EMPRESS OF IRELAND

BRIEF HISTORY

Launched on January 26, 1906, the Empress of Ireland along with her sister ship Empress of Britain, was a transatlantic ocean liner owned by Canadian Pacific Steamship Company that sailed between Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, and Liverpool, England. She sank in 1914 after colliding with Storstad in an incident which claimed 1,012 lives, making it the worst maritime disaster in Canadian history. Her sinking was overshadowed by World War I and became a forgotten tragedy.

FULL HISTORY

Disaster
The Empress of Ireland departed Quebec City for Liverpool at 16:30 local time on May 28, 1914 with 1,477 passengers and crew. Henry George Kendall had just been promoted to captain of the Empress of Ireland at the beginning of the month and it was his first trip down the Saint Lawrence River in command of the vessel. Early the next morning on May 29, 1914, the ship was proceeding down the channel near Pointe-au-Père, Quebec (eastern district of the town of Rimouski) in heavy fog. At 02:00 local time, Empress of Ireland collided with the Norwegian collier Storstad. Storstad did not sink, but Empress of Ireland, with severe damage to her starboard side, rapidly shipping water, rolled over and sank within 14 minutes, claiming 1,012 passengers and crewmen. There were only 465 survivors, out of which only four were children (the other 314 children were lost). Ultimately, the immense loss of life can be attributed to three things: the location in which Storstad made contact, failure to close her watertight doors, and failure to close all portholes aboard. Including the fact that most passengers, at the time of the crash, were asleep - most not even awakening when the ship was hit.


Investigation
The cause of the tragedy was disputed by the surviving crew of the Empress of Ireland and the crew of Storstad. There has been much speculation as to the circumstances of the sinking. One theory involves the positioning of the ships when both encountered the fogbank. According to testimony, Capt. Kendall claimed that he stayed close to shore, encountered the fog, reversed his engines to stop for about 8 minutes, and was rammed by the Storstad, who was executing a hard, 90-degree turn to the starboard. Another theory has the Empress sailing north-northeast into the center of the channel, right into the path of the 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 red to starboard, green 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 red light would be lying across the path of the approaching vessel, exposing the starboard side. A captain in 1914, familiar with the St. Lawrence river, would reasonably be expected to have avoided a collision, if he had been able to see the lights on time. As the Storstad crashed into the Empress it is likely that the fog obscured the other ship until it was too late to take evasive action.

Either the Empress strayed across the Storstad's bows, or the Storstad crossed the Empress's path from port to starboard and executed a 90 degree turn to pierce her starboard side.

If the testimony of both captains is to be believed the collision happened as both vessels were stationary with their engines stopped.

On June 16, 1914, an inquiry was launched in Quebec City and the crew of Storstad was found responsible for the sinking of Empress of Ireland. However, 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. Canadian Pacific Railway won a court case against A. F. Klaveness, owner of Storstad, for $2,000,000. Unable to afford the liabilities, A. F. Klaveness was forced to sell Storstad for $175,000 to the trust funds.


The wreck
Shortly after the disaster, a salvage operation began on Empress of Ireland. The salvagers faced the daunting task of recovering bodies as well as valuables inside the ship. They were also faced with limited visibility and strong currents from the Saint Lawrence River. One of the divers was killed when he fell from near the highest point of the wreck to the riverbed below and his diving equipment was unable to adjust to the sudden pressure increase. The salvage crew resumed their operations and recovered 318 bags of mail and 212 bars of silver worth $1,099,000. A hole had to be made in the hull of Empress of Ireland so the salvagers 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. Recently, Robert Ballard visited the wreck of Empress of Ireland and found that it was being covered by silt. He also discovered that certain artifacts from fixtures to human remains continued to be taken out by "treasure hunters". Unlike Titanic, which is only accessible with a submersible, Empress of Ireland can be accessed by scuba divers, albeit only highly skilled ones. Numerous recreational divers have since died on the wreck, mostly through penetration accidents.


Design changes
The disaster led to a change in thinking among naval architects with regard to the design of ships bows. The backward slanting bow design of the day (see picture above) caused, in the event of a collision, immediate massive fatal damage below the waterline. The effect of the Storstad's bows on the Empress of Ireland's has been likened to that of a "chisel being forced into an aluminum can" Designers began to employ the raked bows that we are familiar with today, ensuring that much of the energy of a collision is absorbed by the point of the bow above the waterline of the other ship ensuring less damage under the surface.


Last survivor
The last survivor of the shipwreck, Grace Hannagan Martyn, died in St. Catharines, Ontario on May 15, 1995 at the age of 88.


Popular culture
"Empress of Ireland" was commemorated in a song by Three Pints Gone, a Celtic band specializing in traditional folk songs and sea chanties. "Empress of Ireland" is featured on their CD titled "There Is a Ship," all nautical songs. The refrain says, "Nobody there or for miles anywhere/knew she was sailing to the bottom of the sea/Don't remember the Empress of Ireland/but always remember me."

The "Empress of the Ireland" shipwreck is referenced in the Clive Cussler book "Night Probe!"
 

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