Download or read book The Kaiser's Merchant Ships in World War I written by William Lowell Putnam and published by Light Technology Publishing. This book was released on 2001-07-01 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Germany's merchant marine fleet -- the second largest in the world prior to 1914 -- played an unintended but decisive role in that nation's defeat in World War I. There were those ships that went to war for the Kaiser on the high seas, those that stayed at home or otherwise played no significant part, and those that were commandeered (mostly in 1917 and by the United States) and used against Germany. This is a well illustrated history, both practical and romantic, of the association each ship may have had with famous people and events of the war, and of the fates of the ships that comprised that fleet.