Aberdeen Line

The Aberdeen Line was a British shipping company founded in 1825 by George Thompson of Aberdeen to take sailing vessels to the St. Lawrence River, carrying some passengers and returning with cargoes of timber. The business flourished and grew to 12 sailing vessels by 1837, travelling to South America, the Pacific, West Indies and the Mediterranean. In 1842 the line included a regular schedule from London to Australia. The Aberdeen Line’s best known sailing ship was the clipper Thermopylae, launched in 1868, and constructed with the ‘Aberdeen Bow’, designed for greater speed and seaworthiness. The clipper set new records for voyages to and from Australia and the Far East. In 1872, her nearest rival, Cutty Sark, lost by seven days in a race from Shanghai to London. Thermopylae was acknowledged to be the fastest sailing ship afloat. The arrival of the steamship signalled the end of the sailing era, but enabled the line to introduce a regular service between London and Australia in 1882 with SS Aberdeen, the first merchant vessel with a successful triple-expansion steam engine. Commercial steam to Australia was not a realistic option until this new engine type provided the necessary fuel economy. By 1899 all the vessels were able to carry frozen produce.