language, and eats familiar food, and is, "he continued, "treated in a friendly way, so that one is better off than on the other lines. "1 The Thingvalla was the flagship of the Danish steamship line Thingvalla, begun in 1879. 2 The Thingvalla Line represented a cooperative venture by a fusion of Danish shipping companies, bankers, and businessmen to capitalize on the lucrative Atlantic passenger transportation; they had in mind to break the near monopoly of British, and to a lesser degree North German, companies in the Scandinavian emigrant market by establishing direct steamship connection between Scandinavia and North America. It was an entrepreneurial venture with limited fiscal success. In 1898, in the words of one of the historians of the Thingvalla Line, it "died for lack of initiative in its leadership, and because Denmark was a small country and the competition so great. "3 The Danish direct line, as Thingvalla was referred to,