"Lusitania" and were commissioned by Cunard, responding to increasing competition from rival transatlantic passenger companies, particularly the German Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) and Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). They had larger, faster, more modern and more luxurious ships than Cunard, and were better placed, starting from German ports, to capture the lucrative trade in emigrants leaving Europe for North America. The NDL liner captured the Blue Riband from Cunard's in 1897, before the prize was taken in 1900 by the HAPAG ship . NDL soon wrested the prize back in 1903 with the new and . Cunard saw its passenger numbers affected as a result of the so-called "s".