A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper ) is a ship used to carry soldiers , either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable to land troops directly on shore, typically loading and unloading at a seaport or onto smaller vessels, either tenders or barges .
149-664: USS Princess Matoika (ID-2290) was a transport ship for the United States Navy during World War I . Before the war, she was a Barbarossa -class ocean liner that sailed as SS Kiautschou for the Hamburg America Line and as SS Princess Alice (sometimes spelled Prinzess Alice ) for North German Lloyd . After the war she served as the United States Army transport ship USAT Princess Matoika . In post-war civilian service she
298-605: A Landtag that had met in Stettin in 1563 introduced a sixfold rise in real estate taxes to finance the raising of a mercenary army for the duchy's defence. Johann Friedrich also succeeded in elevating Stettin to one of only three places allowed to coin money in the Upper Saxon Circle of the Holy Roman Empire, the other two places being Leipzig and Berlin . Bogislaw XIV , who resided in Stettin beginning in 1620, became
447-757: A general strike . All these were suppressed by the authorities. Pope John Paul II visited the city on 11 June 1987. Another wave of strikes in Szczecin broke out in 1988 and 1989, which eventually led to the Round Table Agreement and first semi-free elections in post-war Poland . Szczecin has been the capital of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999. Szczecin has an oceanic climate ( Köppen : Cfb ) with some humid continental ( Dfb ) characteristics in normal not updated, typical of Western Pomerania . The winters are colder than on
596-640: A local government charter in 1237, separating the German settlement from the Slavic community settled around the St. Nicholas Church in the neighbourhood of Kessin ( Polish : Chyzin ). In the charter, the Slavs were put under Germanic jurisdiction. When Barnim granted Szczecin Magdeburg rights in 1243, part of the Slavic settlement was reconstructed. The duke had to promise to level
745-480: A 24-hour shakedown cruise. City of Honolulu was rebuilt to 10,680 GRT and had accommodations for around 450 first-class and 50 third-class passengers. Her hull was painted all white for LASSCO service, and she sported period designs in her common areas. The dining room, large enough to seat 300 in a single sitting, was decorated in a Grecian theme, and featured eighteen stained glass windows designed by San Diego architect Carleton Winslow . The smoking room
894-562: A Danish force in 1190. While the empire restored its superiority over the Duchy of Pomerania in the Battle of Bornhöved in 1227, Szczecin was one of two bridgeheads remaining under Danish control (until 1235; Wolgast until 1241/43 or 1250). In the second half of the 12th century, a group of German tradesmen ("multus populus Teutonicorum" from various parts of the Holy Roman Empire) settled in
1043-656: A New York contingent and arrived in France on 30 July. Departing soon after, the Princess returned to Newport News on 13 August. Nine days later she departed in the company of the same ships from her last convoy—with French steamer Lutetia replacing DeKalb —and arrived in France on 3 September. Princess Matoika returned stateside two weeks later. On 23 September Princess Matoika departed New York with 3,661 officers and men accompanied by transports President Grant , Mongolia , Rijndam , Wilhelmina , British steamer Ascanius , and
1192-413: A Polish Scout team and a Polish school. German historian Musekamp writes, "however, only very few Poles were active in these institutions, which for the most part were headed by employees of the [Polish] consulate." The withdrawal of the consulate from these institutions led to a general decline of these activities, which were in part upheld by Golisz and Aleksander Omieczyński. Intensified repressions by
1341-669: A cache of Colt magazine guns aboard President Arthur . The entire crew was questioned but all denied any knowledge of the eight weapons found stowed behind a bulkhead . In August the following year, President Arthur took on board a seaman suffering from pneumonia from the Norwegian freighter Eastern Star in a mid-ocean transfer. The ship's doctor and nurse attended to the sailor but were unable to save him. President Arthur sailed on her last transatlantic voyage from Bremen on 18 October 1923, carrying 656 passengers to New York. Anchoring off Gravesend Bay on 30 October, President Arthur
1490-425: A doubling of customs tax for Slavic merchants, and bans against public usage of their native language. The more prosperous Slavic citizens were forcibly stripped of their possessions, which were then handed over to Germans. In 1514, the guild of tailors added a Wendenparagraph to its statutes, banning Slavs. While not as heavily affected by medieval witchhunts as other regions of the empire, there are reports of
1639-469: A few minutes after 11:00. After the fog lifted, it was revealed that the bow of Princess Alice had stopped some 5 feet (1.5 m) from the outer walls of the Staten Island fort. Lighthouse tender Larkspur was the first ship to come to the aid of the Princess , followed by U.S. Army Quartermaster's ship General Meigs and revenue cutter Seneca . No passengers were hurt in the incident and it
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#17330847821931788-469: A former Pomeranian burg, "Vadam" or "Dambe", which Boleslaw had destroyed during his 1121 campaign. On 2 December 1261, Barnim I allowed Jewish settlement in Szczecin in accordance with the Magdeburg law, in a privilege renewed in 1308 and 1371. The Jewish Jordan family was granted citizenship in 1325, but none of the 22 Jews allowed to settle in the duchy in 1481 lived in the city, and in 1492, all Jews in
1937-458: A group on 30 June. The following evening at 21:15, Covington was torpedoed by U-86 and sank the next afternoon. Princess Matoika and Wilhelmina arrived back at Newport News on 13 July. Around this time, Commander Leahy left Princess Matoika to serve as Director of Gunnery Exercises and Engineering Performance in Washington. For his service on Princess Matoika , though, Leahy was awarded
2086-484: A little more than 24 hours late. This voyage was further marred by the apparent suicide of a despondent New York attorney on 30 May. The man, headed to the spa town of Bad Nauheim in Hesse, had previously suffered a nervous breakdown and was under the care of a doctor on board the ship at the time he jumped overboard. In May 1910 Princess Alice sailed her last North Atlantic passage for her German owners. Put permanently on
2235-549: A maritime strike, members of a smuggling ring were able to infiltrate the crew of the ship. After her withdrawal from the Italian route, Princess Matoika was transferred to New York–Bremen service, sailing on her first commercial trip to Germany since before the war, on 14 June. In July, during her second roundtrip on the Bremen route, late rental payments to the USSB resulted in action to seize
2384-716: A portion of the returning Olympic team, American Boy Scouts returning from the International Boy Scout Jamboree in London, and the remains of 1,284 American soldiers for repatriation. At the conclusion of her Army service Princess Matoika was handed over to the United States Shipping Board (USSB), who chartered the vessel to the United States Mail Steamship Company for service from New York to Italy . This solution of how to use
2533-749: A predecessor of the Hanseatic League , in 1283. The city prospered due to its participation in the Baltic Sea trade, primarily with herring , grain, and timber; craftsmanship also prospered, and more than forty guilds were established in the city. The far-reaching autonomy granted by the House of Griffins was in part reduced when the dukes reclaimed Stettin as their main residence in the late 15th century. The anti-Slavic policies of German merchants and craftsmen intensified in this period, resulting in measures such as bans on people of Slavic descent joining craft guilds,
2682-401: A similar group that left New York the same day, consisting of President Lincoln , Covington , Rijndam , British troopship Dwinsk , and Italian steamers Caserta and Dante Alighieri . American cruiser Frederick served as escort for the assembled ships, which were the 35th U.S. convoy of the war. During the voyage—because of the inability to finish serving three meals for all
