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Nationality: Canadian Owner: Canadian Pacific Railway Builder:Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Glasgow, Scotland Laid down: Unknown Launched: January 27, 1906 Christened: January 27, 1906 Maiden voyage: June 29, 1906 Fate: Sunk after colliding with Storstad in 1914
History Completed 95 transatlantic crossings between Quebec and Liverpool.
(sank on 96th)
July 1913: Present at the Mersey Royal Review.
*Christened by Mrs. Alexander Gracie.
Only 4 of the 138 children on board survived the sinking.
More passengers died on the Empress of Ireland than on the Titanic.
Capt. Henry G. Kendall had earlier been master of the Montrose on which he identified a
passenger as the wanted murdered Dr. Harvey Crippen. Kendall alerted authorities and
Crippen was arrested and later hanged. (read the daily event story)
Later he was master of the Calgarian which was torpedoed and sunk on March 1, 1918 by the U-19.
The Storstad was seized and given to Canadian Pacific after the later filed a $2,000,000
lawsuit for damages. It was sold for $175.000 and was ultimately torpedoed and sunk on March 8, 1917 by the U-62.
Builder: Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd.
Govan, Scotland Ordered: 1905 Keel Laid: N/A Year Built: 1906 Launched: January 27, 1906 Sister Ships: Empress of Britain Maiden Voyage: June 29, 1906 Liverpool - Quebec
Fate: Sunk May 29, 1914 after being rammed by the Norwegian collier Storstad(Capt. Thomas Anderson) sinking in about 14 minutes.
Location: St. Lawrence River, 5 miles off Fathers Point (Pointe-au-Pere) near the town of Rimouski, Canada.
1,012 passengers and crew killed, 465 survivors.
*Sources differ on these numbers.
Canadian Pacific Line
Empress of Ireland and her sister Empress of Britain were built on a fixed-price contract. At a cost to Canadian Pacific of £375,000 each, the vessels were to be delivered within 18 months. The contract stipulated that the vessels must sustain a speed of 19.25 knots. At a time when a few adventurous shipping lines were testing steam turbines in their liners, Canadian Pacific took a conservative stance and decided on traditional quadruple expansion steam engines. As it turned out, the generated 18,000 horsepower actually gave Empress of Ireland a service speed of 20 knots. Certainly a swift liner, if not the fastest, she would without a doubt be one elegant lady.
As Canadian Pacific's new flagship, Empress of Ireland was to be adorned with over 46,700 square feet of mahogany and wherever it was feasible, solid woods were used. When this presented a problem or was simply impractical, veneers were used, applied in thin layers held together by adhesive. Passenger spaces were panelled in mahogany as well as satinwood, alderwood and bird's-eye maple. The panelling was framed by handcarved moldings born of mahogany, oak and yellow pine. Walnut, various other pines and teak were used extensively throughout the ship in cabinetry and even furniture, which Fairfield manufactured itself.
Empress of Ireland was comprised of eight decks. The hull itself was divided into eleven watertight compartments, any two of which could be flooded without fear of the vessel sinking. Ten transverse bulkheads depended on 24 watertight doors to be effective, though. Bulkhead No. 5, for example, employed a vertically sliding door operated by a machinery engineer and 4 horizontally sliding doors operated from one deck up using a rack and pinion system. This bulkhead separated the massive boiler rooms, which; due to their size, made Empress of Ireland extremely vulnerable amidships. This apparent lapse in judgement would prove her undoing years later...
Heating and cooling of passenger cabins was provided by Thermo-Tank Ventilating Company of Glasgow. In cold weather, low pressure steam from the ship's engines was pumped to heater tubes. Electric fans then pulled in air from outside the ship and pulls it through the tubes, directing it through a ventilation system to each cabin via louvers near the ceiling. A fine spray of steam from a need in the ventilation tube humidified the air. A louver near the floor acted as an exhaust system. In warm weather the system was reversed, with stale hot air exiting a cabin via the ceiling louvers. The system was quite ingenious and claimed a "...complete change of air (heating or cooling as desired) once every ten minutes..."
One of the finest rooms aboard the Empress was the First-Class Dining Room, located on the Shelter Deck, was situated amidships to lessen the tossing of the ship in rough seas. Spanning the entire width of the ship, this finely appointed room was 58 feet long and could seat 224 at one time. A large well rose up through the next two decks (Lower and Upper Promenade Decks) and was capped by a large skylight on the Boat Deck. The First-Class Staircase provided access from the Boat Deck to the Dining Room. Directly above the Dining Room was the café, which catered to the whims of the First-Class passenger in need of light snacks or beverages throughout the day. Finished in Italian walnut, it came to be known as "the Italian Café" and ironically was the venue for afternoon tea served in the "proper British tradition". Travelling one deck up from the café through the central well would place you in the Music Room. This room served as a recreational retreat for First-Class passengers. Richly appointed with polished satinwood and chairs lavishly upholstered in rose taffeta, the Music Room boasted a Steinway grand piano and a coal-bruning fireplace.
Empress of Ireland was launched on Saturday January 27th, 1906. A large crowd gathered on the banks of the River Clyde to see the new Canadian Pacific liner slip into the water for the first time. This same month had seen the long-awaited royal mail subsidy awarded to Canadian Pacific as well (it was actually split between CPR and the Allan Line) so the launch of Emprress of Ireland was a dubious occasion indeed. Only 3 months earlier her sister ship Empress of Britain had been launched and soon CPR would have it's queens steaming across the Atlantic in unison. At approximately 2:30 PM, Mrs. Alexandar Gracie, the wife of Fairfield's managing director, christened the Empress and the warning signals were sounded to clear the river. As the mighty hull travelled more than 928 feet, the crowd cheered in celebration.
Her fitting out went fairly quickly and on June 5th Empress of Ireland went through two days of sea trials, besting her sister by topping 20 knots on the first day and on June 7th, the second day of trials, sustained 19.6 knots during an endurance run. Empress of Britain was one-third knot slower. After some additional changes were made, including the addition of more electric lights, some alterations to the Music Room and new curtains for the First-Class Dining Room, Empress of Ireland was ready to depart Liverpool on her maiden voyage on Friday June 29th, 1906. Under the command of Captain Frank Carey, she sailed through the Irish Seato Moville, Ireland. Here she docked until the next day when she headed out into the Atlantic. Rough seas on July 4th and 5th kept her first trip out from being a record-setter but nonetheless her 2,623 miles journey was heralded as a success for the Canadian Pacific Line. Despite her 5:00 AM arrival in Quebec on Saturday July 7th, she was greeted by a large crowd of cheering well-wishers wanting to get their first glimpse of the new liner.
On her third crossing, began July 16th, 1906, Empress of Ireland did set a new record, though there was no Blue Ribbad equivalent on the Canadian run. She traveled from Moville to Pointe au Pere in 5 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes. Over the course of the next 8 years, Empress of Ireland earned a reputation as a safe and luxurious ship, surely the finest on the Canadian run. Passengers recalled their voyages aboard her with fondness and adoration. On May 1st, 1914 a new captain stepped aboard at Halifax. Captain Henry George Kendell was a seasoned Canadian Pacific skipper and despite his undeniable worth as a sailor, some feared the reputation that preceded him. Some say, and perhaps only in retrospect, that Kendell brought with him the curse laid upon him several years earlier by Doctor Hawley Harvey Crippin...
In the summer of 1880, four well-to-do men met in Ottawa to discuss the construction of a railroad that would stretch all the way across Canada, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. These men, all wealthy business men and influential each in their own arenas, were James Jerome Hill; an experienced railroad builder, Donald Smith; Commissioner of the Hudson Bay Company, Duncan McIntyre; a major shareholder in the Canadian Central Railway and George Stephen; President of the Bank of Montreal. Their meeting was focused primarily on the task of getting financial support from Parliament for a railway they hoped to maintain privately. Overcoming this difficult obstacle, the first of many to face the project, relied greatly on the fact that the first American transcontinental railway had been completed in 1869 and was extremely successful. It was extremely successful for the United States, that is. In order to bring the immigrants, tourists and money into Canada, they would have to be able to deliver people and goods to the Pacific coast from eastern ports such as Halifax, Quebec and Montreal.
In a time when rich men had seemingly unlimited resources and power, the power of persuasion was a craft finely wielded by men such as George Stephen. He took up the role of leader and with his three colleagues brought to Parliament in September of 1880 a proposal for the largest transcontinental railroad every built. It would stretch from the town of Bonfield in Ontario the shore town of Port Moody, British Columbia on the Pacific coast. Parliament recognized the need and ratified the contract on February 15th, 1881. The Canadian Pacific Railway Company was born.
The contract between Parliament and the new CP called for the construction of 2,540 miles of track. 700 miles of this, in three sections, would be built by the government. The remainder was to be built by Canadian Pacific. There were several means by which the fledgeling company as assisted in this respect; a $25 million subsidy, land grants, tax exemptions on imported materials, and best of all, a 20 year prohibition on construction south of the railway by CP rivals. One would think that this worked completely to CP's advantage, but the price for failure was high. The railway had to be completed in 10 years. The company would be subject to crippling fines and penalties if service on the railroad was not available by Mary of 1891. In addition to the time constraints, the majority of CP's board were to be British citizens. The deal was signed and Canadian Pacific held its first board meeting on February 17th, 1881. Construction began shortly thereafter. Four years later, in January 1885 work ground to a halt amidst labor strikes and financial worries that culminated into a threat to CP's existence. George Stephen and Donald Smith put their personal fortunes on the line to satisfy payrolls and creditors. A last minute loan from the government saved the company and work resumed on the nearly completed rail system. On November 7, 1885 the last spike was driven in. Regular service began on June 28th, 1886. The first train left Montreal at 8:00PM for a 5 day trip to Port Moody. Canadian Pacific Railway had succeeded in their first task. As they beamed with pride over the seemingly endless rails of iron snaking through the wilderness, their focus now turned to the seas they now linked.
A year before the railroad was even finished, George Stephen and Prime Minister John A MacDonald were in England trying to secure a Royal Mail subsidy for the Pacific mail service. They failed to obtain the contract for mail service but that same year CP had built it's first new ships. Built for duty on the Great Lakes, the three steamers were Alberta, Athabaska, and Algoma. The 3,000 ton ships would ferry people and cargo along the northern shore of Lake Superior. In 1885, the same year CP faced bankruptcy it also faced tragedy when Algoma sank in a violent storm. Of 63 people aboard, 48 were lost. Undeterred, Canadian Pacific still sought ocean trade. They leased an 800 ton sailing packet, the American-built W.B. Flint. She sailed to Canada from Yokohama on June 19, 1886 with 17, 430 crates of tea leaves aboard. Her first trip on what came to be known as "the Tea Run" ended when she sailed into Port Moody on July 27th. The Oriental Trade Route was open and Canadian Pacific had the key. Six more sailing packets were ordered and by the end of 1886, CP ships had brought more than 8 million pounds of tea to Port Moody. By 1887 the company was ready to drop the sails in favor of steam.
The first task in building a fleet of iron-hulled vessels was finding a new harbour for them. The larger, heavier vessels needed deeper water, more favorable tides and shorter harbour crossings than Port Moody offered. A land grant gave rise to the port of Vancouver. Nine square miles was obtained and the railroad was extended to Coal Harbour. A 1,000 foot pier had been built to accommodate the three ships Canadian Pacific leased from W.G. Pearce of Glasgow. Formerly owned by the Cunard Line, the ships were the 3,600 ton Abyssinia and Parthia. Batavia was a 2,600 steamer. All three vessels had been built in 1870 and had gone through several refits. Though equipped with sails, they were steamships yet they were not fitted with electric lights. Nonetheless they did their job well and kept the Tea Run very profitable for Canadian Pacific while the company's success, and subsequently its credibility, soared. In 1889, it's success tried and true, CP won the Royal Mail subsidy for Pacific service. On July 15th of that year a 10-year contract was signed, requiring CP to run mail from Halifax via train to Vancouver and then by ship across the Pacific to Yokohama, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Now it was time for brand new, iron-hulled ocean liners to be built. Ships built for Canadian Pacific. The first Empresses were born. Canadian Pacific was now in the ocean-going steamship market.
The order was placed for three vessels with the Naval Construction and Armaments Company of Barrow-in-Furness. The resulting liners were to be the most beautiful ever seen at the time. Empress of India, Empress of China and Empress of Japan were each 485 feet long and displaced about 6,000 tons. Sporting "yacht-like" lines, the new liners were three masted vessels with two raked funnels, a clipper ship stem, bowsprits and counter sterns that tapered upwards from the waterline to trail behind the hull. Gliding through the water like elegant swans, they soon earned the nickname "The Flying Empresses". Electric light and heat provided comfort for 812 passengers (180 First Class, 32 Second Class and 600 Steerage Class). Powered by triple expansion reciprocating engines geared to twin screws, the Empresses could easily make 16 knots or more. In fact Empress of India made nearly 20 knots during her sea trials. Because of the large amount of coal required for a Pacific voyage, cargo space was limited, to about 3000 tons.
Distinguishable from her sisters by a figurehead carved in the likeness of Queen Victoria, Empress of India entered service on February 8th, 1891. Empress of Japan followed, entering service in April and Empress of China in July. Only a year later, a fire broke out in Empress of Japan's cargo hold. Although her boats were swung out, the fire was brought under control before an evacuation became necessary. Despite some minor incidents, Canadian Pacific's entry into the steamship arena would prove to be extremely successful. As the 19th century drew to a close, CP turned its collective attention to the Atlantic. The Atlantic passenger trade was becoming more and more lucrative as immigration was ever increasing. A mail subsidy for the Atlantic would give CP what basically amounted to a world wide mail route, from England all the way to the Far East. On March 27th 1903, CP made public it's purchase of 15 steamships. Running from Liverpool to Quebec via the St. Lawrence, this marked CP's entry into the Atlantic trade, but the mail subsidy would need to be taken from the Allan Line. In January of 1904, the Allan Line's subsidy received a two-year renewall. CP desperately wanted that mail subsidy, worth as much as £2000 for each vessel! The decision was made to build two new Atlantic liners, but while CP directors debated the size, speed and specifics of the vessels that would try to win the mail subsidy, the Allan Line began construction on two new liners of their own, the 10,000 ton triple-screw Victorian and Virginian. Sporting one funnel, the new vessels were built with steam turbine powerplants, making them the first turbine-powered Atlantic liners. They were to have a sustainable speed of 19.5 knots.
Despite the publicity surrounding their rival's announcement, it was still months before Canadian Pacific president Thomas George Shaughnessy made a decision. Finally, in December of 1904 he placed an order for two 20-knot liners with Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company. Located on the River Clyde in Govan, Fairefield had built several ships for CP and the two new 14,500-ton ships were to be the answer to CP's mail subsidy woes. Truth be told, a 20-knot liner leaving Liverpool at the same time as a 25-knot ship would reach it's Canadian port before the faster vessel reached New York. The first waterline sketch for the new vessels was penned by Dr Francis Elgar, Professor of Naval Architecture at Glasgow University. The first concept drawing is dated November 28, 1904. He had obviously drawn up the plans in anticipation of an order from Canadian Pacific. When all was said and done, the new vessels were to be 548 ft 9 inches in length, 65 ft 7 inches wide amidships. The height from the keel to the top deck was a staggering 87 feet and the vessels would have a draft of 27 feet fully loaded. Born in Fairfield's Berth No. 5 was the hull designated #442; later to be christened Empress of Britain. Next to her, in Berth No. 4 was where, on April 10th 1905, the first keel plates were laid down for Hull 443; Empress of Ireland.
The last survivor of the shipwreck, Grace Hannagan Martyn, died in St. Catharines, Ontario on May 15, 1995 at the age of 88.
