RMS Empress of Ireland was an ocean liner that sank in the Saint Lawrence River following a collision with a Norwegian collier in the early hours of 29 May 1914. The accident, which claimed the lives of 1,012 people (840 passengers, 172 crew), remains the worst disaster in Canadian maritime history.[1][2]
The Empress was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland and was launched in 1906.[1] The liner, along with her sister ship Empress of Britain, was commissioned by Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP) for the North Atlantic routebetween Quebec and Liverpool in England. The ship had just begun her 96th sailing when she sank.[3]
The wreck lies in 40 metres (130 ft) of water, making it accessible by divers.[4][5][6] Many artefacts from the wreckage have been retrieved. Some are on display in the Empress of Ireland Pavilion at the Site historique maritime de la Pointe-au-Père in Rimouski, Quebec. Due to the accessibility of the wreck, many people have died diving the wreck. The Canadian government has passed legislation to protect the site.[7]
Numerous books have been written about the sinking of the Empress (see Further reading below) and several films have been made.
Construction
The Empress of Ireland was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. at Govan near Glasgow in Scotland.[10] The 14,191-ton vessel was a fixed price contract of £375,000 and was to be delivered to C.P.R. 18 months from the date the contract was signed. The keel was laid for hull number 443 at Fairfield's berth number 4 next to her sister ship, the Empress of Britain which was also under construction on 10 April 1905. The new Empress had a length of 570 ft (170 m), and her beam was 66 ft (20 m). The ship had twin funnels, two masts, two propellers and an average speed of 18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h). Providing accommodation for 310 first-class passengers and for 470 second-class passengers, there was also room for up to 758 third-class passengers (but was only allowed to carry 714).[11] This meant that she had an overall capacity of 1,580. This Empress was distinguished by the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) prefix in front of her name because the British government and Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) had decades earlier reached agreement on a mail subsidy contract between Britain and Hong Kong via Canada.
The Empress was launched on 26 January 1906, and on her maiden voyage from Liverpool, she proved herself as both reliable and fast. In 1909 the Empress struck a sunken vessel or an unknown submerged rock at the northern end of the St. Lawrence.[12]
At some point during her career, the Empress of Ireland underwent minor renovations to relieve her superstructure of its enclosed forward promenade decks.
The vessel—along with her sister ship Empress of Britain—was commissioned by Canadian Pacific for the northern trans-Atlantic route between Quebec and England. The transcontinental CPR and its fleet of ocean liners were part of the company's self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Transportation System".
Collision
The Empress of Ireland departed Quebec City for Liverpool at 16:30 local time ( EST) on 28 May 1914 with 1,477 passengers and crew. Henry George Kendall had just been promoted to captain of the Empress at the beginning of the month; and it was his first trip down the St. Lawrence River in command of the vessel.
In the early hours of the next morning on 29 May 1914, the ship had reached Pointe-au-Père, Quebec (or Father Point) near the town of Rimouskiwhere the pilot was disembarked. Shortly after resuming her journey, and on a normal outward bound course of about N76E, the Empress sighted the masthead lights of a steamer, which proved to be the Norwegian collier Storstad, on her starboard bow at several miles distant. Likewise, the Storstadabreast of Métis Point (Métis-sur-Mer) and on a course W. by S., sighted the masthead lights of the Empress. At the time of these first sightings the weather conditions were clear, but very soon the ships were shrouded in the notoriously dangerous fog. Shortly afterwards, at about 02:00 local time, and despite the fog whistles of both ships being repeatedly blown, the Storstad crashed into the side of the Empress.
The Storstad did not sink, but Empress of Ireland – with severe damage to her starboard side – listed rapidly, taking on water. Most of the passengers and crew in the lower decks drowned quickly when water poured into the ship from the open portholes, some of which were only a few feet above the water line. However, many passengers and crew in the upper deck cabins, awakened by the collision, made it out onto the boat deck and into some of the lifeboats which were being loaded immediately. Within a few minutes of the collision, the Empress of Ireland listed so far on her starboard side that it became impossible to launch lifeboats (beyond than the three already launched[11]). Ten or eleven minutes after the collision, the ship lurched violently on her starboard side, allowing as many as 700 passengers and crew to crawl out portholes and decks onto her side. For a minute or two, theEmpress of Ireland lay on her side, while it seemed to the passengers and crew that the ship had run aground. But a few minutes later, about 14 minutes after the collision, the ship's stern rose briefly out of the water, and her hull sank out of sight, throwing the hundreds of people still on her port side into the near-freezing water. The disaster resulted in the deaths of 1,012 people.