2831-652: A single passage in late July 1943, transporting a staggering 765,429 military personnel during the war. Large numbers of troopships were employed during World War II, including 220 "Limited Capacity" Liberty ship conversions, 30 Type C4 ship -based General G. O. Squier -class , a class of 84 Victory ship conversions, and a small number of Type- C3-S-A2 ship-based dedicated transports, and 15 classes of attack transports , of which some 400 alone were built. The designation HMT (Her/His Majesty's Transport) would normally replace RMS (Royal Mail Ship), MV (Motor Vessel) or SS (Steamship) for ships converted to troopship duty with
2980-533: A staple town, and subsidised manufacturers. Also, colonists were settled in the city, primarily French Huguenots . The French established a prosperous community, greatly contributed to the city's economic revival, and were treated with reluctance by the German burghers and city authorities. In October 1806, during the War of the Fourth Coalition , believing that he was facing a much larger force, and after receiving
3129-487: A storm damaged her steering gear she had to be towed back in to New York on 28 January. After repairs and a successful eastbound crossing, Princess Matoika had an encounter with an iceberg off Newfoundland while carrying some two thousand Italian immigrants on her first return trip from Italy. On the night of 24 February the fully laden ship struck what was reported in The New York Times as either "an iceberg or
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#17330847821933278-601: A submarine and, soon after, a torpedo heading directly for the ship. The torpedo missed her by a few yards and gunners manning the ship's 6-inch (150 mm) guns claimed a hit on the sub with their second shot. Later that morning, the Newport News ships met up with the New York portion of the convoy—which included DeKalb , Finland , Kroonland , George Washington , Covington , Rijndam , Dante Alighieri , and British steamer Vauben —and set out for France. The convoy
3427-420: A submerged wreck" off Cape Race . The ship's steering gear was damaged in the collision, leaving the ship adrift for over seven hours before repairs were effected. The Matoika ' s captain indicated that no passengers were hurt in the collision. According to the story of one third-class passenger, she, suspecting there was something seriously amiss, made inquiry after the commotion. A crew member told her that
3576-508: A threat of harsh treatment of the city, the Prussian commander Lieutenant General Friedrich von Romberg agreed to surrender the city to the French led by General Lasalle . In fact, Lasalle had only 800 men against von Romberg's 5,300 men. In March 1809 Romberg was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for giving up Stettin without a fight. In 1809, also Polish troops were stationed in
3725-527: A troubled transatlantic journey aboard Princess Matoika . The voyage and the events onboard, later called the "Mutiny of the Matoika ", were still being discussed in the popular press years later. The Matoika was a last-minute substitute for another ship and, according to the athletes, did not have adequate accommodations or training facilities on board. The conditions on the Princess Matoika were terrible, as
3874-463: A way unlikely to attract public notice. The action was the first deportation of Jews from prewar territory in Nazi Germany. Allied air raids in 1944 and heavy fighting between the German and Soviet armies destroyed 65% of Stettin's buildings and almost all of the city centre, the seaport, and local industries. Polish Home Army intelligence assisted in pinpointing targets for Allied bombing in
4023-605: Is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland . Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border , it is a major seaport and Poland's seventh-largest city. As of 31 December 2022, the population was 391,566. Szczecin is located on the Oder River, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania . The city is situated along
4172-524: The Armistice . In all she carried 21,216 troops to France on her six trips overseas. With the fighting at an end, the task of bringing home American soldiers began almost immediately. Princess Matoika did her part by carrying home 30,110 healthy and wounded men in eight roundtrips. On 20 December, three thousand troops boarded her and departed France for Newport News, arriving there on 1 January 1919. Among those carried were Major General Charles T. Menoher ,
4321-488: The Battle of Verchen in 1164, Szczecin duke Bogusław I, Duke of Pomerania became a vassal of the Duchy of Saxony's Henry the Lion . In 1173, Szczecin castellan Wartislaw II , could not resist a Danish attack and became vassal of Denmark . In 1181, Bogusław became a vassal of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1185, Bogusław again became a Danish vassal. Despite falling under foreign suzerainty, local dukes maintained close ties with
4470-717: The Bay of Biscay , Princess Matoika departed on 16 April, and arrived at Newport News on 27 April with 3,500 troops. Shifting south to Charleston , South Carolina, the Matoika embarked 2,200 former German prisoners of war (POWs) and hauled them to Rotterdam . This trip was followed up in May with the return of portions of the 79th Infantry Division from Saint-Nazaire to New York. In mid-July Princess Matoika delivered another load of 1,900 former German POWs from Charleston to Rotterdam; most of these prisoners were officers and men from interned German passenger liners and included Captain Heinler
4619-586: The Carnegie Foundation , sailed to Hawaii en route to a meeting with the Institute of Pacific Relations . In June 1928 movie stars Norma Talmadge , Gilbert Roland , and Lottie Pickford began a Hawaiian vacation, and on 28 July, Jane Addams , the founder of Hull House and a pioneer of the settlement movement , headed there as well. Addams was on her way to attend the Pan-Pacific Women's Conference and
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4768-620: The Franco Prussian war of 1870–1871 , 1,700 French POWs were imprisoned there in deplorable conditions, resulting in the deaths of 600; after the Second World War monuments in their memory were built by the Polish authorities. Until 1873, Stettin remained a fortress. When part of the defensive structures were levelled, a new neighbourhood, Neustadt ("New Town") as well as water pipes, sewerage and drainage, and gas works were built to meet
4917-714: The German National People's Party (or DNVP) won most of the votes in the city, together winning 98,626 of 165,331 votes (59.3%), with the NSDAP getting 79,729 (47.9%) and the DNVP 18,897 (11.4%). In 1935, the Wehrmacht made Stettin the headquarters for Wehrkreis II, which controlled the military units in all of Mecklenburg and Pomerania. It was also the area headquarters for units stationed at Stettin I and II; Swinemünde ( Świnoujście ); Greifswald ; and Stralsund . In
5066-524: The German inflation by consuming champagne available for $ 1.00 per quart and mugs of "the best beer" for an American penny. In November, United States Lines announced that Princess Matoika would be replaced on the Bremen route in order to better compete with North German Lloyd , the liner's former owner, but that never came about. The Princess continued on runs to Bremen, calling at the additional ports of Queenstown , Southampton , and Danzig , as her schedule shifted from time to time. On 28 January 1922
5215-585: The German states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The city's recorded history dates back over 1,300 years, when diverse tribes and peoples such as the Vikings and Lechites erected strongholds in the vicinity. It subsequently served as the seat of the Dukes of Pomerania and the House of Griffin . In the course of the millennium, Szczecin under different names was part of Piast Poland , Denmark , Sweden ,
5364-517: The Hamburg America Line (German: Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft or HAPAG) announced the plans for 22 new ships totaling 150,000 gross register tons (GRT) at a cost of $ 11 million. One of the two largest ships announced was SS Kiautschou at an announced 10,200 GRT . The ship was laid down at AG Vulcan Stettin in Stettin , Germany (present-day Szczecin , Poland). During her construction, HAPAG renamed
