The Allan Line's Hesperian was built by A. Stephen & Sons of Glasgow.
Launched in December 1907, she made her maiden voyage, from Glasgow to
Québec and Montréal on 25 April 1908. Except for one Liverpool-St. John
roundtrip on charter to Canadian Pacific, she served on Allan's Canadian
service throughout her career.
That career came to an abrupt end on 4 September 1915, when Hesperian
was torpedoed off Fastnet by U 20, commanded by Cdr. W von Schwieger.
Efforts to tow her to safety were unsuccessful, and after her skeleton
crew abandoned her, she sank on 9 September, 130 miles (210 km) west of
Queenstown. There were 32 fatalities, all occurring at the time of the
initial attack.
Sources: Bonsor's North Atlantic Seaway; Kludas' Great Passenger Ships
of the World; Williams' Wartime Disasters at Sea.
