SS Prinz Oskar was a twin-screw cargo liner that was launched in Germany in 1902 for Hamburg America Line (HAPAG).

In 1922 Marcus Garvey's Black Star Line tried to buy her from the United States Shipping Board (USSB).

[7] On 5 June 1904 Olivia Langdon Clemens, wife of author Mark Twain, died in Italy.

On 28 June Twain embarked on Prinz Oskar at Naples to bring her body home to New York.

[8] In August 1904 HAPAG announced that from 1 October its steerage fares from New York would be $15 to Naples and Genoa, and $16 to Trieste in Italy and Fiume in Austria-Hungary (now Rijeka in Croatia).

Both victims survived, but Dugge was wounded in the mouth, and Shattuck had a bullet in his left shoulder.

[12][13] On a westbound crossing in January 1906 a storm in the North Atlantic loosened some of the rivets on the port side of Prinz Oskar's hull, causing a leak in one of her holds.

[16] On 22 September 1906 Prinz Oskar inaugurated a new HAPAG route to the ports of the Río de la Plata.

[23] On the night of 1–2 February 1913 Prinz Oskar left Philadelphia carrying 30 passengers in steerage and three in first class.

About half-past midnight she was emerging from the Delaware Breakwater when her watch sighted the four-masted cargo schooner City of Georgetown near the Five Fathom Bank lightship.

The liner put her engines full astern and both ships changed course, but three minutes later the wooden schooner struck her port bow.

She turned back and anchored off Gloucester City, New Jersey to await a berth to disambark her passengers and unload her cargo, before being repaired.

The USA considered going to war with the Central Powers, in which case it would seize their ships in ports that it controlled, including Prinz Oskar in Philadelphia.

[30] The Collector of the Port of Philadelphia increased the number of US Customs men guarding Prinz Oskar, Rhaetia and the Austro-Hungarian cargo ship Franconia.

[31] On 6 April 1917 the USA declared war on Germany, and seized German ships in US ports.

On 11 June the USSB announced that it would time trip charter Prinz Oskar, Rhaetia, and the Deutsch-Australische DG ship Magdeburg to the Italian government.

[32] On 30 June President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order authorising the USSB to take possession and title of 87 German ships, including Prinz Oskar.