[Sidenote: Extent and capacity of its fleet.] But the service, which was conducted with varying regularity, proving unprofitable, was transferred to the Allans, who undertook with the fleet they were building, specially for this trade, to carry on a fortnightly service to Quebec in summer, and a monthly voyage to Portland (Maine) in winter, for the annual subsidy of 24,000_l._ The Crimean war, however, occurring in 1854, offered more remunerative employment to the steamers of the fleet of both contractors. And, consequently, the regular mail service by the Allan line (which at the first was designated the Montreal Ocean Steam-ship Company) was not commenced until April, 1856. Since then it has been maintained with unbroken regularity, with the exception of various serious losses, which might almost have been anticipated in the early history of the service, considering the dangerous character of the navigation. From a fortnightly line in summer, and a monthly line in winter, the operations of the company have been expanded into a regular weekly service, supplemented by an additional fortnightly mail service between Liverpool and Halifax, extending during summer to St. John’s, Newfoundland, and continued, monthly, during winter by means of an iceboat, between Halifax and St. John’s, when the latter port cannot be approached by ocean steamers. Steamers of the Allan fleet also trade between Liverpool and Baltimore, and a weekly line of this company is maintained between Glasgow and Canada in summer. A list of the Allan steamers will be found in the Appendix:[238] and I must add that they are now unsurpassed in their efficiency and regularity by any of the Atlantic lines. Their steamer, the _Hibernian_, built in 1861, was the first in the Atlantic trade, where the deck-houses were covered by a promenade deck, stretching from stem to stern, which prevents a sea, when it breaks on board, from filling the passages between the deck-houses and bulwarks. Indeed, so highly was the plan approved by Government, that the unproductive spaces under this deck were made, by order of the Board of Trade, the subject of a special exemption from tonnage measure by the deck-shelter clause of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854. Other Atlantic lines adopting this protection obtained like privileges, but, difficulties arising in connection with ships of somewhat different construction which however claimed the same exemption, Government was obliged to abolish all such immunities. [Sidenote: Speed of these vessels.] Some of the vessels of this line are remarkable for their speed. For instance, in October, 1872, the _Polynesian_ on her first voyage, made the passage between Quebec and Londonderry in seven days eighteen hours and fifty-five minutes; while her sister ship, the _Sarmatian_, was engaged by Government to convey the 42nd Highlanders to the Gold Coast, in the recent Ashantee war.