The first mishap took place within six months of the commencement of the service by the Allan line. In November 1856, the "Canadian," in her course up the St. Lawrence, ran ashore, owing to either the negligence or the ignorance of the pilot. She was got off without injury. But the "Canadian" was less fortunate in June 1857, when, from the same cause, she again ran ashore. This time it was impossible to free her, and she had to be abandoned, a total loss. The year 1858 passed without trouble of any kind, and as the voyages were increased from fortnightly to weekly, confidence was high that the superiority of the Canadian line was to be demonstrated, and the supremacy of the Atlantic wrested from the Cunards. But with the inauguration of the weekly service, and of the declared competition with the steamers sailing in and out of New York, a series of disasters commenced, which threw a shadow over the whole enterprise. In the five years following the establishment of weekly service, the Canadian line lost more first class vessels than all the other companies engaged in transatlantic conveyance, and during the same period, as if to remove any doubt as to the locality to which these disasters were attributed, every vessel lost went down on this side of the Atlantic.[311] In the winter of 1859, two of the finest vessels of the line were lost, and with them a great number of lives. The winter route of the Allan steamers between Liverpool and Portland ran westward from Ireland to Cape Race, the south-eastern extremity of Newfoundland, thence to the waters between Sable Island and Nova Scotia, the coast of which the steamers skirted for its whole length. After getting clear of Cape Sable, the southerly point of Nova Scotia, vessels had a deep water passage for the rest of the voyage. The Nova Scotia coast was a source of much anxiety to navigators. The "Columbia," the only vessel of the Cunard line which was lost until this time, was wrecked on this coast, as were also the "Humboldt" of the American line and the "City of Manchester" of the Inman line. It was on this coast also that the two Allan ships were wrecked. On the 29th of November, the "Indian," on her way out from Liverpool, ran ashore on the "Deal Ledges" near the fishing hamlet of Marie Joseph. Parting amidships, some sixty of her passengers were lost. It was made clear that the captain had taken every precaution after leaving Cape Race, but he had been misled by defective charts.