USS Aeolus (ID-3005), sometimes also spelled Æolus, was a United States Navy transport ship during World War I. She was formerly the North German Lloyd liner SS Grosser Kurfürst, also spelled Großer Kurfürst, launched in 1899 that sailed regularly between Bremen and New York. At the outset of World War I the ship was interned by the United States and, when the U.S. entered the conflict in 1917, was seized and converted to a troop transport.
Originally commissioned as USS Grosser Kurfürst, the ship was renamed Aeolus — after the god of wind in Greek mythology — while undergoing repairs and conversion at a U.S. Navy yard. The ship carried almost 25,000 men to France during the hostilities, and returned over 27,000 healthy and wounded men after the Armistice.
After decommissioning by the U.S. Navy, the ship was turned over to the United States Shipping Board and underwent a $3,000,000 refit in Baltimore, Maryland, and was transferred to the Munson Steamship Line for whom she carried passengers and freight to and from South American ports as SS Aeolus. In 1922 the ship was assigned to the Los Angeles Steamship Co. and renamed SS City of Los Angeles and sailed to and from Los Angeles and Honolulu. In 1937, the ship was sold for scrapping in Japan.
SS Grosser Kurfürst
SS Grosser Kurfürst was a steel-hulled, twin-screw, passenger-and-cargo steamship launched on 2 December 1899 at Danzig, Germany (now Gdańsk, Poland), by the shipbuilding firm of F. Schichau for the North German Lloyd. The liner boasted "enormous carrying capacity" and "excellent passenger accommodation" for all classes from first to steerage. She made her maiden voyage to Asiatic and Australian ports before commencing regularly scheduled voyages in spring 1900 between Bremen and New York City; these lasted until summer 1914. In winter seasons she did eight more tours to Australia on the German Empire mail route. Her last start to Australia was 7 January 1912. Over these years she was the biggest ship sailing to Australia. At this time she made some cruises for U.S. tourists.
Max Spangenberg was her captain in 1913 when she rescued passengers from the burning SS Volturno in the Atlantic.
When World War I broke out in Europe, Grosser Kurfürst was forced to seek shelter in American waters. The United States Government interned these ships wherever they had put into port, and upon the entrance of the United States into the hostilities on the side of the Allied and Associated Powers — on 6 April 1917 — took them over for "safe keeping." U.S. Customs agents boarded Grosser Kurfürst in the port of New York, along with 30 other German and Austro-Hungarian vessels, and sent their crews to an internment camp on Ellis Island. However, before these sailors left their ships, they carried out a program of systematic destruction calculated to take the longest possible time to repair.
USS Aeolus
The United States Navy inspected Grosser Kurfürst and designated her "Id. No. 3005" and earmarked her for service with the Cruiser and Transport Force to carry troops to France. She commissioned as Grosser Kurfürst on 4 August 1917, at the New York Navy Yard. While the ship was undergoing the repairs and alterations necessitated by the German sabotage and in light of her expected role carrying troops across the Atlantic, General Order No. 320 of 1 September 1917 changed her name to Aeolus.
On 26 November 1917, the erstwhile luxury steamship, now wearing warpaint, departed the Port of Embarkation at Hoboken, New Jersey, bound for Europe on the first of eight round-trip voyages during World War I, carrying troops to the Old World. She reached St. Nazaire, France, on 10 December and spent Christmas in that French port before she headed home on 28 December, bringing the voyage to a close when mooring at Newport News, Virginia, nine days into 1918. Shifting thence to Hoboken, Aeolus again sailed to France and returned from Brest again to Hoboken.
Two events highlighted the ship's wartime convoy experiences. The first occurred during the beginning of what was to be the ship's third voyage to France. Aeolus, in convoy, departed Hoboken on 23 April 1918. Two days out, a steering gear casualty in the transport forced that ship to leave her assigned place in the formation. Aeolus, to avoid collision with Siboney, altered course radically, and in so doing struck the transport at about 21:00 hours, 25 April. There were no deaths; but both transports were damaged which necessitated their turning back. Aeolus reached Hoboken on 28 April.