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Transatlantic passenger liner, Dominion Line
The Allan Line with their 'Parisian' of 1881 had set new standards for the UK-Canada emigrant trade. The Dominion Line responded with a 5,000 tons ship from Charles Connell and Company of Glasgow, to be named 'Vancouver'. She was an enormous advance on all of her owners' previous ships. She became one of the most successful ships in the rather troubled history of the Dominion Line.
Launched in 1884, 'Vancouver' originally had two funnels, and a 3-cylinder compound engine drove her single screw. In 1884 she left Liverpool on her maiden voyage to Quebec and Montreal and became the second largest ship on Canadian service. The following year she began to carry some of the Canadian mails. After six more years on the Canadian run she was taken out of service and extensively modernised to match the standards of her new partner, the 'Labrador'. She was fitted with triple-expansion engines, while the two original funnels were reduced to one, placed rather aft of amidships.
Although a great favourite with passengers, she had several mishaps during her long career. In August 1890 she struck an iceberg near Belle Isle during fog but escaped with little damage. Three months later her commander and a quartermaster were swept overboard and drowned during a storm. In November 1894 she was stranded at the entrance to Lough Foyle, Northern Ireland, and had to be towed to Liverpool for repair. Finally, in 1896 she was involved in a head-on collision with the Beaver liner 'Lake Ontario' in the St Lawrence. The Beaver ship's clipper bow prevented critical damage to either ship but the 'Vancouver' was out of service for three months.
In 1902 the old 'Vancouver', with the rest of the Dominion Line fleet, came under the control of the American J P Morgan's International Mercantile Marine. In 1910 after over twenty years of regular service on the St Lawrence, she was sold to ship breakers and scrapped.