Otsego III (Str)
(Str: dp. 8,755; l. 370'9"; b. 45'3"; dr. 25'; s. 12 k.; cpl. 203)
Counties in Michigan and New York, and a town in Allegon Co., in southwestern Michigan 13 miles north of Kalamazoo.
III
Otsego, formerly Prinz Eitel Friedrich, was built in 1901 by Reiherstieg Schiffswerfte und Maschinenfabrik, Hamburg, Germany for the Hamburg-American Packet Steamship Co.; was transferred to the Navy from USSB 7 February 1919; and commissioned as Otsego (No. 1628) the same day at New York, Lt. Comdr. Henry Fletcher Long, USNRF, in command.
Otsego was assigned to the Newport News Division of the Cruiser-Transport Force and completed four round-trip voyages to France between 10 March and 28 August 1919. On her first crossing she carried hay and automobile parts to Verdon and returned 1,036 officers and men of the 19th, 20th, 30th, 35th, 36th, and 45th Balloon Companies to New York 18 April. Otsego later conveyed the 33 1st Infantry's Headquarters and Medical Companies and four Transportation Corps companies to New York. Altogether she transported 4,217 World War I veterans to the U.S.
Otsego was delivered to the USSB at New York 19 September 1919.
