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Built for the Glasgow based Allan Line,
Virginian and her sister ship
Victorian were two of the earliest
liners to be powered by turbine engines.
Virginian set out on her maiden
voyage from Liverpool - St John/New
Brunswick April 6th 1905. That voyage
showed her three direct drive turbines
turned the propellers too fast making
them less efficient. Even with
Virginian’s turbines not
working to their full potential, she set
a new record on the Canadian run between
Cape Race and Movile by crossing in 4
days 4 hours. The British Admiralty
operated Virginian throughout
World War One as an armed merchant
cruiser and troopship. In the dying days
of the war, she had to be run aground on
the coast of Ireland after a German
U-boat attack succeeded in hitting her
with one torpedo.
The Canadian Pacific Line took over
the Allan Line in the final months of
World War One and sold Virginian
to the Swedish America Line soon after.
Renamed Drottningholm, she became
the first ship to provide a service
direct between Sweden and America. The
Swedish America Line had
Drottningholm fitted with less
powerful single reduction turbines in
1922 to make her more economical to run.
With Sweden not being involved in the
Second World War, the Red Cross
requisitioned Drottningholm to
serve as an exchanging ship. The end of
this role saw her returned to the Swedish
America Line in 1946. Two years later,
the Greek owned Home Lines bought
Drottningholm to be operated on
the Genoa - Rio de Janeiro route under
the name Brasil. She underwent a
major refit in 1951 before being
re-deployed on the Hamburg - Southampton,
Halifax and New York run under the name
Homeland. By 1952, she had again
been relocated, this time to the Genoa,
Naples, Barcelona and New York route. The
aging Homeland’s demise came
after being decommissioned in 1955 and
scrapped at Trieste/Italy soon after. Her
sister ship Victorian was
dismantled in 1929.
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