5513-514: The Holy Roman Empire , Prussia , Germany and modern-day Poland. The city's architecture and cultural heritage reflects these periods, with excellent examples of Brick Gothic , Gründerzeit , Neoclassical , socialist realist and contemporary styles. The planned urban landscape was based on the Orion constellation , with avenues, roundabouts and extensive parkland. The city's chief landmarks include
5662-507: The Matoika arrived in Boston, where she had been diverted due to a typhus scare, on 28 February without further incident. On the Matoika ' s third and final return voyage from Italy, begun on 17 May, U.S. Customs Service agents at New York seized $ 150,000 worth of cocaine —along with valuable silks and jewels—being smuggled into the United States. Officials speculated that because of
5811-451: The Matoika departed with 400 passengers, among them 312 Polish orphans headed for repatriation in their homeland. Two days and 100 nautical miles (190 km) out of New York, the liner experienced a heavy gale that disabled her steering gear, and forced her return to New York after temporary repairs failed. The captain was able to steer her through the use of the ship's engines, and arrived safely back in port on 31 January. This incident
5960-517: The Matoika had stopped only to greet a ship passing in the night. When she went on deck, insistent on seeing the other ship herself, she saw the iceberg and observed the first-class passengers queued up to board the already-lowered lifeboats (the sinking of the Titanic had been nine years earlier). She took her daughter with her to join one of the queues, and, though initially rebuffed, was allowed to remain. The lifeboats were never deployed, however, and
6109-577: The Navy Cross . He was cited for distinguished service as commander of the ship while "engaged in the important, exacting and hazardous duty of transporting and escorting troops and supplies through waters infested with enemy submarines and mines". Over the next months Princess Matoika successfully completed two additional roundtrips from Newport News. On the first trip, she left Newport News with DeKalb , Dante Alighiere , Wilhelmina , Pastores , and British troopship Czaritza on 18 July. The group joined
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6258-544: The Orient with his daughters. On arrival in Honolulu on 10 June, City of Honolulu was adorned with flowers and received a welcome from airplanes and a flotilla of outrigger canoes that escorted her into the harbor. After a ten-day stay in the islands, she departed for Los Angeles, returning there on 26 June. After her maiden voyage City of Honolulu began regular service from Los Angeles to Honolulu and Hilo on what LASSCO called
6407-640: The Polar Bear Expedition , part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War —for a return to New York on 15 October. In December, Congressman Charles H. Randall ( Prohibitionist - CA ) and his wife sailed on the Matoika to Puerto Rico and the Panama Canal . On 5 April Princess Matoika carried a group of 18 men and three officers of the U.S. Navy who were to attempt a transatlantic flight in
6556-546: The Polish Army at the outset of the war. Also included among the passengers were 500 U.S. soldiers who had been released from occupation duty at Koblenz . The ship arrived at New York on 23 May with little fanfare and no ceremony; bodies returned but not claimed by families were buried at Arlington National Cemetery . On 21 July Princess Matoika arrived in New York after a similar voyage with 25 war brides , many repatriated Polish troops among its 2,094 steerage passengers, and
6705-833: The Princess for civilian service was the culmination of efforts by the USSB to find a suitable civilian use for her. In 1919 she was one of the ships suggested for a proposed service from New Orleans , Louisiana, to Valparaiso , Chile, and in November 1919, tentative plans were announced for her service with the Munson Line between New York and Argentina beginning in mid-1920, but both of these proposals fell through. Outfitted for 350 cabin-class and 500 third-class passengers and at 10,421 gross register tons (GRT), Princess Matoika kicked off her U.S. Mail Line service on 20 January 1921, sailing from New York to Naples and Genoa on her first of three roundtrips between these ports. After
6854-416: The Princess —and cut two days from her previous fastest crossing time—by appealing to the honor of the soldiers of the 133rd Field Artillery (returning home aboard the former Holland America liner) and employing them as extra stokers for her boilers. On her next trip the veteran transport loaded troops at Saint-Nazaire that included nine complete hospital units. After two days delay because of storms in
7003-702: The Soviet occupation zone of Germany . The Soviet authorities had already appointed the German Communists Erich Spiegel and Erich Wiesner as mayors. Stettin is located mostly west of the Oder River, which was expected to become Poland's new western border, placing Stettin in East Germany. This would have been in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement between the victorious Allied powers, which envisaged
7152-882: The Szczecin Cathedral , the Ducal Castle , the National Museum and the Szczecin Philharmonic . Szczecin is the administrative and industrial centre of West Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the site of the University of Szczecin , Pomeranian Medical University , Maritime University , West Pomeranian University of Technology , Szczecin Art Academy , and the see of the Szczecin-Kamień Catholic Archdiocese . From 1999 onwards, Szczecin has served as
7301-505: The Zionist flag at sea, and the first ocean liner ever to have female officers. The line had labor difficulties and financial difficulties throughout its existence. Rumors of a mutiny during President Arthur ' s first trip were reported in The New York Times , and several crew members got into an altercation with members of the Blackshirts , the Italian fascist paramilitary group, when
7450-515: The navis lusoria , a small vessel powered by rowers and sail, to move soldiers on the Rhine and Danube. The modern troopship has as long a history as passenger ships do, as most maritime nations enlisted their support in military operations (either by leasing the vessels or by impressing them into service) when their normal naval forces were deemed insufficient for the task. In the 19th century, navies frequently chartered civilian ocean liners , and from
7599-537: The new border to be in "a line running from the Baltic Sea immediately west of Swinemünde, and thence along the Oder River[...]". Because of the returnees, the German population of the town swelled to 84,000. The mortality rate was at 20%, primarily due to starvation. However, Stettin and the mouth of the Oder River became Polish on 5 July 1945, as had been decided in a treaty signed on 26 July 1944 between
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#17330847821937748-604: The "Great Circle Route of Sunshine". After arriving at Honolulu, the ship would sail southeast to Hilo, passing the islands of Molokai and Maui on their north sides. On the return from Hilo, the liner would traverse the ʻAlalākeiki , the ʻAuʻau , and the Kalohi Channels , taking the ship between Maui and Molokai on the north and the islands of Kahoolawe and Lanai on the south. Throughout her career, City of Honolulu transported many notable passengers to Hawaii. In July 1927, for example, Henry Smith Pritchett , president of
7897-516: The 12th century, the city became one of the more important and powerful seaports of the Baltic Sea. In a campaign in the winter of 1121–1122, Bolesław III Wrymouth , the Duke of Poland , gained control of the region, including the city of Szczecin and its stronghold. The Polish ruler initiated Christianization, entrusting this task to Otto of Bamberg , and the inhabitants were Christianised by two missions of Otto in 1124 and 1128. At this time,
8046-431: The 300 m band, her radio had a 250-mile (400 km) range. At 10:00 on 27 May 1909, loaded with more than a thousand passengers headed for Europe, Princess Alice departed the Lloyd pier in Hoboken , New Jersey. As she neared The Narrows in a heavy fog, she steamed to stay clear of outbound French Line steamer La Bretagne and ran hard aground on a submerged rocky ledge near the seawall of Fort Wadsworth
