23360: SS Metagama

Built by Barclay, Curle & Co, Glasgow, SS Metagama was launched in 1914 and entered Canadian Pacific’s North Atlantic service with a maiden voyage on 26 March 1915 from Liverpool to St John, New Brunswick. She served on the line’s Glasgow-Canada service and could accommodate 1654 passengers (516 in cabin class and 1138 in third class).

After serving as a troopship during the First World War she resumed passenger service in November 1918 until 1931.

The Metagama is best known in the Western Isles for having transported hundreds of young emigrants from Stornoway to Canada in 1923.

By 1930 the Depression had so reduced transatlantic passenger loads that she was no longer needed and was laid up after 151 North Atlantic roundtrips. The Metagama never sailed again and was broken up in 1934.

A photograph of the Metagama in 1915 is held by the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.