In maritime history, April 15, 1912 is a date that will live in infamy. It was at 2:20 a.m. on that day the RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, four hours after striking an iceberg, with approximately 1,500 of the 3,339 passengers and crew still on board. One of those that perished was John Jacob Astor, IV, a prominent American who was considered one of the richest people in the world at that time. Yet, only two years later – much closer to Canadian and American shores – another sinking of a passenger ship goes generally unknown to the public.

History is saturated with stories about the RMS Titanic, and understandably so since its designer and builder touted it as being unsinkable. Not only did it sink, it sank on its maiden voyage. Because of the prominence of the Titanic disaster, historians have turned a blind eye to another marine disaster that occurred two years later – the sinking of the ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland.

Empress of Ireland’s Biography

The Canadian Pacific Railway (“CPR”) commissioned a pair of ocean liners for its Canadian Pacific Steamships Company (“CPSC”) subsidiary. CPR entered the North Atlantic passenger transportation market in 1903 with the introduction of sister ships – the RMS Empress of Britain and the RMS Empress of Ireland. These luxury liners offered regular 6-day voyages between Quebec, Canada and Liverpool, England, a unique trip because 2 days of cruising was on the scenic and peaceful waters of the St. Lawrence River. The CPR advertised its service as having that benefit – declaring that passengers spent “only 4 days on the open ocean.”

Empress of Ireland was the second of the pair of luxury liners to be constructed, the first being Empress of Britain. Lessons learned from the sinking of the Titanic were applied to the construction the two CPR ships. One update in its design were 10 watertight bulkheads that divided the hull into 11 sections. The theory was it would require more than two of those section to flood with rushing ocean water for the ship to sink. Another lesson learned from the Titanic disaster was the need to have an adequate number of lifeboats on board the liner. Lifeboats on the Empress of Ireland were changed from wood to 16 steel lifeboats hung on davits (the crane like devise that lowers the boat), plus an additional twenty-six collapsible, wooden lifeboats stowed underneath the others on the deck. State-of-the art lifejackets were also available for all on board and, perhaps more importantly, the crew was given concentrated training for coping with any unexpected disaster.

The Empress of Ireland was christened and launched on January 27, 1906, following the established practice of naming new ships the eponymous of a dependency or colony of the British Empire. A crew of 373 staffed the vessel, supporting berths that accommodated 1,542 passengers in four classes of accommodations on severn decks.

Smaller than the RMS Titanic, both the RMS Empress of Britain and RMS Empress of Ireland offered luxury accommodations for the likes of John Jacob Astor, IV, but also offered service in steerage for the many immigrants moving to North America from Europe.

Two months after the Empress of Ireland was christened she entered service on June 29, 1906, departing on her first trip to Quebec, Canada from Liverpool, England. A number of Irish immigrants were picked up at Moville, a coastal town on the north coast of Ireland, before going to the open ocean. Thus her career was started and over the next eight years the ship transported passengers and cargo between Britain and Quebec City, Canada from May through October and Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada and Saint John, New Brunswick, from November to April.

The Passengers

RMS Empress of Ireland arrived at Quebec from Liverpool on May 22, 1914, at that point in its career having made 95 successful crossings. As of that date the ship had transported 119,261 passengers westbound to Canada and 67,838 eastbound to Britain. It took six days for the ship to resupplied and board 420 crew members (48 above the Board of Trade authorized number) and 1,057 passengers wanting transportation to Liverpool. (The Board of Trade Certificate authorized 1488 passengers.) All was ready by 4:30 p.m., on May 28, 1914.

The number of passengers in first class accommodations was small, totaling only 87 booked in those rooms. Notwithstanding the smaller than normal number, first class passengers did include a number of dignitaries: Colonel Robert Bloomfield of New Zealand’s 3rd Mounted Regiment and his wife, Isabella and daughter Hilda; Lawrence Irving, the son of a Victorian stage actor Sir Henry Irving; Sir Henry Seton-Karr, a former member of the British House of Commons, and several others.

A noteworthy group boarded in second class accommodations. A large contingent of Salvation Army Band members and their families, a total of 170 individuals, who were traveling to the 3rd International Salvation Army Congress in London. Second class accommodations were booked to about half capacity.

Third class had the largest booking at 717, which, according to one source, was at capacity. Another source states that 717 was 3 passengers more than allowed by the Board of Trade. That number also reflects the usual number of steerage passengers, many of whom were immigrants returning to their home country to visit relatives. Canadian Pacific advertised that steerage accommodations were comparable to third class, many steerage passengers were given a berth where cargo is also stowed. (I read many sources about the sinking of the Empress of Ireland; each has a variations in the numbers of passengers by class.)

Passengers sauntered about the ship in the remaining daylight, familiarizing themselves with the ship. Mature children were allowed to roam the decks and diners enjoyed the setting sun through the windows. Besides passengers, the Empress was carrying 1,100 tons of general cargo, including 252 silver ingots of an estimated value close to 150,000 Canadian dollars – a vale of almost $4 million today.

