“You also set the shipping world the example of the great economy possible in the transit of the world’s commodities in vessels of greatly increased capacity and proportionate economy, which other nations have been quick to follow and adopt to their great advantage.
“Your Company had furthermore met a felt want in giving most luxurious and well-appointed accommodation for visiting scenes, both new and old, of world-wide interest, and making such journeyings, hitherto beset with anxiety and difficulty, as easy of accomplishment as the ordinary railway journey at home.
“You have succeeded in this, not through any adventitious aids, such as Government subsidies, but by anticipating and then meeting the wants of the travelling and commercial public; and no one, be his nationality what it was, can, in the face of such facts, abstain from offering his meed of praise to the foresight, acumen, and ability that have accomplished such great results in such a comparatively small time as the management and direction of the Hamburg-American Packet Company.
“I would venture, therefore, to thus congratulate you and your colleagues, and whilst reiterating my regret at being prevented from doing so at your forthcoming meeting, allow me the expression of the wish that such meeting may be a happy and satisfactory one, and that a new era of, if possible, increased success to the Hamburg-American Packet Company may take date from it.”
Towards the latter end of the ’nineties, at last, a big expansion of the Company’s activities set in. In 1897 the Hamburg-Calcutta Line was purchased, but the service was discontinued, the steamers thus acquired being used for other purposes. Shortly before the close of the same year a suggestion was put forward by some Hamburg firms that were engaged in doing business with the Far East that the Packetfahrt should run a service to that part of the world.
Just then the steamship companies engaged in the Far Eastern trade were on the point of coming to a rate agreement among themselves; and the management of the Packetfahrt which, owing to the offer held out to it by Hamburg, Antwerp, and London firms, could hope to rely on finding a sure basis for its Far Eastern business, did not consider it wise to let the favourable opportunity slip. Quick decision and rapid action, before the proposed agreement of the interested lines had become an accomplished fact, were necessary; because, once the gates were closed, an outsider would find it difficult to gain admission to the ring.
Hence the negotiations with a view to the Packetfahrt joining in the Far Eastern business, which had only been started during the second half of December, 1897, came to a close very soon; and in the early days of January, 1898, the Packetfahrt advertised its intention of running monthly sailings to Penang, Singapore, Hongkong, Shanghai, Yokohama, and Hiogo. Six cargo steamers of 8,000 tons burden were entered into the new service; and simultaneously an announcement was made to the effect that large fast passenger boats would be added to it as soon as the need for these should make itself felt.
The participation in the Far Eastern business, and the consequent taking over of competing lines or the establishment of joint services with them, was not the only important event of the year 1898 as far as the development of the Packetfahrt is concerned. In the spring of that same year an agreement was made with the Philadelphia Shipping Company—which, in its turn, had an agreement with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company—by which the Packetfahrt undertook to run a regular service of cargo steamers between Hamburg and Philadelphia.
An event of still greater importance, however, was the outbreak of war between the United States and Spain which also took place in that year. The Spanish Government desired to strengthen the fighting power of its navy by the addition of several auxiliary cruisers; and even some time before the war broke out an offer reached the Packetfahrt through the intermediary of a third party to purchase its two express steamers, Columbia and Normannia, which were among the fastest ocean-liners afloat. Before accepting this offer, the Packetfahrt, in order to avoid the reproach of having committed a breach of neutrality, first offered these two steamers to the United States Government; but on its refusal to buy them, they were sold to the British firm acting on behalf of the Spanish Government, and re-sold to the latter. As the Packetfahrt had allowed a high rate of depreciation on the two boats, their book-value stood at a very low figure; and the considerable profit thus realized enabled it to acquire new vessels for the extension of its passenger services.
Meanwhile a new express steamer, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grösse, had been added to the fleet of the North German Lloyd. Ballin, having made a voyage on board this vessel to New York, reported to the Trustees of his Company that he considered her a splendid achievement. Owing to the heavy working expenses, however, she would not, he thought, prove a great success from a financial point of view. He held that the remunerativeness of express steamers was negatived by the heavy working expenses and, as early as 1897, had projected the construction of two steamers of very large proportions, but of less speed. This, however, was not carried out. Instead, the Packetfahrt decided to build a vessel which was to be bigger and faster still than the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grösse. The new liner was built by the Stettin Vulkan yard, and completed in 1900. She was the Deutschland, the famous ocean greyhound, a great improvement in size and equipment, and she held the blue riband of the Atlantic for a number of years.