8195-479: The Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent". The city witnessed anti-communist revolts in 1956, 1970 and 1980. On August 30, 1980, first of the four August Agreements , which led to the first legalisation of the trade union Solidarity , was signed in Szczecin. The introduction of martial law in December 1981 met with a strike by the dockworkers of Szczecin shipyard, joined by other factories and workplaces in
8344-428: The Early Middle Ages and the region became part of Poland in the 10th century. However, already Mieszko II Lambert (1025 ~ 1034) effectively lost control over the area and had to accept German suzerainty over the area of the Oder lagoon. Subsequent Polish rulers, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Liutician federation all aimed to control the territory. After the decline of the neighbouring regional centre Wolin in
8493-406: The Far East route, she plied Pacific waters for North German Lloyd until the outbreak of World War I. In late July 1914, as war spread across Europe, Princess Alice neared her destination of Hong Kong with £850,000 of gold from India . Rather than face seizure of the ship and her cargo by British authorities there, Princess Alice instead sped to the Philippines and deposited the gold with
8642-418: The German Consul at Manila . Leaving the neutral port in under 24 hours, the ship then rendezvoused with German cruiser Emden at Angaur before returning to the Philippines in early August and putting in at Cebu where she was interned. On 6 April 1917 the United States declared war and immediately seized interned German ships at U.S. and territorial ports, but unlike most other German ships interned by
8791-555: The German liner in June 1906, and retired U.S. Navy Rear admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan did the same in June 1907. Senator Augustus O. Bacon ( D - GA ), sailed for Europe on 1 August 1908. Prompted by the successful use of wireless in saving lives during the sinking of RMS Republic in January 1909, and by proposed U.S. legislation (later passed as the Wireless Ship Act of 1910 ) requiring wireless for ships calling at U.S. ports, Princess Alice received her first wireless set in February 1909. Operating with call letters "DKZ" on
8940-414: The Great Northern War, Sweden was forced to cede the city to King Frederick William I of Prussia . Stettin was made the capital city of the Prussian Pomeranian province , since 1815 reorganised as the Province of Pomerania . In 1816, the city had 26,000 inhabitants. The Prussian administration deprived the city of its right to administrative autonomy, abolished guild privileges as well as its status as
9089-454: The Lloyd themselves. There is some confusion as to who exactly was the namesake of the ship. Edwin Drechsel, in his two-volume work Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen, 1857–1970 , reports that the ship was named equally for Princess Alice of Albany and Alice Roosevelt . Princess Alice of Albany was a granddaughter of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom , and the new bride of Prince Alexander of Teck in Württemberg . Alice Roosevelt, daughter of
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#17330847821939238-403: The Nazis, who exaggerated the Polish activities to propagate an infiltration, led to the closing of the school. In 1938, the head of Szczecin's Union of Poles unit, Stanisław Borkowski, was imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany . In 1939, all Polish organisations in Stettin were disbanded by the German authorities. Golisz and Omieczyński were murdered during
9387-429: The Oder River itself and the port of Szczecin, which remained under Soviet administration. The Oder River was handed over to Polish administration in September 1946, followed by the port between February 1946 and May 1954. While in 1945 the number of pre-war inhabitants dropped to 57,215 on 31 October 1945, the systematic expulsion of Germans started on 22 February 1946 and continued until late 1947, in accordance with
9536-528: The Potsdam Agreement. In December 1946 about 17,000 German inhabitants remained, while the number of Poles living in the city reached 100,000. To ease the tensions between settlers from different regions, and help overcome fear caused by the continued presence of the Soviet troops, a special event was organised in April 1946 with 50,000 visitors in the partly destroyed city centre. Settlers from Central Poland made up about 70% of Szczecin's new population. In addition to Poles, Ukrainians from Polish areas annexed by
9685-419: The Soviet Union settled there. Also Poles repatriated from Harbin , China and Greeks , refugees of the Greek Civil War , settled in Szczecin in the following years. In 1945 and 1946, the city was the starting point of the northern route used by the Jewish underground organisation Brichah to channel Jewish displaced persons from Central and Eastern Europe to the American occupation zone . Szczecin
9834-402: The Soviet Union and the Soviet-controlled Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKWN) (also known as "the Lublin Poles", as contrasted with the London -based Polish government-in-exile ). On 4 October 1945, the decisive land border of Poland was established west of the 1945 line, and the city was renamed to its historic Polish name Szczecin, but the area excluded the Police area,
9983-414: The USSB but was able to purchase only President Arthur . After refurbishing the liner, the company inaugurated service between New York and Palestine in March 1925, when President Arthur sailed on her maiden voyage. A crowd of fifteen thousand witnessed ceremonies that included songs, prayers, and speeches in English and Yiddish . The company claimed that President Arthur was the first ocean liner to fly
10132-417: The USSB in August. Upon the formation of the United States Lines in August 1921, Princess Matoika and the eight other ex-German liners formerly operated by the U.S. Mail Line were transferred to the new company for operation. The Princess , still on New York–Bremen service, sailed on her first voyage for the new steamship line on 15 September. In October Matoika crewmen were reported as taking advantage of
10281-416: The United Kingdom's Royal Navy. The United States used two designations: WSA for troopships operated by the War Shipping Administration using Merchant Marine crews, and USS (United States Ship) for vessels accepted into and operated by the United States Navy. Initially, troopships adapted as attack transports were designated AP; starting in 1942 keel-up attack transports received the designation APA. "HMT"
10430-419: The United States, Princess Alice had not been sabotaged by her German crew before her seizure. Assigned the Identification Number of 2290, she was soon renamed Princess Matoika . Sources disagree about the identity of the ship's namesake, who is often reported as either a member of the Philippine Royal Family, or a Japanese princess. Putnam, however, provides another answer: one of the given names of Pocahontas
10579-409: The agricultural industry. According to German police reports from 1940, 15,000 Polish slave workers lived within the city. During the war, 135 forced labour camps for slave workers were established in the city. Most of the 25,000 slave workers were Poles, but Czechs , Italians , Frenchmen and Belgians , as well as Dutch citizens, were also enslaved in the camps. A Nazi prison was also operated in
10728-547: The area of Stettin. The city itself was covered by the Home Army's "Bałtyk" structure, and Polish resistance infiltrated Stettin's naval yards. Other activities of the resistance consisted of smuggling people to Sweden. The Soviet Red Army captured the city on 26 April 1945. While the majority of the almost 400,000 inhabitants had left the city, between 6,000 and 20,000 inhabitants remained in late April. On 28 April 1945 Polish authorities tried to gain control, but in
10877-467: The balance of the year—through 1910. Throughout the rest of her Lloyd North Atlantic career she carried some notable passengers to and from Europe. In May 1905, for example, noted Baltimore gynecologist Howard Atwood Kelly , one of the co-founders of Johns Hopkins Hospital , sailed from New York; author Hamilton Wright Mabie and his wife sailed from New York the following month. American botanist Charles Frederick Millspaugh returned to New York aboard
