Shipwreck: Empress of Ireland
Built by the Fairfield Shipping Company of Scotland and launched in 1906, The Empress of Ireland and her sister ship, the Empress of Britain were steam liners built for the transatlantic trade. At 14,000 tonnes in weight and with a length of 550ft (167m), the liners would routinely make the trip from Liverpool to Quebec in six days at a speed of 20 knots. Each ship was designed with watertight doors so that it would float if any two compartments flooded. It was also divided into eleven sections sealed by bulkheads (walls). The Empress of Ireland was owned and operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway and used to connect people and goods from England to the national railway of Canada.
In light of the 1912 tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic, many safety measures were in effect. The number of passengers that could travel on The Empress was not determined by the number of berths (beds) on board but rather the number of lifeboats. On its final voyage, the ship carried 40 lifeboats, 2200 life jackets and 1447 passengers and crew.
The Tragedy of The Empress of Ireland
On May 28th, 1914 The Empress began her 96th trip to England from Quebec City, travelling down the St. Lawrence River. The Empress had just dropped off her pilot (an expert on navigation on tricky parts of the river) at Point-au-Pere and was close to the south shore. The Storstad, a heavily loaded Norwegian coal ship, was heading the opposite direction to collect her pilot for travel to Montreal. The ships spotted each other at 1:40 am, on May 29th, 1914. Captain Henry Kendell of The Empress noted that The Storstad was approximately 8 miles (12km) ahead and ordered a course that would allow both ships to pass starboard of each other before The Empress moved towards open water.
Shortly after noticing The Storstad, a heavy fog particular to the area rolled in from the south shore obscuring both ships. Concerned, Captain Kendall ordered The Empress to come to a full stop and signalled with two long blasts that the Empress was no longer moving. Within minutes The Storstad came out of the fog, 100 ft. (30m) away from The Empress, and hit her at a 45 degree angle at the centre of the ship. Despite attempts by both captains to keep the ships connected, and thus more stable, the currents ripped the ships apart.
Water poured through the starboard hole in The Empress so quickly that only five or six of the lifeboats could be launched. Within 10 minutes the ship was on her starboard side, with hundreds of survivors sitting on the port side of the hull. Within 14 minutes the ship had completely sunk.
Out of 1447 passengers and crew, 1012 lost their lives.
A wireless SOS had been sent out and the Eureka and Lady Evelyn joined the still floating Storstad to search for survivors. By the time they had arrived, all survivors in the water were dead. Those who had been saved were transferred to the Lady Evelyn and brought to the nearby town of Rimouski.
The Aftermath
A Canadian Court of Enquiry was established to review the incident, chaired by Lord Mersey who had also chaired the Titanic tribunal. Fortunately, Captain Kendall survived the wreck, having been pulled from the water into a lifeboat. Captain Anderson of The Storstad had not been at the helm of the ship during the incident. His first officer (who was found negligent of not informing his captain of the incoming fog) swore that before the fog had appeared he had seen red lights, signifying that The Empress was showing her port side. Despite the conflicting testimony, the Storstad was ultimately found responsible for the accident.
In the summer of 1914, Canadian Pacific Railway hired a salvage company to retrieve the safe, first class mail and nearly $150,000 in silver bullion.
For fifty years it mostly remembered by the Salvation Army, who lost 170 members including their band during the event. It was only rediscovered by divers in in the mid-1980s. Despite only lying at 130ft (40m), the current and conditions at this site make it difficult to dive at. The sharp angle of the wreck means that much of the starboard side has silted in. Many of the loose artefacts and some of the human remains on the site had been pillaged before the wreck was classified as a “historical and archaeological property” in 1999.
Importance
Despite being one of the worst maritime disasters in Canadian history, the sinking of the Empress of Ireland remained largely forgotten. It was quickly overshadowed by the beginning of WWI and also by the more high class Titanic. Nevertheless, on the 100th anniversary of the wrecking, Canadians recognise the historic importance of the ship that brought over 120,000 European immigrants to Canada. The federal government believes that over 1 in 35 Canadians can trace an ancestor to this ship, many of whom settled in the Prairie Provinces.
By Dani Newman.
Links of Interest
National Post: Canada’s Titanic
PBS: Lost Liners- Empress of Ireland
CBC Radio: New Image Revealed of Empress of Ireland Wreck-02/06/2014