“The evening aboard the Empress was uneventful. At 5:30 pm on the 28th, the Third-Class passengers were served high tea, a full meal of meats and herring with dessert, and at 7:00 pm formal dinner was served for the First and Second-Class passengers.” After the meal, some roamed the deck to enjoy the fresh air. When daylight was just a passing memory, both passengers and crew bedded-down in their cabins for the first night underway.

Shortly after leaving its moorings at the dock, the harbor pilot boarded the Empress to guide the Captain, Henry George Kendall, through the channel of the St. Lawrence River, with its unique tidal characteristics, depths and traffic patterns. (Having a harbor pilot guide a large vessel both in and out of a port is a worldwide practice even today.)

Sidebar: Captain Kendall was aboard the SS Lusitania – not the more famous RMS Lusitania – that ran aground. He had been captain of the SS Montrose and became a celebrity in Canada and England when he recognized the murderer Hawley Harvey Crippen, a fugitive from London, aboard his ship and used the wireless to notify authorities who were able to apprehend and then hang Crippen. He was given the captain’s position on the Empress only a few weeks before May 22, 1914; and, he was implicitly trusted by his crew and the public based on his reputation in command of other ships.

The harbor pilot transferred from the Empress to the pilot boat at Point-au-Père, Quebec, near Rimouski, on the south bank of the River. That was Empress’s last tasks of the night before heading into the open water of the Gulf of St. Lawrence – still close to the southern shore of the river. All was quietly normal, but not for long.

The Catastrophe

It was still a calm, clear night when Captain Kendall, still in the bridge, observed another ship – the Norwegian collier, the SS Storstad – inbound from Sidney, Nova Scotia . (A collier is a bulk cargo vessel that carries coal.) She was carrying a full load of black coal to Montreal, so the ship sat low in the water.

Reports differ on the distance between the ships when Captain Kendall first observed the SS Storstad – it was a distance of 2 miles to 8 miles off the port side of the Empress. The Storstad was also close to the southern bank of the St. Lawrence, but Captain Kendall decided the Empress should “maintain course towards the gulf even though if the Empress held its course the ships would pass each other port to port. But this would take the Empress closer to shore and off his intended course towards the gulf. He still had ample time for a turn to port, cross the Storstad’s bow, and set his course for open water. The two ships should pass starboard to starboard, still comfortably apart.”

Sidebar: Marine navigation lights are critical pieces of equipment on all boats, particularly in the case of large powered vessels like the Empress of Ireland and the SS Storstad. At night or when visibility is limited due to weather conditions, the only way to determine the size and direction of another ship is through its navigation lights. This diagram shows how lights are universally installed on water craft for the purpose of determining a boat’s direction and length.

Within moments of Captain Kendall adjusting course, “a creeping bank of FOG formed on the river, swallowing both the Empress and the approaching ship.  Heavy fog was common on the St. Lawrence when warm, moist air encountered the frigid river water, producing a thick fog so dense that visibility was near zero.”

Due to the sudden fog and drop in visibility, Captain Kendall gave three blasts on his ship’ smoke stack whistle to announce to the other ship that he was ordering his engines full astern, slowing the ocean liner to a crawl.  Kendall kept the liner’s bow pointing on its course up the river and waited for a sign the other ship was safely past.

Sidebar: The SS Storstad was a cargo ship transporting coal between Britain and Canada. According to scholar James Croall, author of Fourteen Minutes The last voyage of the Empress Ireland: “Her main frames ran horizontally from stem to stern. Such ships were immensely strong, particularly in the event of a head-on impact of the kind that would often crumple the bows of a conventionally designed vessel. It was a very sensible arrangement in a ship which spent much of her working life plying in icebound waters. Unhappily, the heavy stem and thick shell plating that could slice through pack ice and shoulder it aside without damage would be equally effective at piercing steel plate. Her sharp vertical stem and massive frames made her in effect an immense cold chisel.”

Thomas Andersen, the Storstad’s captain since 1911, and his First Officer, Alfred Toftenes, had served together since the ship was commissioned. The ship measured 440 feet (134 m) long and 58 feet (17 m) wide and was built for long hauls carrying great weight. “Onboard the Storstad, the captain was asleep and First Mate Alfred Toftenes was in command of the bridge.  He saw the large ocean liner before the fog rolled in and was also concerned with its proximity.  Not realizing the Empress intended a starboard-to-starboard passing, and believing they would be passing port to port, he ordered a turn to starboard, unknowingly taking it directly into the Empress’s path.  When the fog rolled in, he woke his captain.

What happened next depends on which of the two captains you find the most credible. Captain Andersen admits he ordered a course change in the fog to avoid colliding with the Empress, based on what he was told by his First Officer.

Unfortunately, the Captain of the Empress also ordered a course change. Testimony from survivors of the Empress and those from the Storstad differ as to the sequence of events. “It seems Captain Kendall saw the lights of the Storstad some miles ahead and changed course because he was then toward shore and preferred to pass the other ship mid-river starboard-to-starboard instead of port-to-port. The Storstad held its course upriver.”

