For HAPAG Prinz Eitel Friedrich ran scheduled services between Hamburg and the east coast of South America until 1906, and then Atlas Caribbean cruises until 1914.

Prinz Eitel Friedrich was the first of a class of five single-screw steamships that German shipyards built between 1901 and 1903 for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG).

[8] Her single screw was driven by a quadruple-expansion engine that was rated at 2,400 ihp (1,790 kW) and gave her a speed of 12 knots (22 km/h).

[1] Her first voyage or two were from Wilhelmshaven, Germany, to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, cayying general cargo outbound and fresh fruit inbound.

[12][14][16] Prospective customers were offered "accommodations equal to those of the well-known Trans-Atlantic liners of the Hamburg-American Line",[11] and "excellent cuisine and service".

[18] The call at Panama was usually a two- or three-day stay, with optional shore excursions, while ships exchanged cargoes and connecting passengers.

[14][15][32] In February 1914 Michel Oreste, President of Haiti, abdicated in the face of advancing rebels, and with his family and entourage fled aboard Prinz Eitel Friedrich.

She hugged the New Jersey coast for the remainder of the voyage, staying within the neutral US' three-mile territorial limit to evade capture by Allied naval ships.

[41] On 6 April the US declared war on Germany and seized more than 90 German ships, including Prinz Eitel Friedrich.

[47][e] Otsego was assigned to the Newport News Division of the Cruiser and Transport Force.She made four round-trips to repatriate troops from France to the US between 10 March and 28 August 1919.

[7] On her first crossing, she carried hay and automobile parts to Le Verdon-sur-Mer and returned with 1,036 officers and men of the 19th, 20th, 30th, 35th, 36th, and 45th Balloon Companies from Bordeaux to New York 18 April.

[49] On her next trip from France, Otsego left Bordeaux on 11 May[50] with 24 officers and 987 enlisted men, including headquarters and medical detachments of the First Battalion and Companies A, B, and C of the 311th Regiment, 78th Division, arriving New York 26 May.

[51] She had been expected on 23 May but was delayed for four days by boiler trouble, apparently disrupting the plans of New Jersey Governor William Nelson Runyon, who had travelled to Brooklyn on 23 May to welcome her.

[52] However, she had a warm welcome on 26 May, greeted by a fleet of steamers "with bands playing and flags flying and banners indicating the different towns from which they hailed", while soldiers aboard Otsego "swarmed the decks cheering and seeking and finding their relatives in the aquatic escort".

[51] Otsego's third voyage returned 1,020 troops to Charleston, South Carolina on 2 July, comprising mostly supply and transport units and "749 negro enlisted men".

[53][54] Her final voyage from France returned 392 officers and men from a variety of supply, medical, veterinary, and other units, reaching New York on 28 August.

Among those returning on this voyage was William J Long, the American Expeditionary Force's doughnut-eating champion, credited with eating 249 doughnuts[f] in a single 24-hour period during a 4 July contest.

[57] By June 1919 Otsego's United States official number was 213813, her code letters were LJHB, and she was registered in New York.

[59] However, on 5 November 1919 the USSB contracted J. W. Millard & Bro, naval architects, to redesign her[60] as a "modern passenger ship".

[59] The USSB proceeded with its alternative plan for Otsego, inviting tenders for her refit as a passenger ship ase designed by Millard.

[60] On 17 May Otsego was towed to Portsmouth Navy Yard "to be reconditioned for cargo-carrying purposes only", with the work expected to completed by September.

She left New York, and on 8 July arrived at Boston, where she loaded 200,000 bushels of oats for Dunkirk, France, plus general cargo for Liverpool.

[67] By late August the ship was back in New York, where, having made only one round trip for Cosmopolitan Line, she was withdrawn from the service due to "depressed market conditions".

They brought Otsego via Baltimore, Newport News, the Panama Canal, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and reached Seattle on 6 April 1924.

A new deck was added above the steering engine house at her stern, and the mahogany on the wheelhouse and bridge fronts was restored.

[71] After a trial trip on Puget Sound, Otsego entered service on 11 May, bound for Bristol Bay, Alaska.

Throughout Libby's service, she was manned largely by the company's fishermen and cannery workers rather than professional seamen, an arrangement later became unviable due to unionization.

[70] Returning to Seattle on 20 August, Otsego showed her advantages by making two more trips to Bristol Bay the same season, something "unheard of in the trade at the time".

On 31 July 1934 Otsego, carrying some 600 cannery workers and a full cargo of canned salmon, struck a rock off Cape Mordvinof in Bristol Bay.

The next day the United States Coast Guard cutters Ewing and Bonham escorted her to Dutch Harbor, where her passengers and cargo were transferred to other ships.