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586 American operating organization dating back 50 years, or since the inception of the original American line. With a company thus equipped, the will to enter the German field was - quickly translated into action. Plans for a New York-German service was laid -as soon as fighting ceased in France and Flanders, and their execution waited only on the release from transport service of four vessels first selected to operate on the new run. First among these were two large combination passenger and cargo carriers, the MANCHURIA and Moncorta, 13,639 gross tons each. The THE MARINE REVIEW the world war had led the owners of these ships to dispose of them. The ships had but newly come back to the Atlantic when the war began, having been purchased by the International Mercantile Marine for service between New York and London. The exigencies of the war changed the company's original plans for the use of the ships and with the entry of the United States into the great struggle, these ships, title to which had been transferred to the Atlantic Transport Co., a subsidiary, automatically became units in the military equipment of the November, 1920 ican liner in regular passenger service to the port of Hamburg. The ship was laden for this first voyage with 9185 tons of freight, chiefly foodstuffs for the famished German people, and in- cluding a great number of packages of food and clothing consigned by Germans in the United States to friends and relatives in Germany. She also carried the largest consignment of mail ever sent out of New York on one ship, a total of 14,104 sacks. Owing to the still unsettled condition of affairs in Ger- 'many, the ship's passenger list on this premier voyage was not heavy, and her §. S. MONGOLIA, FORMER PACIFIC LINER, NOW IN THE PASSENGER RUN BETWEEN NEW YORK AND HAMBURG others were the CHAMPION and _ the DrFFENDER, new 12,000-ton deadweight freighters, built in 1918 for the shipping board by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., Camden, N. J. Bought from the board fer the American line, these ves- sels were renamed the MontTauxk and MontTANA, respectively. They are among the largest freighters produced in Amer- ican yards as a result of the world war. To these four ships-were added a num- ber of standard steel freighters of the shipping board fleet, operated on a man- aging agency basis. The MancuHurta and Mowncorta, like _the big freighters, also are the product | of American yards. They are sister ships, 600 feet long by 65 feet wide, built at the New York Shipbuilding Corp.'s yards. Originally designed for the International Mercantile Marine, these vessels were sold to the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., which operated them for a number of years between Pacific coast ports and the Orient. The low level to which American shipping had declined in the period directly preceding United States for transferring its fight- ing strength to the scene of battle over- seas. The Moncoria sprang into public notice at the outset of this phase of the contest, by firing the first American shot at Germany on land or sea, when at- tacked by a German submarine, which she drove under the surface with her guns. Throughout the war, the two big former Pacific liners were steadily at work. © When the. armistice was de- clared, they were still so busily employed that it was not until midsummer of 1919 that they were released from requisition by the government, and turned back to their owners. Heavily Laden on First Trip Reconditioned without loss of. time, the big ships were ready by December to establish the American line's German service. Their passenger quarters were handsomely refitted, with capacity for 265 in the first cabin and 1431 in third class. XG the MANncHurIA fell the distinction of making the first voyage of an Amer- ° passengers consisted largely of persons obliged to visit the Teutonic countries on official duties. Sailing from New York on Dec. 20, the pioneer American liner to. Hamburg arrived in the River Elbe on Jan. 2. The Mancuurta steamed into the port of Hamburg like a messenger from the outside world entering a long beleaguered castle. The great docks that had been the pride of the port were vacant of seagoing ships. At one of them lay the half-finished hull of the Bismarck, de- signed as the greatest of German liners, where it had been left when Germany threw down the tools of industry to dis- patch the supposedly short job of placing the rest of the world under her industrial yoke. At another pier lay the DruTscH- LAND, once the fastest flyer of the Ger- man commercial fleet, now disused and obsolete. At other docks lay ships long idle, rusty and foul. On the piers the grass of five summers -had grown and withered. The great ware- houses were empty. The waterside streets echoed to the rumble of an