The Allan family were a strong-minded entrepreneurial family of sailors, from Captain Sandy who founded the dynasty and whose first small brigantine, the Jean, was launched from Ardrossan in 1819, to his sons who established the Allan Line as one of the great transatlantic shipping companies, his grandson Richard who took on the management of the Kaiser's racing-yacht, and to his great-grandson Bobby who commanded a squadron of torpedo-boats in Alexandria in 1942. For well over one hundred years the Allans played a major role, in Scotland, Canada, Northern Ireland, Liverpool and further afield, not only in shipping but in railways, ship-building, banking, philanthropy and sport.