USS Freedom (ID-3024) was a cargo and transport ship in the United States Navy in World War I. Originally Wittekind for the North German Lloyd line, the ship also served as USAT Iroquois and USAT Freedom after being seized by the United States in 1917.
Wittekind was built in Germany for the Bremen – New York service of the Roland Line service of North German Lloyd, and was the sister ship of SS Willehad. In March 1900 Wittekind was lengthened because her cargo capacity was found lacking. Later that same year, Wittekind was among the first transports to carry German Empire troops as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance intended to put down the Boxer Rebellion in China. In August 1914, at the start of World War I, the ship was interned at Boston in the neutral United States.
When the US entered the war in April 1917, Wittekind was seized and turned over to the United States Shipping Board. Renamed Iroquois, the ship was chartered to the United States Army as a cargo ship after a refit, and, in 1918, was renamed Freedom. In January 1919 the ship was commissioned into the United States Navy, and carried almost 5,000 troops home from Europe before her decommissioning in September. Held in reserve for transport duty, the ship was laid up for five years before being scrapped in 1924.
Wittekind
Wittekind was built by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg for North German Lloyd's Roland Line, which was a