SS Abyssinia
SS Abyssinia at Vancouver, June 1887
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History | |
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Name | Abyssinia |
Namesake | Abyssinia |
Owner |
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Route | |
Builder | J & G Thomson, Govan |
Yard number | 110[1] |
Launched | 3 March 1870[1] |
Completed | May 1870[1] |
Fate | Caught fire and sank, 18 December 1891 in the North Atlantic off Nova Scotia. |
General characteristics | |
Type | iron-hulled steamship[1] |
Tonnage | 3,253 GRT |
Length | 364 ft (111 m) |
Beam | 42 ft (13 m) |
Propulsion | steam engine |
Speed | 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) |
SS Abyssinia was a British mail liner built in 1870, and originally operated by the Cunard Line on the Liverpool–New York route. She later served the Guion Line on the same route and the Canadian Pacific Line in the Pacific. In December 1891, Abyssinia was destroyed mid-Atlantic without loss of life by a fire that started in her cargo of cotton, further highlighting the danger in carrying both cotton and passengers on the same ship.[2]
Development and design
With the success of
Service history
Cunard employed Abyssinia on the Liverpool, Queenstown, New York service. All five of the new Cunarders on this route were quickly rendered out of date by
In November 1873, Abyssinia discovered the American ship R. Robinson abandoned in the Atlantic Ocean. Some of her crew were put aboard and R. Robinson was taken in to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.[5] Finally, in 1879 the privately owned Cunard line was reorganised as a public stock corporation to raise the capital needed to rebuild the fleet.[2]
In 1880, Cunard sold Abyssinia to the
In 1887, Pierce chartered Guion's Abyssinia along with Elder's two other former Cunarders to Sir
Guion placed Abyssinia back on the Liverpool-Queenstown-New York route. Her first eastbound return trip cleared New York on 13 December with 57 passengers and 88 crew with various cargo including cotton. At 12:40 pm on 18 December 1891 off the coast of
References
- ^ a b c d "Abyssinia (1063765)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 18 May 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f Gibbs, Charles Robert Vernon (1957). Passenger Liners of the Western Ocean: A Record of Atlantic Steam and Motor Passenger Vessels from 1838 to the Present Day. John De Graff. pp. 52–92.
- ^ a b c Ljungstrom, Henrik. "Parthia (I)/Victoria". Original. The Great Ocean Liners. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ Hopkins, Edward C.D. "Parthia I (UK)". Original. Ships Named Parthia or Parthian. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
- ^ "Mercantile Ship News". The Standard. No. 15377. London. 10 November 1873.
- ^ "Pacific Air Routes Replace Ship Line; Canadian Company Abandons Pre-War Service of Fleet, Maps Overseas Flights," New York Times. 10 April 1949.
Other sources
- Vancouver: From Milltown to Metropolis, Alan Morley, Mitchell Press, Vancouver (1961), pp. 97–99.
- SS Abyssinia immigrant ship information
- Abyssinia on Chris' Cunard Page