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Of Montreal, brother of the late Sir Hugh
Allan, was born at Saltcoats, Ayreshire, Scotland, Dec. 1, 1822. His
father was a well-known shipmaster and trader between the Clyde and
Montreal, and had command of passenger ships for a period of over thirty
years. Andrew was the fourth son, and received his education in the old
country, and when in his seventeenth year came to Canada. In 1846 he
became a member of the important and rapidly rising firm of which his
brother, Sir Hugh, had been a partner. A biographical sketch of this
brilliant and energetic business man necessarily implies a history of the
development of the magnificent business in ocean traffic, with which the
name of Allan must forever remain associated in Canada. Over thirty years
ago the Allan Brothers, perceiving the great number of people who were
constantly sailing from Great Britain and Ireland to America, conceived
the idea of a line of ocean passenger boat, which would be the chief
carrying medium for the great concourse of emigrants. In 1853 they have
fifteen sailing ships afloat, but to these they added two iron screw
steamships, to ply between Liverpool, Quebec and Montreal. At a little
later period, stimulated by the success of the venture, two similar boats
were added to their fleet. Before the period when the enterprise of the
Allan Brothers began to assert itself, mails crossed the ocean very
slowly; but in 1857 the firm made arrangements to carry fortnightly mails
between Liverpool and Quebec in summer, and between Liverpool and
Portland, Maine, in winter. At a later date the Canadian mail service was
enlarged to a weekly line, and its steamers were as noble and as
splendidly equipped as any ship that crossed the Atlantic. The fleet has
continued to increase up to the present time (1885), when it is composed
of the following list of magnificent ships:- Liverpool mail-line: Numidian,
(building), Parisian, Sardinian, Polynesian, Sarmatian, Circassian,
Perusian; Newfoundland fornightly mail line:- Hibernian, Nova
Scotvin, Caspian, Newfoundland; Glasgow freight and passenger line:- Carthaginian,
Siberian, Buenos Ayrean, Norweigian, Grecian; London freight and
passenger line: Corean, Scandinavian, Nestorian, Lucerne. A
fortnightly service between Glasgow and Boston, and another between
Glasgow and Philadelphia is also maintained by the following ships:- Prussian,
Manitoban, Canadian, Phoenician, Walensian, Austrian, and Acadian.
Some fourteen sailing ships belong to the fleet, making a gross tonnage of
over 200,000 tons. The Allan Brothers were the first to adopt the spar or
flush deck on their steamers; and in making this costly revolution they
not only failed to find the co-operation of the London Board of Trade, but
had the hostility of that body by its refusal to allow them any concession
in the way of measurement for harbour dues, etc. In addition to his very
prominent connection with his own firm, Andrew Allan holds several
important business trusts in Montreal, and some of these we may mention.
He is president of the Merchants Bank, the Montreal Telegraph Company, the
Manitoba and N. W. Railway Company, the Canadian Rubber Company, the
Windsor Hotel Company; and the Montreal Lumber Company; and besides he is
on the directorate of numerous other manufacturing, mining, and business
companies. He is likewise one of the Harbour Commissioners of Montreal.
Mr. Allan married, in 1846, a daughter of the late John Smith, of
Montreal, and has eight children. he is a man of vast energy of character,
clear and wise insight, and a wide spirit of enterprise tempered with just
prudence.
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