SS Abyssinia
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SS Abyssinia at Vancouver, June 1887
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Abyssinia |
| Namesake: | Abyssinia |
| Owner: |
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| Route: | |
| Builder: | J & G Thomson, Govan |
| Yard number: | 110 |
| Launched: | 3 March 1870 |
| Completed: | May 1870 |
| Fate: | Caught fire and sank, 18 December 1891 in the North Atlantic off Nova Scotia. |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | iron-hulled steamship |
| Tonnage: | 3,651 tons |
| Length: | 364 ft (111 m) |
| Beam: | 42 ft (13 m) |
| Propulsion: | steam engine |
| Speed: | 13 knots (24 km/h) |
Abyssinia (1870) was a British mail liner 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.
With the success of Russia (1867), Cunard ordered a new fleet of iron express liners for the New York mail route. Abyssinia was the fourth of the five liners required for a weekly service. Abyssinia and her sister, Algeria were the first Cunard express steamers built to carry steerage passengers, a concept that was proved profitable four years earlier by the Inman Line. As completed in 1870, Abyssinia carried 200 first class passengers and 1050 steerage. She had a service speed of 12.5 knots and was a full knot slower than Russia. Both Abyssinia and Algeria were larger than their near sister, Parthia. Unlike Abyssinia and Algeria which were built in Glasgow, Parthia had been constructed in Dumbarton.
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 All five of the new Cunarders on this route were quickly rendered out of date by White Star's revolutionary Oceanic of 1871. For example, Abyssinia and her sister burned 90 tons of coal per day as compared to 58 tons for Oceanic. While Inman and other rivals quickly installed compound machinery and modified passenger quarters to match White Star's new fleet, Cunard did not. Finally, in 1879 the privately owned Cunard line was reorganised as a public stock corporation to raise the capital needed to rebuild the fleet. On the other hand, Abyssinia's near sister, Parthia did utilise compound machinery. Due to such, Parthia only burned 47 tons of coal per day.
In 1880, Cunard sold Abyssinia to the Guion Line when that company needed a mail liner to replace the wrecked Montana. Two years later, Abyssinia finally received compound machinery. In 1884, she was transferred to the John Elder shipyard to partly finance Guion's new Blue Riband winner, the Oregon. Unable to make the payments, Guion returned its new record breaker to Elders and continued to operate Abyssinia. At the same time, Elders also acquired the former Cunarders Batavia and Parthia (Abyssinia's near sister) as trade ins for the sale of Oregon to Cunard. In 1885, Stephen Guion himself died and his firm was reorganised with Sir William Pierce of Elders as the new chairman.
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