The Last Voyage of the Antonio Lopez

By the time the Compania Trasatlantica Espanola (Spanish Transatlantic Company, or STC) awarded the contract of the would-be SS Antonio Lopez to the William Denny & Brothers Company of Dumbarton, Scotland, the sun had already set on the Imperial Spanish presence in the Western Hemisphere. Only two colonias de ultramar (overseas territories) remained of the once-vast empire, Cuba and Puerto Rico. However, the owner of the STC, Don Antonio Lopez y Lopez de la Madrid, understood that the residents of these islands and the newly created Spanish-speaking republics of Central and South America were an important market for Spanish goods. So he commissioned the building of a fast, brig-rigged, three-decked, steel-hulled, steam-propelled vessel to supply them with mail and goods.

1891–1898: Peacetime 

The ship would have many “firsts.” She was the first Spanish commercial transoceanic steel-hulled vessel. She had electrical lighting in every room—a new advance and a luxury at the time. Her first-class service deck had other comforts as well: an ice machine, marble floors, hot water showers, and a grand piano.