . First renamed " Bremen " and later " Karlsruhe " ( to free the name " Bremen " for a newer ship ) , she sailed primarily on the Bremen – New York route . In 1922 , " City of Honolulu " ( the ex - " Friedrich der Grosse " ) , sailing on her first roundtrip on the Los Angeles – Honolulu route for the Los Angeles Steamship Company , caught fire and burned in a calm sea . No one on board was killed or injured when the lifeboats were launched , and when towing the burned hulk proved unsuccessful , the ship was sunk by gunfire from a United States Coast Guard Cutter ; she was the only member of the " Barbarossa " class to sink . By the end of the 1920s , six more " Barbarossa " ships had met their ends at the hands of shipbreaker s , and none of the remaining three ships would survive the next decade . All were scrapped by 1935 , bringing an end to the career of the " Barbarossa " class .