LESSING (1874)             NERTHE (1888)

The steamship LESSING was built for the Deutsche Transatlantische Dampfschiffahrts-Gesellschaft (more familiarly known as the Adler, or Eagle Line) by A. Stephen & Sons, Glasgow, and was launched on 20 February 1874. 3,496 tons; 114,3 x 12,2 meters (length x breadth); straight stem, 1 funnel, 2 masts; iron construction, screw propulsion, service speed 13 knots; accommodation for 90 passengers in 1st class, 100 in 2nd class, and 800 in steerage; crew of 110.

28 May 1874, maiden voyage, Hamburg-New York. 4 May 1875, last voyage (of the Adler Line), New York - Plymouth - Cherbourg - Hamburg (6 roundtrip voyages). 29 May 1875, acquired by the Hamburg-America Line. 1 March 1876, first voyage for the Hamburg-America Line, Hamburg - Le Havre - New York. 1882 refit; 2 funnels. 22 April 1888, last voyage, Hamburg - Le Havre - New York. 7 June 1888, sold to Messageries Maritimes; renamed NERTHE. 1897, scrapped at Marseilles.

Sources: Arnold Kludas and Herbert Bischoff, Die Schiffe der Hamburg-Amerika Linie, Bd. 1: 1847-1906 (Herford: Koehler, 1979), pp. 34-35 (photograph); Walter Kresse, ed., Seeschiffs-Verzeichnis der Hamburger Reedereien, 1824-1888, Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, N. F., Bd. 5. (Hamburg: Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte, 1969), vol. 1, pp. 103 and 195; Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 1 (1975), p. 392; vol. 2 (1978), p. 952.

Photograph of the LESSING. Source: Arnold Kludas and Herbert Bischoff, Die Schiffe der Hamburg-Amerika Linie, Bd. 1: 1847-1906 (Herford: Koehler, 1979), p. 35.