S.S. Metagama
A chromo-lithographic print after a 1921(?) painting by Norman Wilkinson depicting a quarter starboard-bow view of the S.S. Metagama steaming across the Atlantic in a breeze with a fully-rigged sailing ship in the left background.
in its refinished original wooden liner incised with the words S.S. Metagama (above) Canadian Pacific; Trans-Atlantic; Tans-Canada; Trans-Pacific (below image)
Reframed in appropriate natural wood frame glazed, size 20 1/4 x 34 1/4" ( 51.4 x 87 cm.) Frame 30 3/4 x 42" Ref. SF1 (187) /DVNN/ r.anan> AONN SOLD PRICE CODE G
The S.S. METAGAMA was built by Barclay, Curle & Co., of Glasgow, Metagama was launched in 1914 and entered Canadian Pacific's North Atlantic service with a 26 March 1915 maiden voyage from Liverpool to St. John, New Brunswick. She and her sister, Missanabie, were among the first liners with cruiser sterns and were arranged from their inception in a cabin/third class configuration. The Metagama was an impressive liner. Built for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, she could accommodate 1,654 passengers and was capable of speeds up to 16 knots. Her gross tonnage being 12,420.
Unlike Missanabie, Metagama remained in CP's service during World War I, although she often carried Canadian troops in her third-class accommodations on eastbound crossings. During the First World War she had been pressed into troop transport service and had managed to escape the tragic fate of her sister ship, the S.S. Missanabie, which was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1918.
After the war the Metagama made a name for herself as an immigrant ship.
On Thursday June 19 1924 the Metagama was struck by the Italian S.S. Clara Camus creating a gash 15 ft long by 3ft wide in her hull. Fortunately she was able to limp into St John’s, Newfoundland.
The Canadian Pacific liner, SS 'Metagama', has a particular place – even today – in the memory of the people of the Isle of Lewis. On Saturday 21st April 1923 it transported 260 of its young people from Stornoway sailing to a new life in Canada. The departure of the ship on that voyage achieved international prominence as it was the first such event broadcast on cinema news reels on both sides of the Atlantic.
Norman Wilkinson 1878-1971 CBE. RI., , was a well-known British marine painter of the early 20th century. He was also a illustrator, poster artist and wartime comoufleur. Wilkinson is credited as the inventor of dazzle camouflage to protect shipping during the First World War.
