Formed in 1888 to operate services from Hamburg via Antwerp and the Cape to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. The service commenced in July 1889, but within a couple of years, passenger services to Australia were discontinued and the company restricted it’s activities to the cargo trade to Australia and the Dutch East Indies and latterly to North and South America. Taken over by the Hamburg America Line in 1926 and lost it’s identity as a separate concern.
The ship on the poster
The "Chemnitz" was built by A.Stephen & Sons, Glasgow in 1889. She was a 2,758 gross ton vessel, length 320ft x beam 39ft, one funnel, two masts, single screw and a speed of 11 knots. There was accommodation for 10 1st and 320 2nd class passengers.
Launched on 27/11/1889 for Deutsch – Australische, she was chartered to the Hamburg America Line in 1893 and sailed from Hamburg for New York on 22/6/1893 and made just the one round voyage on this route. In 1906 she was sold to Chile and renamed "Enrique Lihn" and in 1911 was scrapped at Hendrik Ido, Ambacht.