11026-494: The burgh in 1249. Most Slavic inhabitants were resettled to two new suburbs north and south of the town. In 1249, Barnim I also granted equivalent Magdeburg town privileges to the town of Damm (also known as Altdamm) on the eastern bank of the Oder. Damm merged with neighbouring Szczecin on 15 October 1939 and is now the Dąbie neighbourhood. This town had been built on the site of
11175-484: The burning of three women and one man convicted of witchcraft in 1538. In 1570, during the reign of John Frederick, Duke of Pomerania , a congress was held at Stettin ending the Northern Seven Years' War . During the war, Stettin had tended to side with Denmark , while Stralsund tended toward Sweden – as a whole, however, the Duchy of Pomerania tried to maintain neutrality. Nevertheless,
11324-667: The center of the ship. She had two large promenade decks , a music room, and a library. Her smoking room was at the rear of the upper promenade deck, and her large dining room featured a balcony where the ship's orchestra could serenade diners. Kiautschou sailed on the Hamburg–Far East route until May 1902. For one round trip that month, Kiautschou replaced fellow HAPAG steamer Deutschland on Hamburg–New York service, calling at Southampton and Cherbourg on her eastbound trip, and at Cherbourg and Plymouth on her westbound return. After this one transatlantic excursion, Kiautschou
11473-508: The city around St. Jacob's Church, which was donated in 1180 by Beringer, a trader from Bamberg , and consecrated in 1187. Hohenkrug (now in Szczecin Struga ) was the first village in the Duchy of Pomerania that was clearly recorded as German ( villa teutonicorum ) in 1173. Ostsiedlung accelerated in Pomerania during the 13th century. Duke Barnim I of Pomerania granted Szczecin
11622-561: The city honour his name. Wars inhibited the city's economic prosperity, which had undergone a deep crisis during the devastation of the Thirty Years' War and was further impeded by the new Swedish-Brandenburg-Prussian frontier, cutting Stettin off from its traditional Farther Pomeranian hinterland. Due to a Plague during the Great Northern War , the city's population dropped from 6,000 people in 1709 to 4,000 in 1711. In 1720, after
11771-620: The city, while the French remained until 1813. From 1683 to 1812, one Jew was permitted to reside in Stettin, and an additional Jew was allowed to spend a night in the city in case of "urgent business". These permissions were repeatedly withdrawn between 1691 and 1716, also between 1726 and 1730 although else the Swedish regulation was continued by the Prussian administration. Only after the Prussian Edict of Emancipation of 11 March 1812, which granted Prussian citizenship to all Jews living in
11920-656: The city, with forced labour subcamps in the region. In February 1940, the Jews of Stettin were deported to the Lublin reservation . International press reports emerged, describing how the Nazis forced Jews, regardless of age, condition and gender, to sign away all property and loaded them onto trains headed to the camp, escorted by members of the SA and SS . Due to publicity given to the event, German institutions ordered such future actions to be made in
12069-474: The company in May 1922, the Princess was renamed SS President Arthur in honor of the 21st U.S. President , Chester A. Arthur , matching the naming style of the new ships. After her rename, she continued plying the North Atlantic between New York and Bremen, and was involved in a few episodes of note during this time. In June 1922, two years into Prohibition in the United States , President Arthur
12218-521: The congress of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom ; a former Governor of Hawaii , Walter F. Frear , returned to the islands on that same voyage. In December Al Jolson and his wife, Ruby Keeler , sailed on the liner for a vacation, and early the next February, the reigning British Open golf champion, Walter Hagen , sailed to start a four-month golfing tour and exhibition in Australia. Hagan
12367-542: The demands of the growing population. Stettin developed into a major Prussian port and became part of the German Empire in 1871. While most of the province retained its agrarian character, Stettin was industrialised , and its population rose from 27,000 in 1813 to 210,000 in 1900 and 255,500 in 1925. Major industries that flourished in Stettin from 1840 were shipbuilding, chemical and food industries, and machinery construction. Starting in 1843, Stettin became connected to
12516-600: The downfall of the Swedish Empire after Charles XII , the city went to Prussia in 1720. Instead Stralsund became capital of the last remaining parts of Swedish Pomerania 1720–1815. The city was on the path of Polish forces led by Hetman Stefan Czarniecki moving from Denmark during the Second Northern War . Czarniecki, who led his forces to the city, is today mentioned in the Polish anthem , and numerous locations in
12665-473: The duchy were ordered to convert to Christianity or leave – this order remained effective throughout the rest of the Griffin era. In 1273, in Szczecin duke of Poznań and future King of Poland Przemysł II married princess Ludgarda , granddaughter of Barnim I, Duke of Pomerania , in order to strengthen the alliance between the two rulers. Szczecin was part of the federation of Wendish towns ,
12814-507: The first Christian church of Saints Peter and Paul was erected. The Poles' minted coins were commonly used in trade in this period. The population of the city at that time is estimated to be at around 5,000–9,000 people. Polish rule ended with Boleslaw's death in 1138. During the Wendish Crusade in 1147, a contingent led by the German margrave Albert the Bear , an enemy of Slavic presence in
12963-505: The first Polish organisations. In 1897, the city's ship works began the construction of the pre-dreadnought battleship Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse . In 1914, before World War I, the Polish community in the city numbered over 3,000 people, contributing about 2% of the population. These were primarily industrial workers and their families who came from the Poznań (Posen) area and a few local wealthy industrialists and merchants. Among them
13112-620: The first ocean liner ever to have female officers. Financial difficulties for American Palestine ended the service after three roundtrips, and the liner was sold to the Los Angeles Steamship Company for Los Angeles – Honolulu service. Following three years of carrying tourists and freight, the liner burned in Honolulu Harbor in 1930. She was deemed too expensive to repair and was eventually scrapped in Japan in 1933. In March 1900
13261-577: The following month, the Polish administration was twice forced to leave. The reason for this was, according to Polish sources, that the Western Allies raised protest against the Soviet and Polish policy of creating a fait-accomplit in Eastern Germany . Finally the permanent handover occurred on 5 July 1945. In the meantime, part of the German population had returned, believing it might become part of
13410-518: The former commander of Vaterland . One former POW, shortly after debarking in Europe, presciently commented that "this [was] no peace; only a temporary truce". After loading American crews of returned Dutch ships, Princess Matoika called at Antwerp and Brest before returning to New York on 1 August. The ship departed New York on 8 August for her final roundtrip as a Navy transport. She departed Brest 23 August and returned to New York on 10 September. She
13559-519: The fragmented Polish realm, and future Polish monarch Władysław III Spindleshanks stayed at the local court of Duke Bogusław I in 1186, on behalf of his father, Duke of Greater Poland Mieszko III the Old , who also periodically was the High Duke of Poland . Following a conflict between his heirs and Canute VI of Denmark , the settlement was destroyed in 1189, but the fortress was reconstructed and manned with
13708-448: The hands of the USSB, and the company's office furniture and fixtures were sold at auction in early 1926. In August 1926 the Los Angeles Steamship Company (LASSCO) announced the acquisition of President Arthur from the USSB. The liner would be extensively rebuilt and then sail opposite of City of Los Angeles (the former North German Lloyd liner Grosser Kurfürst ) on a Los Angeles–Hawaii route. Arriving from New York on 24 September,
