The old offices of Anchor Line in Union Street, Glasgow

Part 2 1870 - 1895 - Expansion and...?

Expansion continued apace in 1870 with the arrival on the scene of four ships from Robert Duncan, AUSTRALIA, ALEXANDRIA, SIDONIAN and ISMAILIA. By now Mediterranean calls were being added to the Atlantic schedules, Anchor Line had been building up Mediterranean trade with other vessels not mentioned here since the 1860's. In August ISMAILIA left Glasgow on her maiden voyage, bound for Messina. The emigrant trade from Italy was another source of useful income! In November ALEXANDRIA left Glasgow for New York on her first trip, but included the Mediterranean in the schedule.

A succession of new ships followed in the years to 1873 which saw much larger vessels introduced to the fleet. In 1871 Robert Duncan supplied the ASSYRIA and TRINACRIA while Charles Connell produced the OLYMPIA. 1872 saw Charles Connell produce another ship, CASTALIA, and Robert Duncan delivered the ITALIA and VICTORIA. A sister ship to VICTORIA was built by Alexander Stephen, the CALIFORNIA and these two were the first signs of vessels really starting to grow at 3242 grt and 3287 grt respectively.

In 1873 John Elder built the ELYSIA and in that year the 4000 ton mark was breached by Robert Duncan's BOLIVIA and Stephen's ETHIOPIA

A watershed occurred this year when Robert Handyside retired. Now the whole company was in the hands and owned by the Henderson brothers.

In between this flurry the Duke of Devonshire and Anchor Line became partners in a new firm the Barrow Steamship Company and from then on many of the ships in each fleet interchanged, the venture was operated by Anchor Line.

As to losses, these reduced in number, I have already remarked how CAMBRIA was a very short lived vessel being lost in 1870, the next loss was the DACIAN, at only four years old, she wrecked on the coast of Nova Scotia on April 9th 1872. In 1878 the EUROPA whilst on passage from Gibralter to New York , collided with the steamship STAFFA on 17th July, 25 miles north of Cape Finisterre and sank. The seventies last loss was the ISMALIA.

She left New York on October 2nd 1879 with 52 people on board, she, and they, were never heard from again.

Throughout the 1870's Anchor Line added new routes and departure ports to its services. One of them would turn out to be their oldest route - the Glasgow to Bombay service beginning in 1870 and not ending until 1977 - 107 years later!

Other vessels to join in this period were the UTOPIA from Robert Duncan in 1874, the ANCHORIA from Barrow Shipbuilding Company in 1875 and from the same shipbuilder the DEVONIA and CIRCASSIA in 1877 and 1878.

The D&W Henderson shipyard at Meadowside on the Clyde

But, important as all these additions were, it was two other ships from a Clyde yard that were something of milestones for the company. In the early 1870's the brothers David and William Henderson set themselves up as marine engineers and set to purchasing the yard of Tod & McGregor at Meadowside, just at the confluence of the River Kelvin and Clyde. This historic yard was the first to operate a drydock on the upper river and had a distinguished history of building ships stretching back to 1834 and built for such lines as Inman and Allan Line. Between 1872 and 1874 the brothers finalised the transition and the imposing name of D & W Henderson appeared on the Clyde.

In 1876 they began a long association with their brothers' company the Anchor Line by building the 2810 ton ALSATIA for the Glasgow-Molville-New York service. It would be another three years before they built another ship for the Anchor Line, this time, in 1879 the twin funnelled BRITANNIA for the Glasgow-Suez-Bombay service.

Through the 1880's and beyond the two firms would enjoy a special relationship, ending when Cunard bought over Anchor Line in 1911 - but that period is a bit far off yet in our history here.

The 1880's

1880 saw a bad start for the company when the ANGLIA collided with Andrew Weir's almost new iron barque TRONGATE in the Atlantic. No humans lost their lives, however, the same happy fate was not be for the 200 head of cattle she was carrying and they sank with her.

On a happier note, their brothers, D&W delivered to them the second BRITANNIA, of 350 feet in length a gross tonnage of 3069 tons and the HISPANIA, for Indian service

The ss FURNESSIA

1881 saw the biggest ship of the fleet ever, by a wide margin, when Barrow Shipbuilding Company delivered the FURNESSIA. At 5,495 tons she was at the time of her launch, the GREAT EASTERN excepted, the biggest ship to have been built in Great Britain .Although owned by the Barrow Steamship Company, she was to all intents and purposes, an Anchor Liner and began her maiden voyage on February 17th 1881 from Glasgow to Molville and New York.

