Empress of Ireland
The Pride of Canadian-Pacific
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 Empress' Career
After her fitting out, she entered service and began her maiden voyage. Departing from Liverpool, she made a brief stop in Moville, Ireland, before heading out to sea. She successfully crossed the Atlantic for the first time, being booked well past her intended capacity, so much so that at least 100 of her would-be passengers had to stay behind in Liverpool to wait for the next liner.
When she entered the river to Quebec she took on a harbor pilot, met with customs officials and ticketing agents from Canadian-Pacific Railway (who many of the passengers would be traveling with after they disembarked from the Empress), and finally, everyone was checked for disease, before the ship terminated in Quebec City. She would continue making routine successful and lucrative crossings like this for Canadian-Pacific for the next 8 years, but nothing good lasts forever, and eventually the Empress' reign would come to an end.
On the 22nd of May, 1914, RMS Empress of Ireland ended her final successful crossing, after carrying 119,262 passengers on her westbound crossings to Canada, and 67,838 passengers on her eastbound crossings to the British Isles. Her next crossing though, would end in tragedy...
In the Early Hours of the 29th of May...
...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.
Those berthed in the upper decks were awakened by the collision and immediately began boarding the lifeboats, but only a few minutes after the collision the list was already so severe that that the port lifeboats were rendered useless. To add to the chaos, since the engine room had flooded during the collision, the power soon failed plunging the ship into complete darkness. At this point, panic ensued, as the ship continued to list to starboard, heeling all the way over onto her side, and from there most people still inside the ship who escaped did so by climbing out of portholes. The vessel lay there, on her side for a few minutes having seemingly settled on the river bed, until finally, at 2:10 AM on the 29th of May, the RMS Empress of Ireland finally sank, throwing hundreds into the freezing river.
1st Class:
51 lost
2nd Class:
205 lost
3rd Class/Steerage:
584 lost
Crew:
172 lost
Aftermath and Conclusion
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.
CP would announce in the coming months that would be chartering the Allan Line's RMS Virginian to fill the Empress of Ireland's role, and the Virginian immediately began to make what would have been the Empress' voyages if she had not sunk. Later investigations into the sinking would conclude that neither ship was entirely to blame, and that both captains made questionable decisions that night. The event would lead to a redesign of ship prows though, as the Storstad proved that the common tumblehome prow was deadly in a collision, doing immense damage below the waterline. In case you're wondering about the silver, most of that was recovered in salvage operation.
The RMS Empress of Ireland didn't leave as big of a legacy behind as the Titanic did before her, or the Lusitania after, but she was a very important vessel for many people, and needs to be remembered, as well as those who died on her that fateful night on the St. Lawrence.