13857-546: The hold reeked of formaldehyde from the dead bodies, and there was no place to train. Furthermore, the athletes were dissatisfied with the quality of food and huge numbers of rats present on the ship. Near the end of the voyage, the athletes published a list of grievances and demands and distributed copies of the document to the United States Secretary of War , the American Olympic Committee members, and
14006-508: The immediate coast and the summers are warm, but still with some moderation, especially due to the Baltic Sea . The average air temperature in Szczecin ranges from 8 to 8.4 °C. The hottest month is July with a temperature of 15.8 °C to 20.3 °C, the coldest January from -4.1 °C to 2.6 °C. Air temperature below 0 °C occurs on average over 86 days a year, most frequently in January and February. The average annual rainfall
14155-526: The interwar period, the Polish minority numbered 2,000 people, less than 1% of the city's population at that time. A number of Poles were members of the Union of Poles in Germany (ZPN), which was active in the city from 1924. A Polish consulate was located in the city between 1925 and 1939. On the initiative of the consulate and ZPN activist Maksymilian Golisz, a number of Polish institutions were established, e.g.,
14304-458: The kingdom, did a Jewish community emerge in Stettin, with the first Jews settling in the town in 1814. Construction of a synagogue started in 1834; the community also owned a religious and a secular school, an orphanage since 1855, and a retirement home since 1893. The Jewish community had between 1,000 and 1,200 members by 1873 and between 2,800 and 3,000 members by 1927–28. These numbers dropped to 2,701 in 1930 and to 2,322 in late 1934. After
14453-456: The late 19th and early 20th centuries provided their domestic shipping lines with subsidies to build fast ocean liners capable of conversions to auxiliary cruisers during wartime. The British government, for example, aided both Cunard and the White Star Line in constructing the liners RMS Mauretania , RMS Aquitania , RMS Olympic and RMS Britannic . However, when
14602-489: The liner made an intermediary stop in Naples . On her second voyage, the ship's master-at-arms was killed by a fellow crew member. Financial difficulties included unpaid bills and resultant court actions, and accusations of fraud against company officers that were leveled in the press. In late 1925 the company was placed in the hands of a receiver , President Arthur —after a two-alarm fire in her forward cargo hold—ended up back in
14751-507: The liner was great enough that she was then propelled into SS Marken , at anchor some distance away, damaging one of that ship's fenders . After then making her way to the nearby New York City Quarantine Station , Princess Alice anchored to reload her cargo, and by 09:05, she was underway again. However, she ran aground again in soft mud in Ambrose Channel at 10:15. This time she was able to free herself and proceeded on to Bremen,
14900-515: The major German and Pomeranian cities by railways, and the water connection to the Bay of Pomerania was enhanced by the construction of the Kaiserfahrt (now Piast) canal. The city was also a scientific centre; for example, it was home to the Entomological Society of Stettin . On 20 October 1890, some of the city's Poles created the "Society of Polish-Catholic Workers" in the city, one of
15049-505: The men during daylight hours—mess service was curtailed to two daily meals, a practice continued on later voyages. On 20 May the convoy sighted and fired on a "submarine" that turned out to be a bucket; the next day escort Frederick left the convoy after being relieved by nine destroyers. Three days later the convoy sighted land at 06:30 and anchored at Brest that afternoon. Princess Matoika sailed for Newport News and arrived there safely on 6 June with Pastores and Lenape . Fate, however,
15198-403: The newly appointed chief of the air service, and elements of the 39th Infantry Division . The Matoika arrived with another two thousand troops on 11 February. In March 1919 Princess Matoika and Rijndam raced each other from Saint-Nazaire to Newport News in a friendly competition that received national press coverage in the United States. Rijndam , the slower ship, was just able to edge out
15347-463: The newly formed American Palestine Line announced that it had purchased President Arthur from the USSB, with plans to inaugurate service between New York and Palestine the following March. The American Palestine Line was formed in 1924 for the purpose of providing direct passenger service from New York to Palestine and was reportedly the first steamship company owned and operated by Jews. The company had negotiated to purchase three ocean liners from
15496-412: The nine ships chartered by the U.S. Mail Line, including the Matoika , after its return from Bremen. The ships were turned over to United American Lines — W. Averell Harriman 's steamship company—for temporary operation. After some legal wrangling by both the USSB and the U.S. Mail Line—and in light of financial irregularities by the U.S. Mail Line that were uncovered—the ships were permanently retained by
15645-585: The number of immigrants that could enter the country in the early 1920s, the ship was laid up in Baltimore in late 1923. President Arthur was purchased in October 1924 by the Jewish-owned American Palestine Line to begin regular service between New York, Naples , and Palestine . On her maiden voyage to Palestine she reportedly became the first ocean liner to fly the Zionist flag at sea and
15794-507: The origin of the name, including derivations from either: an Old Slavic word for 'hill peak' (Polish: szczyt ), the plant fuller's teasel (Polish: szczeć ), or the personal name Szczota . Other medieval names for the town are Burstaborg (in the Knytlinga saga ) and Burstenburgh (in the Annals of Waldemar). These names, which literally mean 'brush burgh', are likely derived from
15943-454: The outbreak of World War I, when she was interned in the neutral port of Cebu in the Philippines . Seized by the U.S. in 1917, the newly renamed USS Princess Matoika carried thousands of U.S. troops to and from France in U.S. Navy service from 1918 to 1919. As an Army transport after that, she continued to return troops and repatriated the remains of Americans killed overseas in
16092-555: The press. Among these were the demans for better accommodations in Antwerp, cabin passage home, and railroad fare from New York to their home cities. The incident received wide coverage in American newspapers at the time. After the contingent of athletes debarked at Antwerp on 8 August, Princess Matoika made one more voyage of note while under U.S. Army control. The Matoika sailed for New York on 24 August and arrived on 4 September carrying
16241-410: The previous month, the two women were there to raise funds for orphans of Anti-Treaty IRA forces, who were then fighting in southern Ireland. In October a Hoboken man, after securing a last-minute court order , was able to halt the deportation of his German niece on President Arthur ; she was retrieved from the ship ten minutes before sailing time. In November 1922 U.S. Customs Service agents, seized
16390-403: The region, papal legate, bishop Anselm of Havelberg and Konrad of Meissen besieged the town. There, a Polish contingent supplied by Mieszko III the Old joined the crusaders. However, the citizens had placed crosses around the fortifications, indicating they already had been Christianised. Duke Ratibor I of Pomerania , negotiated the disbanding of the crusading forces. After
16539-493: The remains of 881 soldiers. In between these two trips, the Belgian Ambassador to the United States, Baron Emile de Cartier de Marchienne , sailed from New York to Belgium on board the Matoika . It was, however, Princess Matoika ' s next trip to Belgium that was the most infamous. Beginning 26 July 1920, a majority of the U.S. Olympic contingent destined for the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, endured
16688-642: The rigid airship R38 , being built in England for the Navy. Several of the group that traveled on the Matoika were among the 45 men killed when the airship crashed on 24 August 1921. In May 1920 Princess Matoika took on board the bodies of ten female nurses and more than four hundred soldiers who had died while on duty in France during the war. The ship then transited the Kiel Canal and picked up 1,600 U.S. residents of Polish descent at Danzig , all of whom had enlisted in
