USS Patricia was a transatlantic liner that was launched in Germany in 1899 and spent most of her career with Hamburg America Line (HAPAG).

In 1919, HAPAG surrendered Patricia to the United States as part of Germany's World War I reparations to the Allies, and she was used to repatriate American Expeditionary Forces troops from Europe.

[2] In March 1899 HAPAG announced that the regular route for Patricia and her three sisters would be Hamburg – Cherbourg – Plymouth – New York.

On 12 January 1914 the German government requisitioned her as a troop ship to the Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory on the coast of China.

On 30 March 1919 Patricia left Brest, France carrying members of the American Expeditionary Forces home to New York.

In one voyage in April 1919 Patricia brought home from Brest to Boston almost 3,000 troops of the 26th Division, including the 102nd and 103rd machine gun battalions.

On 15 April 1919, while Patricia was in mid-Atlantic, Julius Fischer, a HAPAG agent, locked himself in one of her state rooms and set fire to it by causing an electrical short-circuit.

[11] On 6 September 1919 it was announced that as soon as the United States Department of War had no further use for ships seized from German ports under the Treaty of Versailles, they would be returned to the Inter-Allied Council.

Patricia was among the ships affected, along with Cap Finisterre, Imperator, Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, Mobile, Pretoria, Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm, Santa Elena and Zeppelin.

[12] On 18 September 1919 Patricia was decommissioned from the US Navy and transferred to the UK Shipping Controller, which appointed Ellerman's Wilson Line to manage her.