Mobile II

Mobile II
(ScStr: dp. 27,000; 1. 608'; b. 65'3"; cpl. 673; trp. 4,620)

The second Mobile, a passenger liner built as Cleveland in 1908 by Blohm and Voss, Hamburg, Germany, was operated by Hamburg-Amerika Lines between Germany and the United States until the outbreak of World War I; held at the Isle of Wright throughout the war, taken over by the Allied Maritime Council and assigned to the United States after the Armistice, 11 November 1918; and commissioned 26 March 1919, Comdr. F. Rorschbach in command.

Operated by the Cruiser-Transport Force, Cleveland departed Cowes Roads, Isle of Wight, 27 March 1919 and sailed to Liverpool where her name was changed to Mobile 29 March, and she was fitted out as a troop transport. On 6 April she sailed for Brest, France, to embark her first contingent of troops bound for Hoboken, N.J. In nine transatlantic crossings, ending 3 September at Hoboken, she carried 21,073 men from, and 22 passengers to, Europe.

She decommissioned 25 November 1919 and was turned over to the U.S. Shipping Board. Transferred to the United Kingdom in 1322, and was sold to Byron S. S. Co., Ltd., for service under British registry as King