Passengers, no doubt in awe of the new vessel, sumptiously appointed and to their eyes gigantic, would have took a very keen interest that day as they passed the J&G Thomson yard at Clydebank, for sitting on the stocks, only two weeks away from launching was a ship nearly 2000 tons bigger, Cunard's 7,392 ton SERVIA. A real monster of its time. But it would be a while yet before she came on the scene.

This was now a real battleground on the Atlantic, with Inman, Cunard, Anchor, Allan and others vying for attention and passengers. Liners were getting bigger and more luxurious. The travelling public wanted more in the way of safe and luxurious travel.

Anchor responded to this in 1882 by buying (under Barrow S.S.Co) from Inman Line their monster ship, the CITY OF ROME which had launched at Barrow Shipbuilding only the year previously. She was 8,415 tons, a truly terrific size, and was deployed usually on the Liverpool-New York run (at the beginning and end of her career she also performed some voyages from Glasgow)

The Hendersons produced three ships for Anchor in 1881, the GALATIA, ARMENIA, ROUMANIA

In 1881 another Anchor liner came to grief, this time the MACEDONIA (ex IOWA being renamed after a rebuild in 1873) who wrecked closer to home, near the Mull of Kintyre, but thankfully with no loss of lives.

More ships from D&W Henderson followed in 1882: ISCHIA, KARMANIA and NUBIA, all around the 3,100 ton mark and all built for the Indian services from Glasgow to Bombay and/or Calcutta. Another transatlantic ship was also delivered by them this year, the 4997 ton BELGRAVIA

The curse of the 'short-lived ship' returned again the following year when ISCHIA went missing, presumed lost with all aboard. And the run of ships from D&W continued in 1883 with the PERSIA, SCINDIA and ARABIA followed by the ASIA in 1884

In 1884 another two Anchor ships came to grief, this time the CASTALIA. She was on a run from Valencia to New York when she wrecked near Denia on March 11th and the GALATIA was holed by her own anchor, beached at Tuticorin, India and abandoned.

The rate of newbuilds dried up after this until 1888 when the Hendersons built the second ANGLIA, followed in 1889 with the second SCOTIA and in 1890 the second SCINDIA (the previous, much smaller SCINDIA was sold out of the fleet in 1885). This spate of new tonnage continued in 1891 AND 1892 with the ALGERIA, DALMATIA and BOHEMIA, all again for the burgeoning Indian service. A surprising addition to the fleet came in 1892 with the second AUSTRALIA, not built on the Clyde but by Short Bros (the first AUSTRALIA was sold to Furness Withy that year and would last only two years with them before going for scrap)

In between these newbuilds the worst disaster to befall any of the company's ships to date occured on March 17th 1891. The ss UTOPIA, which had been extensively modernised and fitted with new triple expansion engines and was on the Mediterranean-New York immigrant service. She had stopped off at Gibralter when a terrific gale blew up. She was thrown onto the ram bow of HMS ANSON who was at anchor and with devastating consequences.

With her sides stove in she sank in five minutes, and with her 576 passengers and crew.

This sad ship was later refloated and taken to the Clyde and laid up, eventually scrapped in 1900.

As newbuild entered in the early nineties, a number of older ships were disposed of, the oldest being the DORIAN of 1863 and the TYRIAN of 1869. These two solid workhorses were sold to Archibald Campbell Colvill of New York on January 26th 1893. The DORIAN was later wrecked in the West Indies but the TYRIAN had quite a second life. Colvil sold her to the Canadian Government who converted her into a cable ship, the famous rugged Clyde-built qualities saw her last right up until the 1930's, being scrapped in 1935.

Also disposed of was the SIDONIAN, sold for scrap.

Another ship left the fleet in 1893, but his was hardly planned disposal. The TRINACRIA was wrecked on February 7th, north east of Cape Villano in Spain.

In 1894 COLUMBIA was sold to Italian owners and renamed FRANCESCO CRISPI (wrecked four years later), and the ASSYRIA and KARAMANIA were scrapped.

The following year it was ALEXANDRIA's turn to meet the breakers, and, sadly, it was also the turn of the last two of the Henderson brothers to meet their maker.

1895 with no Hendersons proved difficult for the company and it entered a short period where its direction suffered.

All that would change in 1899 and thereafter the company would evolve into the one everyone reconises.