Kronprinzessin Cecilie was taken into the Royal Navy and renamed to become HMS Princess in 1915 and converted to a dummy for the battleship , with superstructure and guns made of wood. The work was done in Belfast by Harland and Wolff. Princess/Ajax patrolled around Loch Ewe until October 1915, when she was decommissioned and converted to a proper armed merchant cruiser, with eight guns. She recommissioned on 6 May 1916 and went to East Africa, where she served until October 1917, before being paid off in Bombay.
