The German liner "Bremen", the fourth vessel to bear this name as the third had been confiscated by the Allies after World War I, was built at Bremen and launched in August 1928, the day after her sister "Europa". Both ships were markedly streamlined and whilst "Bremen" had squat, pear-shaped funnels compared to "Europa's" pair which were taller and oval, in most other respects the ships were virtually identical. "Bremen" entered service first and on her maiden voyage in July 1929 took the Blue Riband from the ageing "Mauretania" which had held it for twenty years. Finding herself in the United States on the eve of the Second World War, she slipped out of New York without passengers on 30 August 1939, made for Murmansk (Russia) and eventually got back to Germany in December. Although considered for conversion to a troopship, the work was never completed and she was laid up at Bremerhaven where, on 16 March 1941, a disgruntled cabin boy started a fire aboard her which soon got out of control. Scuttled in an unsuccessful attempt to save her, the damage was too serious to repair and she was scrapped thereafter.