The Empress of Ireland, Canada's Worst Shipwreck

The Empress of Ireland Sunk in 1914, Taking 1012 Lives

Jul 6, 2009

Silty water flowing through the once-elegant rooms, Empress of Ireland now sits 45 metres under the St. Lawrence, its interior disintegrated, its passengers long gone.

In the darkest hours of May 29, 1914, the Empress of Ireland was steaming just beyond Rimouski, Quebec at Pointe au Père, heading for the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. At approximately 1:30 a.m., the river pilot completed his task of guiding the ship downriver and was picked up by a tugboat for his return to Quebec. The ship's crew was preparing for the ocean voyage to Liverpool, England with Captain Henry Kendall was on the bridge, assisting his Officers and Quartermasters with their duties.

A thick fog sporadically cloaked the St. Lawrence River on the 96th voyage of the Empress of Ireland, rolling in to stymie vision and rolling out again. Many of the passenger ship's 1,472 passengers and crew were comfortably tucked into their stateroom beds, the majority below decks in Third Class accomodations. The passenger list, according to Lost Liners, included 171 members of the Salvation Army Territorial Band from Toronto, Sir Henry Seton-Karr, a former member of Parliament in England, and Laurence Irving and his wife, Mabel Hackney, famous actors of their time. Single travellers, couples, families with small children and others rounded out the list.

“Kendall and First Officer Jones sighted a ship's masthead lights about 40 degrees of the Empress' bow at a distance of about 6 miles,” said Lost Liners. In a section of the St. Lawrence River that was about 30 miles wide, the other ship was closer to shore than the Empress. “Kendall decided that a starboard passing could be accomplished as the Empress would be well clear of the other vessel's path before the two ships passed each other.” The other ship was the Storstad, a Norwegian coal ship fully loaded and heading up-river. The Storstad crew spotted what they thought were the port-side red lights of the Empress, said CBC Digital Archives, and made corrections to their course, turning the ship starboard to pass.

Fog Thick as Soup

A thick soup of fog rolled in as the two ships drew closer, blinding all. Sounding their horns to signal their intentions, the two ships were certain of a smooth passing. Captain Kendall ordered the All Stop for the Empress. The fog dissipated; Captain Kendall saw the Storstad directly approaching the Empress at a fast clip. He shouted for the engines full ahead and attempted to turn the helm to avoid a full hit. Captain Thomas Anderson of the Storstad urgently ordered his engines reversed. It was too late.

Storstad Rammed The Empress

The bow of the Storstad was solidly reinforced for the job of pack ice-cutting in northern seas. At 1:55 a.m., it pierced 18 feet into the starboard side of the Empress between the two funnels, crumpling the hull as if it were a child's toy. As the Storstad reversed out, water deluged the passenger ship through a hole 25 feet high by 14 feet wide. The lower Third Class and Steerage sections flooded rapidly, washing sleepers from their beds into their dark rooms with no escape. The engines lost power with no steam available from the flooding boiler room. The Empress listed to the side as crew vainly attempted to launch lifeboats and close watertight doors. Those passengers who could escape rushed to the top deck and clung to the hull. Few had time to find lifejackets.

Empress of Ireland's Boilers Explode

But there was no safety to be found. The ship's colossal funnels crashed down as the boat listed. The boilers that provided steam power for the engines violently exploded, “bodies and debris launched into the air as the entire vessel rumbled,” noted Lost Liners. As other passengers lost their grip, many succumbed to the icy 34-degree-Fahrenheit water.

Empress of Ireland Sank

The Empress of Ireland sunk in 14 minutes. Rescue ships arrived, able to pull over 100 people from the waters. Suffering massive damage itself with a large, open gash in its side, the Storstad did not sink. Instead, its crew helped rescue many from certain death. The Empress crew in lifeboats pulled many more to safety. In all, 465 people out of the 1,477 passengers and crew were spared. One thousand and twelve people from the Empress of Ireland - 840 of those were passengers - died in the St. Lawrence River, more than had perished in the disastrous sinking of the Titanic two years earlier.

Sir Henry Seton-Karr perished, along with the actors Laurence Irving and his wife. Four children were rescued, including the four-year-old daughter of the Bandmaster of the Salvation Army's Band. Recovery and salvage missions were organized and began the grim task of retrieving hundreds of bodies, mail bags, gold bullion (then worth $150,000, now worth over $2 million) and the Purser's Safe.

The Empress of Ireland today lies on her starboard side 45 metres deep in the cold waters of the St. Lawrence River. The ballrooms, the staterooms, dining rooms and bars of the beautiful and comfortable ship have all disintegrated and disappeared into the depths. Much of the every-day equipment of a passenger ship, the dishes, trinkets, memorabilia, have been taken by divers, and some is on display in maritime museums. Built by Canadian Pacific as part of the Empress Line, the ship was constructed by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Govan, Scotland. The Empress of Ireland was launched in Scotland's River Clyde on Saturday, January 27, 1906 and its sinking eight years later was the most devastating shipwreck in Canadian history.

Be sure to visit the CBC Digital Archives link to watch a 1986 interview with Grace Martyn. She was one of the little girls who survived the sinking of the Empress of Ireland.

The copyright of the article The Empress of Ireland, Canada's Worst Shipwreck in Canadian History is owned by Susanna McLeod. Permission to republish The Empress of Ireland, Canada's Worst Shipwreck in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.