Teno, the second of Chilean Line’s new liners, in the Panama
Canal. She was named after the Chilean river located about 130 miles south of Valparaíso.
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COLLECTION UNLESS STATED
By 1918 the Chilean Line, the Compañía Sud-Americana de Vapores or CSAV (South American Steamship Company), had been operating for roughly 45 years. During that time the company had steadily grown by adding new routes and services, but was about to embark on its biggest expansion yet.
In 1919 the company bought the 21 year-old passenger liner Nippon Maru from Japan’s Toyo Kisen Kabushiki Kaisha and renamed her Renaico, aiming to open a long-awaited service to New York. Renaico was eventually placed on a Valparaíso-Norfolk-Havre-London-Antwerp-Hamburg route to develop trade out of the European ports.