SS Lima was a passenger and cargo steamship that was launched in England in 1907 as Westerwald for Hamburg America Line (HAPAG)'s Caribbean services.

She had a single screw, driven by a three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine built by Richardsons Westgarth & Company.

[8] HAPAG ran a service between Denmark, Germany, and the Danish West Indies, using ships including St. Croix, St. Jan and St. Thomas, which it had bought from the Østasiatiske Kompagni (ØK) and renamed Sachsenwald, Odenwald, and Niederwald.

[9] By October 1908 Westerwald had joined this route, with ports of call including San Juan, Puerto Rico.

[14][15] [16][17][18][19] HAPAG advertised that for the season from September 1912 to January 1913 Westerwald's route was between New York and Cartagena in Colombia.

On return voyages she was to call at Puerto Colombia, Santa Marta, Jérémie, Port-au-Prince, and Inagua.

At 11:00 hrs on 1 August 1914, with the First World War imminent, HAPAG announced the suspension of its services.

Portugal was neutral, despite its long alliance with the United Kingdom, so from 4 August Westerwald sheltered in Lisbon.

[25] On 23 February 1916, the commander of the Portuguese Navy division in Lisbon seized 36 German and Austro-Hungarian merchant ships that had been sheltering in the Tagus.

[27] Portugal stated that it had requisitioned the ships "in the public interest",[28] for the "necessities of the nation's economic situation".

[37] In November 1961 the new motor ship Funchal joined Lima on EIN's Lisbon – Azores – Madeira service.