Vintage Postcards of the Allan Line Steamship SS Tunisian

Several vintage photograph postcards of the Allan Line SS Tunisian in the Maritime Collection of the GG Archives. These date from the early 1900s. A brief article about the Tunisian appears below, written shortly after it launched that details the ship and its passenger capacity, etc.

Allan Line SS Tunisian Leaving Montreal. PC-100793 JV Valentine's Series, Great Britain. Undated. Postally Used 12 Dec 1906.

Title: Allan Line SS Tunisian Leaving Montreal
Manufacturer: Unknown
Date: Undated but circa 1906 (Postally Used 12 Dec 1906)
Manufactured: Unknown
Mfg PC Nbr: 100793 JV
Archives Inventory Number: AMSA 100793

1906 postmarked vintage postcard of the SS Tunisian of the Allan Line, shown near coastal waters. Postcard front has a strike-over of SS Pretorian. Back of Postcard states in handwritten note "Tunisian."

Archives Inventory Number: AMSA 2151150523
Title: SS Tunisian with strike-over Re-caption of SS Pretorian
Manufacturer: The Art Publishing Company
Date: Undated but circa 1906
Manufactured: Glasgow
Mfg PC Nbr: None
Postmarked: 12 April 1906 Liverpool

Archives Inventory Number: AMSA
Title: SS Tunisian (Allen Line), Leaving Montreal
Manufacturer: The Art Publishing Company?
Date: Undated but circa 1906
Manufactured: Glasgow?
Mfg PC Nbr: PC100793JV
Postmarked: 12 December 1906

Colorized vintage postcard of the RMS Tunisian of the Allan Line, Twin Screw, 10,576 Tons, Length 500 feet, Breadth 59 feet. Ship shown near unidentified port.

Archives Inventory Number: AMSA 738578179
Title: RMS Tunisian (Twin Screw) 10576 Tons, Length 500 ft., Breadth 59 ft.
Manufacturer: Victoria Albany & Richmond Series
Date: Undated but circa 1909
Manufactured: Unknown
Mfg PC Nbr: None
Postmarked: 09 April 1909 Londonderry?

Text of Postcard

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Callas,

Just a line to tell you we have got to Ireland. The sea is as smooth as glass. We are having a jolly time up and down the deck -- it takes about ten minutes to walk from end to end. From your mom and dad. So Long.

Allan Liner Tunisian

A large liner for transatlantic service was recently put into the water at the yard of Alexander Stephen & Sons, on the Clyde. This was the SS Tunisian, 10,200 gross tons, built for the Canadian trade of the Allan Line. She is of the money earning, intermediate type, with large passenger accommodation and freight capacity and moderate speed.

In dimensions, the Tunisian measures: Length over all: 520 feet; Beam 59 feet; Depth: 43 feet. There will be accommodation for 200 first class passengers on the upper bridge deck, 250 second cabin, on the after part of the bridge and on the upper deck amidships, and a considerable number of steerage passengers on the upper deck aft, the latter being berthed mostly in separate rooms.

The main saloon occupies the forward end of the bridge deck, being well lighted from three sides and also from a handsome cupola. Most of the first class cabins are located in a spacious deck house on the upper bridge deck, and on this deck are also the music room and smoking room, these latter rooms occupying the ends. She will have twin screws and triple expansion engines.

Source: "Allan Liner Tunisian," Marine Engineering, Volume 5, No. 4, New York, April 1900, Page 167.