On board the Empress, Captain Kendall and his men in the bridge suddenly saw the Storstad appear out of the fog. The investigation determined that Kendall shouted through his megaphone for the Storstad to go full speed astern, hoping to limit damage to the Empress. It was too late because the collier struck the Empress between the funnels, cutting a 16-foot-long vertical gash in the hull of the ship. The long opening in the hull of the Empress was cause by a sequence of commands that resulted in the Storstad functioning like a can opener. The investigation revealed once the collier struck the Empress, “Kendall then shouted for the Storstad to keep its engines at full speed to plug the hole but, upon seeing the other ship, he had [also] quickly ordered Empress full speed ahead,” so the Empress was increasing speed. Unlike a car, a ship the size of the Empress has too much inertia to stop within a short distance. It was too late to prevent disaster.

The gaping hole on the side of the Empress flooded water tight compartments, so many flooded that the passenger liner could not remain afloat. Captain Kendall had ordered the watertight compartment be closed, which had to be done manually by the crew, but it was an order impossible to execute at that point.

Sidebar: The illustration is based on the statements of the two Captains when questioned, which, not surprisingly, are different. The writer has limited knowledge of the rules of the boating. Based on the testimony, Position No. 1 is the approximate position of the ships when each first sighted the other, positions which both captains agree. The Storstad was coming up the river a distance away, far right of the Empress – her starboard side. Those on the Storstad saw the green, starboard light of the Empress of Ireland over their port, or left, bow of the Storstad. The collier was in such a position that those on the Empress of Ireland could see both its red, port, light and its green, starboard, light. If the rules of the sea had been observed, the ship on the starboard side has the right of way – referred to as the “stand on vessel.” The Empress of Ireland should have yielded right of way as the “give way vessel” to the Storstad or steered to starboard so that the vessels would have passed each other easily, port-to-port. Instead, in the fog both vessels took a course which finally ended in position No. 2, resulting in the Storstad hitting the Empress of Ireland between the funnels on the right, or starboard, side, on its starboard, or right, bow. How this fatal position was reached, the captains disagree, as they also do on the question of the kind of signals given and what responses were made, or should have been made. The dispute was never really resolved.

The Sinking

The Empress of Ireland immediately started sinking. Below deck there was total darkness as a result of the flooding water entering the hull of the ship. Many passengers likely drowned in their beds since they had little if any time to escape their flooding cabins, then find their way in the dark out of the cavity of the ship. Because the ship listed shapely to starboard, lifeboats were impossible to access and lowered into the water. The Empress started sinking so fast that third class passenger had no chance of survival; even those on upper decks likely were drowned because of the darkness and disorientation.

Those passengers fortunate enough to find their way to the tilted stairway and onto the main deck had to contend with the deck of the capsizing Empress that either cast them into the water or against a portion of the ship.

Despite its major damage, the SS. Storstad, hearing the cries for help from passengers in the water, stopped its engines to lowered lifeboats. The crew of the Storstad pulled 485 survivors from the water making many trips to save the passengers. Only 188 bodies were recovered from the Empress. It only took the Empress 14 minutes to founder after the collision.

Sidebar: The SS Storstad was eventually sunk off the coast of Ireland by German U-Boat U-62 on March 8, 1917, during World War I. Two crew members were lost.

“Of the 420 crewmembers, 248 survived, including Kendall, 217 passengers survived out of 840, and only four of the 138 children on board survived the sinking. Survivors were treated at Rimouski where bodies were also brought for identification. Historian Logan Marshall describes the scene at Rimouski:

A glance at the corpses taken in a walk along the line revealed the story of the collision and the incidents following. Almost all bore marks of violence inflicted by contact with parts of the wrecked ship or in struggles in the water. There were bodies of women whose heads were split open or gashed. It is possible that women running from their staterooms in the darkness following the collision ran against stanchions or were hurled against the walls or the sides of the corridors. The wounds also indicated that some of the women had been crushed when the collier buried her steel nose in the side of the Empress. 

Investigation

Joshua J. Marks, writing for world history.com, states: “As with Titanic’s sinking, people were eager to assign blame and find a reason for the tragedy. A Commission of Inquiry began on 16 June 1914, presided over by Lord Mersey, who had also been the magistrate at the Titanic hearings. After eleven days, the Commission returned a report holding First Officer Toftenes of the Storstad to blame for changing course and for not calling Captain Andersen to the bridge when the fog obscured visual confirmation of the Empress’ location. A Norwegian Commission of Inquiry absolved Andersen and Toftenes of any responsibility and blamed Kendall for changing course and then stopping his ship dead in the water.”

Remains of many passengers that were on the Empress of Ireland are entombed inside the ship, 130 feet below the surface of the St. Lawrence River. Because of the timing of the disaster, the sinking of the Empress of Ireland was soon forgotten, overshadowed by the beginning of World War I in July 1914.