There have been bad shipwrecks, but this is one of the most horrific ones I’ve read about. If you read my Titanic posts, I said that she gave her crew and passengers two hours and forty minutes before she sank. The Empress of Ireland sank in 14 minutes and in the worst, most heartbreaking way. It didn’t have to happen; in a deep fog on the Saint Lawrence River, another ship rammed into her, and she only had 14 minutes of life left, as did most of her passengers. There were 1477 souls on board; only 465 survived. More passengers (crew not included) died on the Empress than on the Titanic. The Empress could hold 1,542 passengers and up to 420 crew, so this was not a small ship. This tragedy was given the name “Canada’s Titanic” by the press, not me. It was/is the worst peacetime disaster in Canada’s history.
The RMS Empress of Ireland was launched in 1906 for the Canadian Pacific Railway. She was built to carry passengers between Quebec and Liverpool. She was a beauty! The ship was not as large as the great liners from White Star or Cunard, but she had a strong reputation. Many people considered her one of the safest ships on the North Atlantic route. She carried immigrants, businessmen, tourists, and mail across the ocean for years without major trouble. Her interiors were elegant for the time. Rich wood paneling, wide staircases, and comfortable cabins gave her a first-class feel. Captain Henry Kendall commanded the ship during her final voyage. By 1914, she had already completed hundreds of crossings and was known as a dependable liner. Personally, it’s one of my favorite ships; it was a stunning and beautiful ship.
On May 28, 1914, she left Quebec City for Liverpool with 1,477 people aboard. The weather turned foggy as she traveled down the Saint Lawrence River near Rimouski. Around 2:10 am on May 29, the Norwegian coal ship SS Storstad appeared through the fog. Both ships tried to maneuver safely, but confusion over signals and visibility caused disaster. The Storstad slammed into the Empress on her starboard side and tore a huge hole in the hull. Water rushed in immediately. The Empress of Ireland listed heavily and sank in only about 14 minutes. Many passengers were asleep and had little chance to escape. It also seems that the watertight doors were not shut. They were not automatic like a few other ships and the crew didn’t have time.
One of the interesting tragic historical parts is that the Empress was full of Salvation Army members who were traveling to England for Congress. There were about 160 members on board, of whom about 130 died. The sinking decimated the Salvation Army in Canada. Nearly the entire Canadian Staff Band was wiped out, as was much of the Salvation Army leadership. It took decades to rebuild. Most people were in bed and woke up to water, listing to the port side, and to a complete darkness nightmare. It was hard, if not impossible, to use the stairs, if you could find them in the dark, because the ship was sideways. People tried to escape through the 14- to 19-inch portholes on the port side; many didn’t make it.
The tragedy shocked Canada and the world, but it was soon overshadowed by World War I and later by the sinking of the Lusitania. The wreck site is now strictly protected by both provincial and federal Canadian law. In 2009, the Canadian government designated the ship as a National Historic Site of Canada. I won’t go into the harrowing details of what happened to many of the passengers, but it’s worth watching a documentary or reading about.
Why did it sink so fast? The Storstad punched a massive hole roughly 14 feet wide and 25 feet deep into the ship. This gaping 350-square-foot breach (for comparison… the Titanic was a 12-square-foot breach) flooded the boiler rooms and then sank her. What made it worse was that the Storstad was built with a reinforced bow for icebreaking. She tore through the Empress easily. I have a picture of the Storstad below after the accident in the pictures. The Storstad was fine afterward and sailed again after this.
Remember, when it was hit, people had to act instantly to survive. The crew did all they could do, and many passengers, crew, and rescuers died while trying to save passengers.
William Clarke: A fireman (a person who shoveled coal in the burners) who also claimed to have survived the sinking of the Titanic, managed to get into a lifeboat and actively pulled around 60 freezing passengers out of the water. The Salvation Army Members: Several witnesses noted that when the chaos ensued, many of them gave their own life jackets to struggling people in the water who did not have them, choosing to drown so others could live. Robert Crellin: A passenger recognized for his bravery in saving a trapped 8-year-old girl named Grace Hanagan (who went on to become the last surviving passenger of the disaster, living until 1995)
BTW…on the videos. I try to find short ones, but many of the short ones just don’t tell the story. I will always try to give you a choice depending on what time you have. Many of these videos are by ship nerds (I mean that in the best way), so to speak. They use graphic tools to recreate the ships, not AI, in most cases.
This post is longer than what I plan on being the norm…but I felt more needed to be said about this tragic event.
Grace Hanagan tells her story and it’s beyond moving.