The line prospered; the number of boats was constantly increased to meet the need; the Northwest was opened up; and the Allan boats brought in many thousands of immigrants. In addition the company branched out to South America.
The building of the Parisian in 1881 was supposed to be about the last word in shipbuilding. She was far in advance of anything to be seen on the route. Today she is, by comparison with the leviathans of the route, almost as antique as the old Favorite was when steamships came in.
In 1887, the Canadian Government decided to subsidize a line of fast steamships. They asked for twenty knots an hour and that the vessels should call at a French port. The Allans held that the first demand was impracticable, owing to the fact that high speed would be dangerous because of the fogs in the gulf; while, as to the second, it was deemed to be out of the question. The Government played with a tender from another firm, Anderson, Anderson & Co., of London, which, however, did not make good; and the fast Atlantic service, in spite of much discussion and tentative efforts on the part of the Government and the shipping people, has never come to anything to this day. The C.P.R. offered to build a fast service; but the terms were deemed by the government to be too onerous.
The line increased, however, in ships, in business done, in reputation, both from our own and the American ports.
Mr. Hugh Allan was knighted in 1870. In 1877 he determined to associate his name with the C.P.R. enterprise. He, in fact, formed the first syndicate to build it. The fall of the Macdonald Government defeated his plan.
He succumbed to an attack of gout in 1882, at the age of seventy-two years. His remains were brought out to Canada in one of his own ships, and laid to rest in Mount Royal Cemetery.
Alexander Allan died at Glasgow in 1892, leaving a fortune of three million dollars. Andrew, so well remembered by Montrealers for his public spirit, his identification with good works, his “canny” Scotch caution, compatible, at the same time, with an enterprise and boldness in the conduct of his business, died in Montreal in the ’90s.
The business today is carried on by Mr. Hugh A. Allan, chairman, resident in London, and Mr. Andrew A. Allan, vice chairman, resident in Montreal.
The firm has broadened out in many important ways. It was the first to introduce turbines on the St. Lawrence, and it is still augmenting the fleet.
Of the Allan fleet, the steamers on the Montreal-Quebec-Liverpool service making the port of Montreal are: Tunisian, 10,576.38 tons; Victorian, 10,629.09 tons; and Virginian, 10,569.62 tons.