Please report any broken links or trouble you might come across to the Webmaster. Please take a moment to let us know so that we can correct any problems and make your visit as enjoyable and as informative as possible.

NavSource Online:
Identification Numbered Vessel Photo Archive

Pocahontas (ID 3044)



Call sign:
George - Quack - Dog - Nan

ex-Prinzess Irene (ID 3044)

Transport:

  • The third Pocahontas was built in 1900 as Prinzess Irene by Aktiengesellschaft Vulkan, Stettin, Germany
  • Launched 19 June 1900
  • Acquired by the Navy 6 April 1917
  • Commissioned USS Prinzess Irene (ID 3044), 25 July 1917 at the New York Navy Yard
  • Renamed Pocahontas 1 September 1917
  • Decommissioned 7 November 1919 at Brooklyn, NY and transferred to the United States Shipping Board (USSB)
  • Laid up at Gibraltar in May 1921
  • Transferred to the United States Mail Line in 1921
  • Returned to the USSB in 1923, sold back to the North German Lloyd Lines and renamed Bremen
  • Renamed Karlsruhe in 1928
  • Scrapped in July 1933 at Bremerhaven, Germany.

    Specifications:

  • Displacement 18,000 t.
  • Length 564'
  • Beam 62' 2"
  • Draft 26'
  • Speed 16 kts.
  • Complement 512
  • Armament: Four 6"/40 mounts, two 1-pounders and two machine guns
  • Propulsion: Three double ended and three single ended boilers, two 4,000ihp vertical quadruple expansion steam engines, two shafts.
    Click on thumbnail
    for full size image    		Size Image Description Source
    SS Prinzess Irene
    Pocahontas 359k Undated post card Tommy Trampp
    Pocahontas 80k Undated post card
    Pocahontas 460k First Class Dining Salon
    Pocahontas 88k Post card dated 27 February 1904, Nicetown Std, Philadelphia, PA
    Pocahontas 142k c. April 1911
    Aground on Fire Island, NY
    Library of Congress photo LC-B2-2165-6    		 Mike Green
    Pocahontas 141k 10 April 1911
    Under tow and being escorted by tugs
    Library of Congress photos LC-B2-2166-9 and LC-B2-2176-15
    Pocahontas 115k
    Pocahontas 339k Photo from "Passenger Liners of the World Since 1893" (1979) by Nicholas T. Cairis Tommy Trampp
    USS Prinzess Irene (ID 3044)
    Pocahontas 69k USS Prinzess Irene (with two relatively short funnels) fitting out for transport service, at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York, circa August 1917. This ship became USS Pocahontas (later receiving ID-3044) on 1 September 1917. The ship with four taller smokestacks, immediately beyond Prinzess Irene, is USS Kaiser Wilhelm II, which became USS Agamemnon (later receiving ID-3004) on 1 September 1917
    U.S. Navy photo NH 94205    		 Naval Historical Center
    USS Pocahontas (ID 3044)
    Pocahontas 171k Pocahontas (born Matoaka, known as Amonute, c. 1596–1617) was a Native American notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. Pocahontas was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a network of tributary tribal nations in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing the Tidewater region of Virginia. In a well-known historical anecdote, she is said to have saved the life of a Native American captive, Englishman John Smith, in 1607 by placing her head upon his own when her father raised his war club to execute him. Some historians have suggested that this story, as told by Smith, is untrue
    Portrait engraving by Simon de Passe, 1616    		 Tommy Trampp
    Pocahontas 113k Nurses and ship's officers, photographed while the transport was en route to France during World War I. Headgear indicates that the four women at right are U.S. Army Nurses
    Donated by the USS Pocahontas Reunion Association, 1974
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 82963    		 Robert Hurst
    Pocahontas 78k Negro troops on board during the ship's second trans-Atlantic voyage, 1917
    Collection of the USS Pocahontas Reunion Association, 1974
