SS Pretoria was a transatlantic liner that was launched in Germany in 1897 and spent most of her career with Hamburg America Line (HAPAG).

In 1919 HAPAG surrendered Pretoria to the United States as part of Germany's World War I reparations to the Allies.

Blohm & Voss in Hamburg built the second and third of the sisters, launching Pretoria in 1897 and Graf Waldersee in 1898.

[citation needed] Pretoria had twin propellers, each driven by a four-cylinder quadruple-expansion steam engine.

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

[6] On 9 October 1908 in fog in the North Sea southwest of Texel in the Netherlands, Pretoria collided with the German cargo steamship Nipponia.

[8] On the night of 12–13 June 1914, in fog about 180 miles from the Nantucket lightvessel, Pretoria collided with the American Line ship New York.

[12] On 17 April she left Brest, France for New York carrying 300 officers and 1,785 men of the American Expeditionary Forces and 41 civilian passengers.

[16] On 12 August 1919 Pretoria left Brest carrying members of the 3rd Infantry Division, including the 8th Machine Gun Battalion.

[17] 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.

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