As reported in the newspapers at the time, there was much confusion as to the cause of the collision with both parties claiming the other was at fault.[13] If the testimony of both captains were to be believed, the collision happened as both vessels were stationary with their engines stopped. As noted at the subsequent inquiry, the witnesses from the Storstad said they were approaching so as to pass red to red (port to port) while those from the Empress said they were approaching so as to pass green to green (starboard to starboard), but "the stories are irreconcilable".[11]
Ultimately, the immense loss of life can be attributed to three factors: the location in which Storstad made contact, failure to close her watertight doors, and failure to close all portholes aboard. It was later revealed in testimony from surviving passengers and crew that nearly all of the portholes on the ship were left open by the passengers and crew who craved fresh air from the cramped and poorly ventilated staterooms. Under maritime rules, all portholes on travelling ships were to be closed,[citation needed] but this rule was frequently broken, especially in sheltered waters like the St. Lawrence River. When the Empress began to list to starboard, the water poured through the open portholes, flooding parts of the ship that were not damaged by the collision, and once that water hit nearly all the decks and compartments, the ship's end was inevitable.
Passengers and crew Total numbers saved and lost
| Numbers on board | Percentage by total onboard | Numbers lost | Percentage lost by total onboard | Numbers saved | Percentage saved by total onboard | Percentage survival rate per group | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crew | 420 | 28.4% | 172 | 11.6% | 248 | 16.8% | 59% |
| Passengers | 1,057 | 71.6% | 840 | 56.9% | 217 | 14.7% | 20.5% |
| Total | 1,477 | - | 1,012 | 68.5% | 465 | 31.5% | - |
| 1st Class Passengers | 87 | 5.9% | 51 | 3.4% | 36 | 2.4% | 41.3% |
| 2nd Class Passengers | 253 | 17.1% | 205 | 13.9% | 48 | 3.24% | 18.9% |
| 3rd Class Passengers | 717 | 48.5% | 584 | 39.5% | 133 | 9% | 18.5% |
| Children | 138 | 9.34% | 134 | 9.07% | 4 | 0.3% | 2.9% |
| Women | 310 | 21% | 269 | 18.2% | 41 | 2.8% | 13.2% |
| Men | 609 | 41.2% | 437 | 29.6% | 172 | 11.6% | 28.2% |
Rescue operations and survivors
There were only 465 survivors, four of whom were children (the other 134 children were lost) and 42 of whom were women (the other 279 women were lost). The fact that most passengers were asleep at the time of the sinking (most not even awakened by the collision) also contributed to the loss of life when they were drowned in their cabins, most of them from the starboard side of the ship where the collision happened.
One of the survivors was Captain Kendall, who was on the bridge at the time and quickly ordered the lifeboats to be launched. When the Empresslurched onto her side, Kendall was thrown from the bridge into the water, and was taken down with the ship as she began to go under. Swimming to the surface, Kendall clung to a wooden grating long enough for a nearby lifeboat, with crew members aboard, to row over and pull him in. Immediately, Kendall took command of the lifeboat and began rescue operations. He had the lifeboat crew pull many people from the water into the boat. When the boat was full, Kendall ordered the crewmen to row to the lights of the mysterious vessel that had rammed them, to drop off the survivors. After an hour or two of making a few trips back and forth from the nearby Storstad to the wreckage to look for survivors, Kendall gave up, since there was no more hope of finding survivors as they had succumbed to hypothermia or drowned.
Amongst the dead were the English dramatist and novelist Laurence Irving, and the explorer Henry Seton Karr. Also, Frank "Lucky" Tower is improbably said to have been one of the few crewmen who survived this shipwreck and the sinking of the Titanic and the sinking of the Lusitania.
