Hamburg-Amerika Linie. In the spring of 1847, a number of the most respected merchants of Hamburg gathered together to discuss ways and means of raising funds for establishing a regular line of ships between Europe and America. The views of these merchants were very modest. They proposed to start the company with a capital of £22,500, divided into 60 shares of £375 each. The shares were taken up by about 41 shareholders, the greatest number of shares subscribed for by any one individual being four. The company commenced with four small sailing ships, three of which were built in Germany and one in England. The names of the first three ships were Deutschland, Rhein, and Amerika, and these ships cost on the average about £4,000 each. The Deutschland was the largest of the four vessels, being capable of accommodating about 200 emigrants and about 20 cabin passengers; her carrying capacity was 717 tons. In 1853, five more sailing vessels were added, the total carrying capacity being 4,000 tons, and each accommodating some 200 passengers. In 1856 the first screw steamer in the company's service left Hamburg; this was the Borussia, a vessel of 2,349 tons, constructed on the Clyde. From this time when the company abandoned sailing ships and took to steam, its great prosperity may be said to have dated. In 1857 it absorbed the old Eagle Co., of Hamburg, which had previously been its rival, and then began to run boats to Central and South America, and later to China, Japan, and the Straits Settlements. 262 Nearly three quarters of a century has elapsed since the first steamer crossed from Europe to America, and from that time down to the present the history of the North Atlantic Steamship enterprise has been one of great and continuous importance. Thanks to the magnificent performances of the ocean greyhound Deutschland, a vessel of 16,502 tons, built in Germany, with engines of 37,800 Hp., the Hamburg-Amerika Line held for many years the blue ribbon of the North Atlantic. In September, 1900, the Deutschland went from Sandy Hook to Plymouth in the record time of 5 days, 7 hours, 38 minutes, the entire distance of 2,982 miles being traversed at an average speed of 23 36 kts., 545 kts. being the longest day's Since then the Deutschland has attained an average speed of 23'51 kts. east-bound, and 23'24 kts. west-bound, and covered 607 kts. in one day. The Amerika, built by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, run. HAMBURG Belfast, and the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, built by the Vulcan Engineering and Shipbuilding Co., Stettin, are the last vessels built by the company, and are unrivalled. They contain the latest modern improvements, and prove the unwearied and successful efforts of the management of this line to add to the comfort and convenience of their patrons. The feature that distinguishes these two vessels from all other Atlantic liners is that for the first time in the history of ocean enterprise there is on board a restaurant à la carte, under the management of the Carlton Hotel Co. The Europa, which is now being built for this company by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, of Belfast, will be, when completed, the largest passenger steamer in the world. In this, as in all the later additions to the HamburgAmerika fleet, the policy of not sacrificing the comfort of passengers to high speed will be adhered to. The vessel will have a sea speed of from 20 to 21 kts., and her appointments will, if such is possible, eclipse those of the Amerika and Kaiserin Auguste Victoria. In March, 1907, eight steamers of the Woermann Line were acquired by purchase for the commencement of business to Western South Africa, and with the purchase of these steamers the tonnage of the Hamburg-Amerika Line is increased by 30,757 gross register tons, giving the company a total tonnage of 957,250 gross register tons. Like most new enterprises, the HamburgAmerika Line had to meet many trials and disappointments; but, despite all difficulties, it has grown and prospered year by year, until to-day it is the greatest of all the great steamship companies in the world. The extraordinary progress of Hamburg as a seaport during the last 30 years of the nineteenth century may be due in no small measure to the enterprise of this line, which today owns a fleet of 363 vessels, 159 of which are large ocean steamers, and maintains 50 services to all parts of the world. The routes of the weekly twin-screw steamers, carrying the American and European mails, are: Hamburg, Southampton, Cherbourg, and New York, returning via Plymouth and Cherbourg. Other services leave Hamburg every Sunday for New York, via Boulogne-sur-Mer, and Southampton or Plymouth; in addition to which there are regular services from Hamburg to Montreal, Halifax, Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Galveston, West Indies, North, Central and South Brazil, River Plate, Panama, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, and West Coast of South America; Stettin to New York; Genoa to River Plate; New York to China and Japan; New York to Levant. A service via Bremen to Togo and Dahomey, via Rotterdam to Sierra Leone, the Ivory and Gold Coast, via Antwerp to the Congo and Angola. A fast mail and passenger service outwards via Dover and Boulogne, homewards via Southampton and HAMBURG Boulogne to Cameron, and one via Lomé to German South-West Africa. A service via Rotterdam to Lagos and Forcados, via Rotterdam to Senegal, Siberia and the Ivory Coast, via Antwerp to Madeira, Senegal, Gambia, Casamance, and French Guinea, and via Rotterdam to Lagos and the Oil River. A service is also maintained between Cape Town and Swakopmund. This company also manages the passenger business of the Union Line to New York, the Hamburg-South American Steamship Co. to Brazil and the Argentine Republic. The Mediterranean service is being extended and improved. The famous Union liner Scott has been purchased for the run between Naples and Egypt in connection with the service to Berlin. new passenger service on the Riviera between Genoa, San Remo, Monte Carlo, and Nice was In 1902 a Polynesia. Pontos. Poseidon. Fürst Bismarck. Galicia. Pisa. Präsident. Pretoria. Prinz Adalbert. Prinz August Wilhelm. Prinz Sigismund. Rapallo. Rhaetia. Slavonia. Sparta. Spezia. St. Croix. St. Jean. St. Thomas. Staatssekretär Kraetke. Suevia. Syria. Teutonia. Thessalia. 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