In this era of "open borders" to transatlantic travel, the largest passenger group making the transatlantic crossing were immigrants from Europe to the United States, and NDL carried more than any other steamship line. During 1900–1914, the three NDL vessels carrying the most transatlantic migrants, , and , each brought over 100 thousand steerage passengers to New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia. The economic downturn following the Panic of 1907 led to a sharp fall-off of migrant traffic to America, only partially offset by increased steerage flows back to Europe, and this was the main contributing factor to "one of the blackest years in the Company's history."