SS Waesland explained
SS Waesland was a
Cunard liner built by J & G Thomson of Glasgow as
Russia. She was launched 20 March 1867 and made her maiden voyage in June of the same year. The writer
Charles Dickens returned to
England on the
Russia after his second tour of the
United States and was fulsome in his praise of the ship.
[1] On 25 May 1869,
Russia ran into the ship
Figlia Maggiore of
Trieste off
Bedloes Island, New York City, which sank without loss of life.
[2] She was sold to the
Red Star Line in 1880 and renamed
Waesland. Red Star replaced her engine with a
compound engine which, in 1889, was replaced in turn with a triple expansion engine. In 1895 she was chartered to the
American Line for use on their services to Philadelphia. In 1902 she was in collision with the
Harmonides, formerly the
Woolloomooloo of Lund's Blue Anchor Line, off the coast of
Anglesey and sank with the loss of two lives.
[3] For many years a painting of the
Russia hung in the London offices of Cunard.
Notes and References
- Book: Wills. Elspeth. The Fleet 1840 - 2010. 2010. The Open Agency. London. 9-780954-245184. 23.
- News: Shipping . Liverpool Mercury . Liverpool . 7 June 1869 . 6666 .
- Web site: Russia, Cunard Line. Norway Heritage. 3 December 2016.