The British bark ABBOTTS READING (Official No. 1500) was built at Liverpool, and launched in October 1838. 421 (from 1864/65: 370) tons; 112 x 26.1 x 18 feet (length x beam x depth of hold). The annual volumes of Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1839/40-1873/74 give the following additional information:

Master:
     1839/40-1843/44 - T. White
     1843/44-1847/48 - Atkinson
     1848/49-1854/55 - Johnstone
     1855/56-1856/57 - J. Walsh
     1857/58-1862/63 - Power
     1862/63-1863/64 - O. Prout
     1864/65         - C. Lima
     1864/65-1869/70 - Dumaresq
     1870/71         - R. Chestney
     1871/72-1873/74 - J. Charlton

Owner:
     1839/40-1864/65 - Kendall & Co
     1864/65-1870/71 - Satterfield
     1870/71-1873/74 - R. Hutchinson

Port of Registry:
     1839/40-1870/71 - Liverpool
     1870/71-1873/74 - West Hartlepool

Port of Survey:
     1839/40-1853/54 - Liverpool
     1854/55         - Swansea
     1856/57-1866/67 - Liverpool
     1866/67-1869/70 - London
     1869/70-1870/71 - Liverpool
     1870/71-1873/74 - Hartlepool

Destined Voyage
     1839/40-1843/44 - Lima
     1843/44         - Calcutta
     1844/45-1845/46 - Calcutta [lined out]
     1846/47-1847/48 - Africa
     1848/49-1853/54 - Valparaiso
     1854/55         - Africa
     1855/56-1856/57 - [not given]
     1857/58-1860/61 - South America
     1861/62         - South America [lined out]
     1862/63-1863/64 - South America
     1864/65         - South America [lined out]
     1865/66         - [not given]
     1866/67-1870/71 - South America
     1870/71-1873/74 - Baltic

Lloyd's Register for 1873/74 is posted "wrecked".

The U.S. ship ABBY LANGDON was built at Hallowell, Maine, by J. P. Rideout in 1854, and registered at the port of New York on 20 February 1855. 1035 tons; 177 ft 4 in x 35 ft 5 in x 17 ft 7 in (length x beam x depth of hold). In 1855, in addition to her voyage from Havre she also sailed in the New Orleans Line of coastal packets between New York and New Orleans.

Sources: Forrest R. Holdcamper, List of American-Flag Merchant Vessels That Received Certificates of Enrollment or Registry at the Port of New York, 1789-1867 (Record Groups 41 and 36), National Archives Publications No. 68-10, Special Lists, No. 22 (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Service, 1968), p. 12; William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail (Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, [1945-1955]), V.3326 and 3327; Carl C. Cutler, Queens of the Western Ocean; The Story of America's Mail and Passenger Sailing Lines (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, c1961), p. 522.

The steamship ABYSSINIA was built for the Cunard Line by J. & G. Thomson, Glasgow, and was launched on 3 March 1870. 3,376 tons; 110,78 x 12,86 meters / 363.5 x 42.2 feet (length x breadth); straight stem, 1 funnel, 3 masts; iron construction, screw propulsion, service speed 13 knots; accommodation for 120 passengers in 1st class, and 1,068 (or, if the need arose, 2 battalions of soldiers) in steerage. The ABYSSINIA had a male and female hospital, distilling apparatus which could produce 2,000 gallons of fresh water daily, and holds for 80,000 cubic feet of cargo and 1,200 tons of coal.

24 May 1870, maiden voyage, Liverpool - Queenstown - New York. 18 September 1880, last voyage, Liverpool - Queenstown - New York, for the Cunard Line. 1880, returned to the builders in part payment for the steamships SERVIA and CATALONIA; acquired by the Guion Line. 20 November 1880-27 March 1886, Liverpool - Queenstown - New York, for the Guion Line. 1882, compound engines by J. Jones & Sons, Liverpool. 1887-1891, ran on the Pacific (Vancouver - Yokohama - Shanghai - Hong Kong) for Canadian Pacific. 28 November 1891, resumed Liverpool - Queenstown - New York service. 13 December 1891, sailed from New York for Liverpool. 18 December 1891, destroyed by fire at sea, with no loss of life; the passengers were rescued by the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship SPREE.

Sources: Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 1 (1975), pp. 92. 93. 151; vol. 2 (1978), pp. 705, 707, 710; John Adams, Ocean Steamers; A History of Ocean-going Passenger Steamships, 1820-1970 (London: New Cavendish Books, c1993), p. 74 (engraving from the Illustrated' London News). Also pictured in Michael J. Anuta, Ships of Our Ancestors (Menominee, Mchigan: Ships of Our Ancestors, 1983), p. 1, from the Alex Shaw Collection, Steamship Historical Society of America, Baltimore.