The passengers included a large contingent of Canadian members of the Salvation Army. These travellers, all but eight of whom died, were members of the Canadian Staff Band of The Salvation Army who were travelling to London for an international conference. At Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario, there is a monument reading "167 officers and soldiers of the Salvation Army promoted to glory" in the sinking.[15][16] One of the four children that survived was 7 year old Grace Hannagan (born 16 May 1906) who was travelling with her parents who were among the Salvation Army members who did not survive.[17][18] Grace Martyn (née Hannagan) was also the last survivor of the shipwreck and died in St. Catharines, Ontario on 15 May 1995 at the age of 88, one day before her 89th birthday.
Investigation
Commission of Inquiry
On 16 June 1914, an inquiry was launched in Canada and the crew of Storstad was found responsible for the sinking of Empress of Ireland.[11][19][20][21] Presiding over the contentious proceedings was Lord Mersey. Mersey was notable for having presided over the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea in 1913, and for having headed the official inquiries into a number of significant steamship tragedies—including the RMS Titanic in London (1912) and later the RMS Lusitania in London (1915).
The cause of the tragedy was disputed by the surviving crew of Empress of Ireland and the crew of Storstad. There has since been much speculation as to the circumstances of the sinking. One theory involves the positioning of the ships when both encountered the fogbank. Captain Henry George Kendall of Empress of Ireland claimed that he stayed close to shore, encountered the fog, reversed his engines to stop for about eight minutes; and then, he said, the ship was rammed by Storstad, which was executing a hard, 90-degree turn to the starboard. Another explanation suggested that despite Kendall's testimony, Empress of Ireland was sailing north-northeast into the centre of the channel, right into the path of Storstad.
In 1914, the position of ships in darkness could be determined by the lights they were showing. White lights mounted on the two main masts were read in conjunction with the red and green lights indicating port and starboard. A ship showing green to starboard, red to port and one white mast light would be coming directly at the observing vessel. This was the case on that night and both captains expected to pass each other "green to green". As the fog rolled across the river between the two vessels, what happened next has never been totally clarified.
A ship showing two white mast lights and one green light would be lying across the path of the approaching vessel, exposing the starboard side. In 1914, a captain who was familiar with the St Lawrence River would reasonably be expected to have avoided a collision, if he had been able to see the lights in time. As Storstad crashed into Empress of Ireland, it is likely that the fog obscured the other ship until it was too late to take evasive action.
Either Empress of Ireland strayed across the bow of Storstad, or Storstad crossed into the path of Empress of Ireland from port to starboard and executed a 90° turn to pierce her starboard side.
An inquiry launched by Norwegians disagreed and cleared Storstad′s crew for all responsibilities. Instead, they blamed Kendall, captain of Empress of Ireland, for violating the protocol by not passing port to port.
Captain Kendall placed the blame on the Storstad for the collision. The first words he said to the captain of Storstad after the sinking were, "You have sunk my ship!"[11] Kendall maintained for the rest of his life that it was not his fault the collision occurred.
Litigation
Canadian Pacific Railway won a court case against A. F. Klaveness, the owners of Storstad, for $2,000,000.[citation needed] The owners of Storstad had entered a counter claim against the Canadian Pacific Railway for $50,000 damages, contending that the Empress was at fault and alleging negligent navigation on her part.[22] Unable to afford the liabilities, A. F. Klaveness was forced to sell Storstad for $175,000 to the trust funds.
The Last Voyage of the Empress
In 2005 a Canadian TV film, The Last Voyage of the Empress, investigated the sinking with historical reference, model re-enactment, and underwater investigation. The program's opinion was that the cause of the incident appeared to be the fog, exacerbated by the actions of Kendall. Both captains were in their own way telling the truth, but with Kendall omitting the expediency of manipulating the Empress of Ireland in such a way as to keep his company's advertised speed of Atlantic crossing. In order to pass the Storstad (off the Empress’s starboard bow) to quickly expedite this maintenance of speed, Kendall, in the fog, turned to starboard (towards Storstad) as part of a manoeuvre to spin back to his previous heading to pass Storstad as originally intended on his starboard side, thereby avoiding what he saw as a time-wasting diversion from his preferred and fast route through the channel. When Captain Anderson of the Storstad saw the Empressthrough the fog he thought, by seeing both Empress’s port and starboard lights during its manoeuvre, that the Empress was attempting to pass on the opposite side of the Storstad than previously apparent, and turned his ship to starboard to avoid a collision. However, the Empress turned to port to continue on its original time-saving heading; thus the bow to side collision. The conclusion of the programme was that both captains failed to abide by the condition that, on encountering fog, ships should maintain their heading, although the captain of the Storstad only deviated after seeing the deviation of the Empress. In the film, water tank replication of the incident indicated that the Empress could not have been stationary at the point of the collision. It also indicated—through underwater observations of the ship's telegraph—that Kendall's assertion that he gave the order to close watertight doors was probably not true.
