 The ship was a North German Lloyd (NDL) mail ship and ocean liner built by AG Vulcan, Stettin, Germany, and launched 18 June 1904 as .NDL had ordered her for the German Mail route between Germany and the Far East, for which she began her maiden voyage on 13 October.When the First World War broke out on 1 August 1914 she was in Shanghai, China and was ordered to Tsingtao in the then German Kiaochow Bay concession.