A passenger liner before the war, the Hamburg Line President Lincoln was seized in New York harbor in 1917 and converted into a troop transport ship by the U.S. Shipping Board.  On the return trip of its 5^th delivery of men to France, the ship was hit by three torpedoes from German U-Boat 90.  Of the 715 people aboard, only 26 were lost, and one officer, Lieutenant Edouard Izac, was taken prisoner.