SS Aquileia was a Dutch-built steamship that was launched in 1913 as the ocean liner and mail ship Prins der Nederlanden for Netherland Line.

The career of this one overlaps with that of a smaller Prins der Nederlanden that was built in 1902 for Koninklijke West-Indische Maildienst (KWIM, the "Royal West India Mail Service") and scrapped in 1927.

In November 1911, Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland ("Netherland Line", or SMN) ordered a pair of sister ships from different shipyards.

Maatschappij voor Scheeps- en Werktuigbouw Fijenoord in Rotterdam built the first as yard number 254, launched her on 2 July 1913 as Koningin Emma, and completed her on 26 November that year.

[1] Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij built the second as yard number 123, launched her on 20 August 1913 as Prins der Nederlanden, and completed her in January 1914.

[2] The ship had twin screws, each driven by a four-cylinder quadruple expansion steam engine built by Nederlandsche Fabriek van Werktuigen en Spoorwegmaterieel.

The combined power of her twin engines was rated at 1,105 NHP[3] or 7,000 ihp, and gave her a speed of 15 knots (28 km/h).

[4] Prins der Nederlanden joined Koningin Emma, Koningin der Nederlanden and Prinses Juliana on SMN's route between Amsterdam and Batavia via Southampton, Lisbon, Tangier, Algiers, Genoa, and the Suez Canal.

[1] On 21 March 1918 the Entente Powers seized Prinses Juliana and Koningin der Nederlanden under angary and had them converted into troop ships.

[8] Had the USCS seized SMN's Prins der Nederlanden, she would have been assigned to the United States Navy as a troop ship.

[9] By January 1928, Prins der Nederlanden's route between Amsterdam and Batavia was via Southampton, Algiers, Genoa, the Suez Canal, Colombo, Sabang, Belawan and Singapore.

[2] In 1934 the call sign PGVH superseded Prins der Nederlanden's code letters PQMS.

[15] On 7 May 1943, Aquileia and another Italian hospital ship, Virgilio, were evacuating wounded and medical personnel from Kelibia in Tunisia when twin-engined US aircraft attacked them.

A boarding party inspected her and found no irregularities, but a Royal Navy officer advised Aquileia's Master that his ship "not be seen in these parts".

British and US aircraft attacked her off Ganzirri in the Strait of Messina on 6 or 7 August, strafing the motor boats that were ferrying wounded from the beach to the ship.

She had steamed 63,000 nautical miles (117,000 km), and carried a total of 12,799 wounded or shipwrecked personnel and 38,303 sick.

[15] When the Armistice of Cassibile in was announced on 8 September 1943, the ship was in La Spezia, in what became the Italian Social Republic.