The Story of the RMS Empress of Ireland

The great ship Empress of Ireland was one of Canadian Pacific Line's most-recognized ships. She was a sister ship to the Empress of Britain. She began service in July of 1906.

For her entire career, she went back and forth from Canada to Liverpool. She served eight successful years for Canadian Pacific Line. But in just 15 minutes, she was lost in a dense fog.

May 29, 1914: Empress of Ireland was traveling through St. Lawrence River, on her way to Quebec, When she encountered a very dense fog. The SS Storstad was heading in the opposite direction. Captain Henry Kendall, Captain of the Empress of Ireland, saw the lights from the Storstad, but he said it had to be at least eight miles away. But not a minute later, neither of the ships could see a thing. Within five minutes, the Storstad rammed the Empress of Ireland. The Storstad was damaged, but not as bad as the Empress. The impact was so hard, the water tight doors on the Empress wouldn't close.

It was bad enough that the water tight doors wouldn't close, but the power was out. Captain Kendall tried to run the ship aground, but he wasn't able to do that, because there wasn't power. In only 15 minutes, the ship was completely under water.

Only four of the many lifeboats were launched. Over 1,000 people were lost in the wreck.

Many people have gone diving to the wreck, which was possible without a submarine. Where the Empress of Ireland was in St. Lawrence River was only 130 feet deep.

"Lost Liners- Empress of Ireland." PBS.org. PBS, Web. 15 May 2010. <http://www.pbs.org/lostliners/book.html>.