    Naval History and Heritage Command photo NH 82957
    Pocahontas 101k Underway at sea during her first U.S. Navy trans-Atlantic voyage, September 1917
    Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski
    Naval Historical Center photo NH 106034
    Pocahontas 72k Steaming in an Atlantic convoy, circa later 1917 or early 1918. Photographed from USS Maumee (Fuel Ship No. 14)
    Collection of Hubert C. Rickert, courtesy of Daniel Rickert, 1981.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 93102    		 Naval Historical Center
    Pocahontas 97k Wearing pattern camouflage, during World War I
    Collection of the USS Pocahontas Reunion Association, 1974.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 82958
    Pocahontas 74k Photographed in pattern camouflage, 1918. This image has been retouched, especially in the after part of the ship.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 68721-A
    Pocahontas 122k Entering harbor at St. Nazaire, France, 31 May 1918
    U.S. Navy photo NH 43032
    Pocahontas 90k Leaving Bassens Docks [Bordeaux, France], for the United States on 13 December 1918, after loading troops the previous night
    Imperial War Museum photo © IWM(Q 58445), American First World War Official Exchange Collection    		 Mike Green
    Pocahontas 72k Leaving Bordeaux, France, 23 December 1918.
    Collection of the USS Pocahontas Reunion Association, 1974.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 82955    		 Naval Historical Center
    Pocahontas 96k c. 1919
    Collection of the USS Pocahontas Reunion Association, 1974
    U.S. Navy photo NH 82954
    Pocahontas 96k Anchored in the outer harbor of Brest, France, in 1919.
    Collection of the USS Pocahontas Reunion Association, 1974.
    U.S. Navy photo NH 82959
    Pocahontas 73k Underway in 1919, while transporting U.S. service personnel home from Europe
    Photographed by Allison
    U.S. Navy photo NH 68722-A
    Pocahontas 120k In a French port, 1919
    Collection of the USS Pocahontas Reunion Association, 1974
    U.S. Navy photo NH 82964
    Pocahontas 92k In port, 1919
    Courtesy of Boatswain's Mate First Class Robert G. Tippins, USN (Retired), 2005
    U.S. Navy photo NH 102879
    Pocahontas 116k Panoramic photograph by F.G. Head, 488 7th Avenue, New York City, entitled "Arrival of U.S.S. Pocahontas .. Final Trip .. New York. October 31, 1919." She was bringing Companies E, F, L and M of the 2nd Pioneer Infantry, U.S. Army, home from France
    U.S. Navy photo NH 103115
    SS Bremen
    Pocahontas 109k Passengers on board Bremen Tommy Trampp
    SS Karlsruhe
    Pocahontas 41k Cover of Tourist Class Menu Tommy Trampp
    Commanding Officers
    01CDR Julius Frederick Hellweg, USN - USNA Class of 1900
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Rear Admiral    		25 July 1917 - 1918
    02CDR Leslie Emmett Bratton, USN - USNA Class of 1907
    Retired as Rear Admiral    		1918 - 1919
    03CAPT Duncan Mahon Wood, USN - USNA Class of 1896
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918) - Retired as Captain    		1919
    04CDR John Downes, USN - USNA Class of 1901
    Awarded the Legion of Merit (1944) - Retired as Rear Admiral    		1919
    05CAPT Edward Clifford Kalbfus, USN - USNA Class of 1899
    Awarded the Navy Cross (1918), the Legion of Merit (1942) - Retired as Admiral    		1919 - 7 November 1919
    Courtesy Joe Radigan, Wolfgang Hechler and Bill Gonyo
    View the Pocahontas (ID 3044)
    DANFS history entry located on the Naval History and Heritage Command website
    Back to the Main photo Index Back to the Identification Numbered Vessel (ID) photo Index
    Comments, Suggestions, E-mail Webmaster
    This page created by Joseph M. Radigan and maintained by David Wright
    All pages copyright NavSource Naval History