Graf Waldersee (Id. No. 4040)
1919
(Id. No. 4040: displacement 25,000; length 585'; beam 62'; draft 32'3"; speed 13 knots; complement 553; armament none)
Graf Waldersee -- a twin-screw steel-hull passenger steamship launched on 10 December 1898 at Hamburg, Germany, by Blohm & Voss and completed on 18 March 1899 for the Hamburg-Amerika Linie -- was taken over from Germany at the close of World War I, and, having been assigned the identification number (Id. No. 4040) was commissioned at Spithead, England, on 28 March 1919, Cmdr. Lemuel M. Stevens in command.
Assigned to the Cruiser and Transport Division, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, Graf Waldersee arrived at Brest, France, 30 March, and embarked 1,526 passengers, mostly homeward-bound veterans; departed 7 April and arrived New York 20 April 1919. In two subsequent voyages from New York to Brest (18 May-2 June and 7-30 August), she returned 4,108 additional civilians and troops to the United States. She decommissioned at Stapleton, N.Y. 25 November 1919 and returned to the USSB.
