In 1894 the German Government erected what were known as control stations at various places on the Russian frontier, ostensibly to prevent the spread of cholera by Russian emigrants travelling through Germany. The erection and management of these controls were vested in the Hamburg-America and North German Lloyd Lines. But whatever was their original purpose, these stations came to be used by the German steamship companies for confining the increasing stream of emigrants to their own lines, who made it as difficult as possible for persons not travelling by those lines to get through the control stations. In addition to this, the German Government so legislated as to make it very awkward and more costly for emigrants to get to America in British ships. Thus, Germany, by doing everything from intimidation and bluff to legislation, did succeed in obtaining a most valuable emigrant traffic, and so was able, quite apart from her own increasing exports, to build up a thoroughly up-to-date and steadily improving Merchant Navy. It is not to be wondered at that now she had learnt to construct steel steamships for herself she made a bold bid for Atlantic merchant ship supremacy. By the year of the Paris Exhibition in 1900 this line had fourteen twin-screw steamers to carry passengers across. The latest was the celebrated _Deutschland_, which was to win the “blue riband” of the Atlantic; for this record-smasher succeeded in lowering the voyage between New York and Plymouth to five days, seven hours, thirty-eight minutes, and on one trip averaged 23·51 knots. This four-funnelled ship was of 16,502 tons and measured 686 feet long. She was certainly an eye-pleasing vessel, for it was before the practice of building lofty superstructures had become the fashion. Her biggest day’s run was 601 knots, and the sumptuousness of her passenger comfort made her a very popular ship. In 1906 came the _Kaiserin Auguste Victoria_, 24,581 tons, 687 feet long, and able to carry 4000 passengers and crew. She was at the time the biggest steamer in the world. But before we mention the mammoth German liners we must see briefly how the North German Lloyd grew up. Their first transatlantic steamer was the _Bremen_, built by Caird of Greenock in 1858, but their real progress commences with the year 1881, when the first German “express” steamer entered the line. This was the 4510-ton _Elbe_, a four-masted screw ship built on the Clyde, and during the next ten years Glasgow built _Ems_ and seven other British-made vessels, whose speed varied from sixteen to eighteen knots. They were able to carry 1200 passengers. But when we come to the ’nineties the passenger trade was so good that the North German Lloyd could afford to scrap its old-fashioned craft and build the twin-screw _Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse_. This was to become an historic ship.