16837-454: The ship had not been seized for violating U.S. laws. In September President Arthur carried Irish republicans Muriel MacSwiney , widow of the recently deceased Lord Mayor of Cork Terence MacSwiney , and Linda Mary Kearns, who had been jailed for murder under the Black and Tans , to New York. Wearing buttons with pictures of Harry Boland , an anti- treaty Irish nationalist who had been killed
16986-839: The ship twice before finally settling on Kiautschou , the German colony in China, as her namesake. Built, along with sister ship Hamburg , for HAPAG's entry into the Deutsche Reichspost's Far East routes, Kiautschou was launched on 14 September 1900, and sailed on her maiden voyage from Hamburg to the Far East on 22 December 1900. The ship was 525 feet (160 m) long and featured twin screws powered by two quadruple expansion steam engines that generated 9,000 horsepower (6,700 kW). The liner also featured bilge keels that helped stabilize her ride. Kiautschou ' s first-class staterooms were described as "light and large" and located in
17135-442: The ship was docked at Los Angeles Shipbuilding and Drydock to immediately begin a $ 2.5 million refit. Although initially planned to be ready for February 1927 sailings, progress was slowed by drydock access, and her completion date was pushed to May. During her refit, the ship was renamed City of Honolulu , becoming the second LASSCO ship of that name. At the conclusion of her reconstruction in May, City of Honolulu sailed on
17284-400: The ship was in range). Several notable passengers sailed on the liner's maiden voyage. Jay Gould II , tennis champion and grandson of railroad tycoon Jay Gould , sailed for a three-month stay at his Hawaiian home. Also sailing were movie star Laura La Plante and her husband, director William A. Seiter , and, Western Auto founder George Pepperdine , who began a three-month tour of
17433-508: The ship was readied for her first transatlantic troop run. At Newport News , Virginia, elements of the 4th Infantry Division boarded on 9 May. Sailing at 18:30 the next day, Princess Matoika was accompanied by American transports Pastores , Wilhelmina , Lenape , Antigone , and Susquehanna , the British steamer Kursk , and the Italian Duca d'Aosta . The group rendezvoused with
17582-502: The site of the headquarters of NATO 's Multinational Corps Northeast . The city was a candidate for the European Capital of Culture in 2016. Szczecin and Stettin are the Polish and German equivalents of the same name, which is of Proto-Slavic origin, though the exact etymology is the subject of ongoing research. In her Etymological Dictionary of Geographical Names of Poland , Maria Malec lists 11 theories regarding
17731-562: The sole ruler and Griffin duke when Philipp Julius, Duke of Pomerania died in 1625. Before the Thirty Years' War reached Pomerania, the city, as well as the entire duchy, declined economically due to the decrease in importance of the Hanseatic League and a conflict between Stettin and Frankfurt an der Oder . Following the Treaty of Stettin of 1630 , the town (along with most of Pomerania)
17880-645: The southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake , on both sides of the Oder and on several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. It is also surrounded by dense forests, shrubland and heaths , chiefly the Wkrzańska Heath shared with Germany (Ueckermünde) and the Szczecin Landscape Park . Szczecin is adjacent to the town of Police and is the urban centre of the Szczecin agglomeration , an extended metropolitan area that includes communities in
18029-519: The start of the 20th century painted them gray and added a degree of armament; their speed, originally intended to minimize passage time for civilian user, proved valuable for outrunning submarines and enemy cruisers in war. HMT Olympic even rammed and sank a U-boat during one of its wartime crossings. Individual liners capable of exceptionally high speed transited without escorts; smaller or older liners with poorer performance were protected by operating in convoys . Most major naval powers in
18178-577: The then-current U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt , was nicknamed "Princess Alice" by the press, and had launched the racing yacht of Kaiser Wilhelm II , Meteor , at Staten Island two years before. William Lowell Putnam gives the namesake as Princess Alice of the United Kingdom , the daughter of Queen Victoria. Princess Alice departed her new homeport of Bremen on 22 March 1904 for her maiden voyage under her new owners. After arriving in New York draped in flags and bunting, her dining room
18327-406: The third-largest German city by area, after Berlin and Hamburg. As the war started, the number of non-Germans in the city increased as slave workers were brought in. The first transports came in 1939 from Bydgoszcz , Toruń and Łódź . They were mainly used in a synthetic silk factory near Stettin. The next wave of slave workers was brought in 1940, in addition to PoWs who were used for work in
18476-541: The translation of the city's Slavic name (assuming derivation No. 2 for that). The recorded history of Szczecin began in the eighth century, when Vikings and West Slavs settled in Pomerania . The West Slavs, or Lechites , erected a new stronghold on the site of the modern castle . Since the 9th century, the stronghold was fortified and expanded toward the Oder bank . Mieszko I of Poland took control of Pomerania during
18625-407: The vulnerability of these ships to return fire was realized during World War I most were used instead as troopships or hospital ships . RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth were two of the most famous converted liners of World War II . When they were fully converted, each could carry well over 10,000 troops per trip. Queen Mary holds the all-time record, with 15,740 troops on
18774-708: The war. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, a street was named after Golisz. According to German historian Jan Musekamp, the activities of the Polish pre-war organizations were exaggerated after World War II for propaganda purposes. During World War II , Stettin was the base for the German 2nd Motorised Infantry Division , which cut across the Polish Corridor and was later used in 1940 as an embarkation point for Operation Weserübung , Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway . On 15 October 1939, neighbouring municipalities were joined to Stettin, creating Groß-Stettin, with about 380,000 inhabitants, in 1940. The city had become
18923-533: The war. In July 1920 she was a last-minute substitute to carry a large portion of the United States team to the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp. From the perspective of the Olympic team, the trip was disastrous and a majority of the team members published a list of grievances and demands of the American Olympic Committee in an action known today as the Mutiny of the Matoika . After her Army career ended, Princess Matoika
19072-489: Was Matoaka , which was sometimes spelled Matoika . The newly renamed ship was taken to Olongapo City , 60 miles (97 km) north of Manila and placed in the drydock Dewey at Subic Bay where temporary repairs were made. She then made her way to San Francisco, and eventually to the east coast . Princess Matoika was the last ex-German ship to be commissioned. Placed under the command of William D. Leahy in April 1918,
19221-561: Was SS Princess Matoika until 1922, SS President Arthur until 1927, and SS City of Honolulu until she was scrapped in 1933. Built in 1900 for the German Far East mail routes, SS Kiautschou traveled between Hamburg and Far East ports for most of her Hamburg America Line career. In 1904, she was traded to competitor North German Lloyd for five freighters , and renamed SS Princess Alice . She sailed both transatlantic and Far East mail routes until
19370-592: Was Kazimierz Pruszak, director of the Gollnow industrial works and a Polish patriot, who predicted the eventual "return" of Szczecin to Poland. During the interwar period , Stettin was Weimar Germany 's largest port on the Baltic Sea, and her third-largest port after Hamburg and Bremen . Cars of the Stoewer automobile company were produced in Stettin from 1899 to 1945. By 1939, the Reichsautobahn Berlin –Stettin
