Wikipedia
The Nachrichten-Abteilung, also known as N, was the naval intelligence department of the German Imperial Admiralty Staff or Admiralstab between 1901–1919. It focused its efforts on France, the United States and above all the United Kingdom, whose Royal Navy was Germany's principal rival for naval supremacy. Although it was able to recruit a worldwide network of agents, drawing on the resources of German shipping companies and the German diplomatic service, the organisation's effectiveness was limited by rivalries within the Imperial German Navy and competition with the German Army's intelligence department. Its activities had little practical impact on the course of the First World War and it was dissolved in 1919 after Germany's defeat in the war.