The British steamer Aberdeen in Far Eastern waters with a junk off her port bow

The iron screw steamer Aberdeen was the flagship of the Aberdeen Line and the first steam-powered vessel in the company's fleet. Built by Robert Napier & Sons at Glasgow in 1881, she was registered at 3,616 tons gross (2,371 net) and measured 362 feet in length with a 44 foot beam. Sporting a handsome barque rig, she was one of the earliest steamers to be fitted with a triple-expansion engine which proved such a success that this machinery soon became normal practice for deep-sea shipping. Designed for the Australian emigrant trade, she maintained this service - with periodic modifications - until December 1905, after which she was sold to the Turkish government for use as a troopship and renamed Halep. Eventually relegated to ferry duties, she was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine E-11 in the Sea of Marmora in August 1915.