19519-451: Was accompanied by Australian golfer Joe Kirkwood ; Arctic explorer Donald B. MacMillan also left for Hawaii on the same sailing. Transport ship Attack transports , a variant of ocean-going troopship adapted to transporting invasion forces ashore, carry their own fleet of landing craft. Landing ships beach themselves and bring their troops directly ashore. Ships to transport troops were used in antiquity. Ancient Rome used
19668-566: Was allied to and occupied by the Swedish Empire , which managed to keep the western parts of Pomerania after the death of Bogislaw XIV in 1637. From the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Stettin became the Capital of Swedish Pomerania. Stettin was turned into a major Swedish fortress, which was repeatedly besieged in subsequent wars. The next Treaty of Stettin (1653) did not change this, but due to
19817-674: Was also used, for a while, to designate "Hired Military Transport." In the era of the Cold War , the United States designed the United States ship so that she could easily be converted from a liner to a troopship, in case of war. More recently, Queen Elizabeth 2 and Canberra were requisitioned by the Royal Navy to carry British soldiers to the Falklands War . By the end of the twentieth century, nearly all long-distance personnel transfer
19966-692: Was completed. Stettin played a major role as an entrepôt in the development of the Scottish herring trade with the Continent, peaking at an annual export of more than 400,000 barrels in 1885, 1894 and 1898. Trade flourished until the outbreak of the First World War and resumed on a reduced scale during the years between the wars. In the March 1933 German elections to the Reichstag, the Nazis and German nationalists from
20115-465: Was decommissioned there on 19 September, and handed over to the War Department for use as a United States Army transport. As her career as an Army transport began, Princess Matoika picked up where her Navy career had ended and continued the return of American troops from Europe. After returning to France she loaded 2,965 troops at Brest—including Brigadier General W. P. Richardson and members of
20264-437: Was determined there was no damage to the hull of the liner. But, despite the effort of attending ships, she remained stuck on the ledge. Eventually, after offloading 500 short tons (450 t) of cargo from her front hold onto lighters called to the scene, ten steam tugs and power from Princess Alice ' s own engines freed the ship at 01:47 on 28 May, almost fifteen hours after running aground. The force required to free
20413-507: Was done by airlift in military transport aircraft . [REDACTED] Media related to Troop ships at Wikimedia Commons Szczecin Szczecin ( UK : / ˈ ʃ tʃ ɛ tʃ ɪ n / SHCHETCH -in , US : /- tʃ iː n / -een , Polish: [ˈʂt͡ʂɛt͡ɕin] ; German : Stettin [ʃtɛˈtiːn] ; Swedish : Stettin [stɛˈtiːn] ; Latin : Sedinum or Stetinum )
20562-454: Was done up in a Tudor style ; the music room was decorated in a combined French and Italian Renaissance manner; and the writing room was in Adam style . The suites were all done in either Adam, Queen Anne , or Louis XVI styles. The ship featured six passenger elevators, and a swimming pool patterned on a Pompeian design. One of the few remaining traces of her pre-war German decoration
20711-497: Was escorted by battleship Georgia , cruisers Montana and North Carolina , and destroyer Rathburne . As with other Navy ships throughout 1918, Princess Matoika was not immune to the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic. On this particular crossing, two of her crewmen were felled by the disease as her convoy reached Saint-Nazaire on 6 October. After her return to the U.S. on 21 October, she departed New York once again on 28 October, arriving in France on 9 November, two days before
20860-496: Was escorted by cruisers North Carolina and Frederick , and destroyers Stevens and Fairfax ; battleship Texas and several other destroyers joined in escort duties for the group for a time. The convoy had a false alarm when a floating barrel was mistaken for submarine, but otherwise uneventfully arrived at Brest on the afternoon of 27 June. Princess Matoika , Covington , Lenape , Rijndam , George Washington , DeKalb , Wilhelmina , and Dante Alighieri left Brest as
21009-446: Was not as kind to former convoy mates President Lincoln and Dwinsk . On their return journeys they were sunk by German submarines U-90 and U-151 , respectively. After loading officers and men from the 29th Infantry Division on 13 June Princess Matoika set sail from Newport News the next day with Wilhelmina , Pastores , Lenape , and British troopship Czar . On the morning of 16 June lookouts on Princess Matoika spotted
21158-470: Was one of fifteen passenger ships whose arrival in New York was timed to coincide with the opening of the November immigration quota period. Under the Emergency Quota Act passed in 1921, numerical limits on European immigration were imposed which created nationality quotas. At the conclusion of this voyage, President Arthur was laid up in Baltimore , Maryland, for almost a year. On 9 October 1924
21307-525: Was raided while at her dock in Hoboken, New Jersey, which netted 150 cases of smuggled spirits. Officials involved denied reports that the raid was conducted as a legal test case intended to test the determination of USSB chair Albert Lasker that United States-flagged ships could carry and sell alcohol outside the three-mile territorial limit of the United States. Congressman James A. Gallivan ( D - MA ), an anti-prohibition leader, publicly demanded to know why
21456-432: Was rebuilt, and the city's industry was expanded. At the same time, Szczecin became a major Polish industrial centre and an important seaport (particularly for Silesian coal) for Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany . Cultural expansion was accompanied by a campaign resulting in the "removal of all German traces". In 1946, Winston Churchill prominently mentioned the city in his Iron Curtain speech: "From Stettin in
21605-432: Was returned to Hamburg–Far East service. On 20 February 1904, in exchange for abandoning the mail routes shared with North German Lloyd , HAPAG traded Kiautschou for Lloyd freighters Bamberg , Königsberg , Nürnberg , Stolberg , and Strassburg . North German Lloyd renamed the newly acquired ship Princess Alice , though the German spelling Prinzess Alice was widely used in contemporary press coverage and, often, by
21754-542: Was the rosewood railing on her grand staircase. On 4 June 1927 a crowd of seven thousand well-wishers saw City of Honolulu depart on her maiden voyage. The festivities were also broadcast on radio station KGFO, a portable station operating form the front cargo deck of the ship. During the journey, broadcasts of the City of Honolulu ' s orchestra, along with radio personalities and musicians from Los Angeles station KHJ , entertained both passengers and listeners on shore (while
21903-420: Was the site of a press luncheon thrown by Lloyd staff celebrating her first arrival in that city. Princess Alice made four more roundtrips through early August, then shifted to Bremen– Suez Canal –Far East service, making her first Lloyd voyage on that route 31 August. Princess Alice would continue this pattern—sailing the North Atlantic during the heaviest-trafficked season and shifting to the Far East runs for
22052-632: Was the yet another misfortune that had befallen the young Poles. After being orphaned by the fighting between Polish and Soviet forces, the orphans had been taken across Siberia , evacuated to Japan, transported to Seattle , Washington, and taken by rail to Chicago, Illinois, where they were enrolled in school while searches for relatives in Poland were conducted. After four Bremen roundtrips for United States Lines, Princess Matoika had sailed her last voyage under that name. When newly built Type 535 vessels named for American presidents came into service for
22201-438: Was transferred to the United States Mail Steamship Line for European passenger service in early 1921. After that company's financial troubles resulted in her seizure, Princess Matoika was assigned to the newly formed United States Lines and resumed passenger service. In 1922 the ship was renamed SS President Arthur , in honor of the 21st U.S. President , Chester A. Arthur . When changes in U.S. laws severely curtailed
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