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| Launched 1906: ss EMPRESS OF IRELAND |
ss EMPRESS OF IRELAND
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ss EMPRESS OF IRELAND
built by Fairfield Govan,
Yard No 443
Propulsion: Steam quadruple expansion, 18,500 ihp, 20 knots
Launched: Saturday, 27/01/1906
Built: 1906
Ship Type: Passenger Vessel
Tonnage: 14191 grt
Length: 548.9 feet
Breadth: 65.7 feet
Draught: 36.7 feet
Owner History:
Canadian Pacific Railway Company
Status: Sunk - 30/05/1914
Remarks: Maiden voyage from Liverpool to Quebec, 29/06/1906
The following from The Dictionary of Disasters At Sea:
The Empress of Ireland, Capt. Kendall, R.N.R., left Quebec at 4.30
p.m. on May 29th, 1914, bound for Liverpool. She carried 1,477
persons, inclusive of crew and passengers. The night was alternately
fine and foggy, as the fog lay about in patches. When altering
course some 20 miles below Rimouski the look
out observed the
lights of another steamship coming up the river, which would
normally pass the liner on her starboard side. The fog then swept
over the water and enveloped both ships and Capt. Kendall therefore
put his engines astern and signalled by three blasts of his siren that he
had done so.
The fog was now very thick when suddenly the bows of a big ship
loomed into sight and crashed into the starboard side of the liner.
The on
coming vessel proved to be the Storstadt, 6,028 tons, Capt.
Andersen, belonging to the A/S Maritim of Norway. The Empress of
Ireland was struck between the funnels and a huge hole torn in her side,
running from the engine room aft. The boiler rooms were flooded
and the watertight bulkheads rendered useless.
Capt. Kendall at once hailed the Storstadt and requested her to
keep her engines going so that her bow might remain in the hole and
thus serve to keep the liner afloat. This request could not be
complied with, as the bows of the Storstadt were too crumpled by
the collision, she was therefore obliged to back away, permitting a
torrent of water to rush into the doomed ship. Within 15 minutes of
the collision, the Empress of Ireland had foundered, going down in
some 19 fathoms, five miles E. of Father Point.
The disaster occurred at 1.55 a.m. and the passengers were asleep
in their berths. Only a few of them found their way to the upper
deck. Five minutes after the ship was struck her position was hopeless.
Her wireless failed after the first S.O.S. messages had gone out;
she was listing heavily and it was almost impossible to launch the
boats, although four ultimately got away. The first officer, Mr.
Steede, attended personally to the launching of what few boats could be got away; but while engaged in this work he was killed by a
boat which carried away from its tackle.
Two steamships, the Eureka and the Lady Evelyn, were lying
alongside the wharf at Father Point with steam up and both put out
on receipt of the Empress of Ireland's S.O.S. Between them they
picked up several hundreds of survivors, while the boats of the
Storstadt picked up many others.
The number lost was 1,014; 463 were saved, including Capt.
Kendall. It was the second occasion on which the captain had been in
the public eye, for some years previously, when in command of the
Montrose, he had wirelessed the news to England that Dr. Crippen,
the murderer, was among his passengers.
Previous update by Paul Strathdee
Last updated: by Bruce Biddulph from the original records by Stuart Cameron
View pictures here
<img src="http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/ships/1906/EMPRESS_OF_IRELAND_443.jpg" alt="ss EMPRESS OF IRELAND">
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