146 ALL AFLOAT 



thing really original. They were not among 

 the first to make the change from wood to 

 iron or from paddle-wheels to screws. But 

 they did business honestly and well and always 

 took care of their passengers' safety. 



The Cunards were Canadians. Sir Hugh 

 Allan was a Scotsman. But he and the line 

 he founded are unchallengeably first in their 

 services to Canada. Hugh Allan was born in 

 1810, the son of a Scottish master mariner who 

 about that time was mate of a transport carry- 

 ing supplies to the British Army in the Pen- 

 insular War. He arrived in Canada when he 

 was only fifteen, entered the employ of a 

 Montreal shipping firm when he came of age, 

 and at forty-eight obtained complete control 

 of it with his brother Andrew. From that day 

 to this the Allan family have been the ac- 

 knowledged leaders of Canadian transatlantic 

 shipping. 



Hugh Allan was a man of boundless energy, 

 iron will, and consummate business ability. 

 The political troubles of the Pacific Scandal in 

 1873 prevented him from anticipating the 

 present Canadian Pacific Railway in making a 

 single united service of trains and steamers to 

 connect England with China and both with 

 Canada. But what he did succeed in carrying 



