Empress of Ireland (1906) |
Owners: |
Canadian Pacific Railway Company |
Builder: |
Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd. Govan, Scotland |
Ordered: |
1905 |
Keel Laid: |
N/A |
||
Year Built: |
1906 |
Launched: |
January 27, 1906 |
Sister Ships: |
Empress of Britain |
Maiden Voyage: |
June 29, 1906 |
Fate: |
Sunk
May 29, 1914 after being rammed by the Norwegian collier Storstad. Location: St Lawrence River, 5 miles off Fathers Point (Pointe-au-Pere) near the town of Rimouski, Canada. (48.37.18N - 68.24.23W) 1,012 passengers and crew killed, 465 survivors. *Sources differ on these numbers. |
Dimensions, machinery and performance |
Length: |
570' |
Engines: |
2 quadruple expansion |
Beam: |
65' 6" |
Boilers: |
N/A (coal fired) |
Draft: |
36' 7" (depth) |
Shafts: |
2 |
Gross Tons: |
14,191 |
HP: |
18,500 |
Displacement: |
N/A |
Speed: |
18 knots |
Crew: |
400 |
Funnels: |
2 |
Passengers: |
1,580 |
Masts: |
2 |
Captains:
|
||
From
|
To
|
Name
|
May 29, 1914 |
Henry G. Kendall, R.N.R. |
Notes: |
Christened by Mrs. Alexander Gracie. |
Completed 95 transatlantic crossings between Liverpool and Quebec. | |
Present at the Mersey Royal Review in July 1913. | |
Only 4 of the 138 children on board survived the sinking. |
|
More passengers died on the Empress of Ireland than on the Titanic. |
|
Capt. Henry G. Kendall had earlier been master of the Montrose on which he identified a passenger as the wanted murdered Dr. Harvey Crippen. Kendall alerted authorities and Crippen was arrested and later hanged. (read the daily event story) Later he was master of the Calgarian which was torpedoed and sunk on March 1, 1918 by the U-19. |
|
The Storstad was seized and given to Canadian Pacific after the later filed a $2,000,000 lawsuit for damages. It was sold for $175.000 and was ultimately torpedoed and sunk on March 8, 1917 by the U-62. |
Builder's Data |
||
Page published Aug. 8, 2007 |