The steamship EIDER, the first of two vessels of this name owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd, was built by John Elder & Co, Glasgow (yard #283), and was launched on 15 December 1883. 4,719 tons; 131,0 x 14,35 meters (length x breadth); straight stem, 2 funnels, 4 masts; iron construction, screw propulsion, double-expansion engines, service speed 16 knots; accommodation for 194 passengers in 1st class, 134 in 2nd class, and 876 in steerage; crew of 156 to 168.

19 March 1884, maiden voyage, Bremen - Southampton - New York. 9 January 1892, last voyage, Bremen - Southampton - New York. 31 January 1892, on return voyage, Capt. Heineke, with 367 passengers, a cargo of piece goods, cotton and corn, and £250,000 in gold and silver, stranded on Atherfield Ledge, Isle of Wight, with no loss of life; passengers and crew left Southampton for Bremerhaven on 6 February 1892 on board the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship ALLER. 29 March 1892, refloated by the North German Salvage Union, and towed to Southampton. 10 January 1893, sold to London for scrapping.

Sources: Arnold Kludas, Die Seeschiffe des Norddeutschen Lloyd, Bd. 1: 1857 bis 1919 (Herford: Koehler, c1991), p. 32 (photograph); Edwin Drechsel, Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen, 1857-1970; History, Fleet, Ship Mails, vol. 1 (Vancouver: Cordillera Pub. Co., c1994), pp. 23-25 (photographs) and 89, no. 55 (photograph); Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 2 (1978), p. 552. Also pictured in Michael J. Anuta, Ships of Our Ancestors (Menominee, Michigan: Ships of Our Ancestors, 1983), p. 89, courtesy of Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut.