The Empress of Ireland was a big step forward for her owners, Canadian-Pacific Line. They were a small company, and a minor player in the Transatlantic trade. But for Canada, they were the country's premier line, and in 1903 the CP decided to build a pair of liners the likes of which Canada had never before seen. Traveling on CP's Liverpool-Quebec City route, they would be the biggest and fastest ships the line had ever seen. 

They would be twin-screw liners with two funnels each, and be extremely luxurious with passenger capacities of over 1500. The Empress of Ireland's sister, the Empress of Britain, was laid down first and later launched in 1905. Her sister followed in quick succession, being laid down on the 10th of April of that same year, launching nine months later on the 27th of January, 1906.

...the lights of a ship are sighted in the distance off the starboard bow of the Empress of Ireland as she travels down the Saint Lawrence River. They don't know it as of yet, but they have spotted the Norwegian collier SS Storstad, who also has eyes on them. The sighting was made in clear weather, but not long after this a heavy fog bank rolled in, obscuring the vessel from the Empress' view. They would exchange few whistle blows for a while, but suddenly, the Empress spotted the navigation lights of the Storstad right off of her starboard bow, and a few seconds later, at approximately 1:56 AM, the Storstad rammed the Empress of Ireland. 

The vessel slammed into her a-midships and ripped through the Empress' hull like it was made of tissue paper. Several compartments were ripped open, including the engine room. Water began flowing into the Empress at 60,000 gallons (around 227,000 liters)/second, and she lurched over to starboard. The Storstad would remain afloat, but it became crystal clear that the Empress would founder in a matter of minutes. She quickly began trimming aft, there being no time at all to shut the watertight doors. Water flowed in through open portholes, some only feet above the waterline, flooding cabins and hallways. Most in the lower decks would drown before escaping. 

In the immediate aftermath of the sinking, 2 other ships quickly made it to the scene, the pilot boat Eureka arriving first and picking up around 150 survivors from the river. Next was the mail ship Lady Evelyn, but by the time she arrived at the wreck no survivors were left in the water. She did however collect 200 survivors and 133 bodies from the Storstad, and brought them to land. 

It took awhile for the dust to settle, but the inquiry was finally started on the 16th of June, 1914. It was presided over by Lord Mersey, who had previously presided over the Titanic inquiry and would later oversee the Lusitania inquiry when she sank. After all the evidence was heard came to the conclusion that the Storstad was to blame, for making a course alteration to port in the fog, and thus causing the collision. Yet the separate Norwegian inquiry held found the Empress at fault for not passing port-port in the standard maneuver.

After the Canadian inquiry had concluded, Canadian-Pacific promptly sued A. F. Klaveness & Co, the owners of the Storstad, for 2,000,000 CA$ (1,464,390 USD,) which equates to the value of the silver bullion onboard the Empress when she went down. The Storstad was later seized at the request of the CP and sold off.