Legacy
Although the loss of Empress of Ireland did not attract the same level of attention as that of the sinking of the RMS Titanic two years earlier, the disaster did lead to a change in the design of ship's bows. The sinking of the Empress proved that the reverse slanting prow, so common at the time, was deadly in the event of a ship-to-ship collision because it caused massive damage below the waterline. The bow of the Storstad struck the Empress of Ireland like a "chisel striking a can". As a result of the disaster, naval designers began to employ the raked bow with the top of the prow forward. This ensured that the energy of any collision would be minimised beneath the surface and only the parts of the bow above the waterline would be affected.
The rapid sinking of the Empress has also been cited by 20th century naval architects, John Reid and William Hovgaard, for the discontinuation of longitudinal bulkheads which provide forward and aft separation between the coal bunkers and the inner holds on ships. Though not entirely watertight, these longitudinal bulkheads trapped water between them. When the spaces flooded, this quickly forced a ship to list, pushing the port holes underwater. As flooding continued entering accommodation spaces, this only exacerbated the tilting of the ship dragging the main deck into the water. This would lead to the flooding of the upper compartments and finally the capsize and sinking of the ship. Reid and Hovgaard both cited the Empress disaster as evidence which supported their conclusions that longitudinal subdivision were very hazardous in ship collisions.
Wreck site
Salvage operation
Shortly after the disaster, a salvage operation began on Empress of Ireland. The salvers recovered bodies and valuables inside the ship. They were faced with limited visibility and strong currents from the St. Lawrence River. One of the hard-hat divers, Edward Cossaboom, was killed when, it is assumed, he slipped from the hull of the wreck plummeting another 65ft to the riverbed below, closing or rupturing his air hose as he fell. He was found lying unconscious on his life line, but all attempts to revive him after he was brought to the surface, failed.[25] It was later reported, implausibly, that the sudden increase in water pressure had so compressed the diver's body that all that remained was a "jellyfish with a copper mantle and dangling canvas tentacles."[26]
The salvage crew resumed their operations and recovered 318 bags of mail and 212 bars of silver (silver bullion) worth about $150,000 (adjusted for inflation; $1,099,000). A hole had to be made in the hull of Empress of Ireland so the salvers could easily retrieve a large safe.
In 1964, the wreck was revisited by a group of Canadian divers who recovered a brass bell. In the 1970s, another group of divers recovered a stern telemeter, pieces of Marconi radio equipment, a brass porthole and a compass. Robert Ballard visited the wreck of Empress of Ireland and found that it was being covered by silt. He also discovered that certain artefacts from fixtures to human remains continued to be taken out by "treasure hunters".
Protecting the site
In 1998, Canadian authorities passed restrictions and laws protecting the wreck and other shipwrecks in Canadian waters from destructive penetration.[7] Unlike the RMS Titanic, which is accessible only with a submersible or remotely operated vehicle (ROV), the Empress of Ireland, resting in a mere 40 m (130 ft) of water, can be accessed by highly skilled scuba divers. Numerous recreational divers have since died on the wreck, mostly through accidents related to entering the wreck.
Legend of Emmy
The ship's cat on the Empress was named Emmy. It was said to have been a loyal orange tabby who had never once missed a voyage. But shortly before the liner's final voyage, the cat repeatedly tried to leave the ship before its departure on May 28, 1914. The crew could not coax her aboard and the Empress departed without her. It was reported that Emmy watched the ship sail away from Quebec City sitting on the roof of the shed at Pier 27, which would later become a place for the dead pulled from the river after the Empress went down.
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