Allan Line

Allan Line
Allan Line
	French advertisment of the Allan Line
Type	Private
Industry	Shipping and transportation
Founded	1819; 207 years ago
Founder	Alexander Allan
Defunct	1918
Fate	Purchased by Canadian Pacific Steamship Company
Headquarters	Glasgow, Scotland
Area served	Transatlantic; Canadian Service
	Footnotes; House flag

The Allan Line Steamship Company Ltd., of Glasgow was a British shipping line which ran ships between the United Kingdom and Canada. Founded in 1819, it provided cargo and passenger transport services between Glasgow and Liverpool to Canada. Under the Allan family, the line became was the world's largest privately owned shipping concern by the 1890s. Financial difficulties in the early 20th-century forced the family to sell their assets to the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company in 1917, with the line's name disappearing by the following year.

History

The line was founded in 1819, by Captain Alexander Allan of Saltcoats, Ayrshire, trading and transporting between Scotland and Montreal, a route which quickly became synonymous with the Allan Line. By the 1830s the company had offices in Glasgow, Liverpool and Montreal. All five of Captain Allan's sons were actively involved with the business, but it was his second son, Sir Hugh Allan, who spearheaded the second generation. In 1854, Hugh launched the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company as part of the Allan Line, and two years later ousted Samuel Cunard to take control of the Royal Mail contract between Britain and North America.

In 1891, the company took over the State Line (founded 1872) and was often referred to as the Allan & State Line. In 1897, Andrew Allan amalgamated the various branches of the Allan shipping empire under one company. The company by then had added offices in Boston and London. In 1917, under Sir Montagu Allan, who represented the third generation of the Allan family, the company was purchased by Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, and by the following year the Allan name had disappeared from commercial shipping.

Notable collisions

In 1891, the Allan Line steamship Carthaginian collided with the York River Line steamship Charlotte in the shipping channel at Baltimore, Maryland. Among those aboard Carthaginian was the Danish-American composer Asger Hamerik. Both ships were damaged, but neither sank.

In 1905, the Allan Line ship Parisian was involved in a collision with the Hamburg America Line ship Albano off of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Exchequer Court of Canada found Albano to be fully at fault, according to Reports of Cases Relating to Maritime Law. The case was later appealed to Canada's supreme court.^{[citation needed]}

List of steamships

SS Sardinian
SS Scotian
Pretorian
Canadian
Hesperian
Corsican
Grampian
Parisian
Damascus (Corinithian 1)
Sarmatian
Scandinavian (as Romanic)
Victorian
Virginian
Hungarian

List of Allan Line steamships
Name	Shipyard	GRT	Launch date	Notes
SS Alsatian	William Beardmore and Company	18,481	1914	Transferred to Canadian Pacific Steamship Company in 1917; renamed Empress of France in 1919.
SS America	Robert Steele & Company	1,826	1847	Chartered from Cunard Line for four voyages between 1863 and 1864; only transatlantic paddle steamer employed by Allan.
SS Anglo Saxon	William Denny and Brothers	1,715	1856	Wrecked off Cape Race in 1863 with the loss of 238 lives.
SS Assyrian	Earle's Shipbuilding	3,970	1880	Purchased from the Monarch Line in 1887 and renamed from Assyrian Monarch. Scrapped in 1902.
SS Australasian	William Denny and Brothers	7,801	1901	Chartered from the New Zealand Shipping Company for five voyages; renamed from Ruapehu, then reverted upon return.
SS Austrian	Barclay Curle	2,458	1867	Scrapped in 1905.
SS Bavarian	William Denny and Brothers	10,576	1899	Served as troopship for the Second Boer War, 1899-1902. Wrecked in the St. Lawrence River near Montreal in 1905; no loss of life.
SS Belgian	Caird & Company	2,259	1855	Purchased from the Hamburg America Line in 1864 and renamed from Hammonia. Sold to the Dominion Line in 1872; renamed Missouri in 1873.
SS Bohemian	William Denny and Brothers	2,200	1859	Wrecked off Cape Elizabeth on 22 February 1864 with loss of 20 lives.
SS Brazilian	D. and W. Henderson and Company	2,200	1891	Sold to Brazil in 1910; renamed Corcovado.
SS Buenos Ayrean	William Denny and Brothers	5,359	1880	Laid up in 1909; Scrapped Falmouth in 1911
SS Calgarian	Fairfields	17,515	1913	Transferred to Canadian Pacific Steamship Company in 1917. Converted to armed merchant vessel in 1914 as HMS Calgarian. Torpedoed and sunk off Rathlin Island on 1 March 1918 with loss of 49 lives.
SS Californian	Alexander Stephen and Sons	4,244	1891	Purchased as State of California while being built for the State Line. Renamed Californian in 1898. Sold to New York & Porto Rico Line in 1901; renamed Coamo.