SS Abyssinia

The SS "Abyssinia" was a Canadian Pacific steamship in the 19th century, originally owned by Cunard Steamships and chartered to Canadian Pacific Steamships to open its Trans-Pacific steamship service, as were also the SS "Parthia" and the SS "Batavia". Named for Abyssinia.

The "Abyssinia", at 3,651 tons, accommodated 200 passengers in first class and 868 in steerage, with other classes proportionate to those, although on its maiden voyage it had only 22 first-class and 80 steerage passengers, the latter all Chinese.

The first voyage of the "Abyssinia" for Canadian Pacific Steamships broke all previous records for Trans-Pacific shipping, taking only 13 days to sail from Yokohama, Japan to Vancouver, British Columbia, arriving there on June 13, 1887, with its freight shipment of silk and tea arriving in New York, via Montreal, on June 21, and in London on June 29. The previous record for Trans-Pacific shipping was also held by CP shipping and via the Vancouver-Montreal railway route, which was much faster than via the Union Pacific or other railways, but the old sailing-ship liners were still much slower than the voyage of the steam-powered "Abyssinia" — 47 days from Yokohama to London, vs. 49 via American railroads. The Abyssinia's voyage is most notable, therefore, for halving transportation times between the Orient and Europe ove the days of the windjammers and other sail-driven vessels.

References

*"Vancouver: From Milltown to Metropolis", Alan Morley, Mitchell Press, Vancouver (1961), pp. 97–99.
* [http://www.rogerkreuz.com/gen/ships.htm SS Abyssinia] immigrant ship information