Empress of Ireland
The Empress of Ireland was known as an immigrant ship. In fact, according to Kevin McMurray in his book about diving the wreck, "the ship had carried more than 500,000 immigrants to Canada just after the turn of the century and that almost one in ten Canadians could trace their lineage to an ancestor who had crossed the ocean on one of the two Empress ships."* It looks like my grandfather was not the only immigrant to be traced back to the Empress.
This led me to believe that I would find out about the loss of many new immigrants to Canadian shores when the Empress went down. But the ship was going the other way, from Quebec to Liverpool. Moreover steerage, the traditional travel preference for working class immigrants, was pretty well full.
There is a tendency to think of travel from the UK to North America as going in one direction. I know I often think that way, probably because of reading accounts of earlier immigration that had westward bound immigrants crowding into makeshift quarters that were used to ship lumber on the eastward journey. But by 1914, things had changed.
During the later part of the 19th century the value of the migrant trade was realized and ships were built with their comfort in mind. The Empress of Britain and, her sister ship, the Empress of Ireland were built in 1905 and 1906 as passenger liners. Steerage promised a comfortable passage while first and second class were relatively luxurious. Competition was fierce, driving down the cost of tickets which brought visiting the old country within reach of many especially as the voyage took less than a week from port to port.
Among the passengers on the ill-fated voyage was a contingent from the Salvation Army on their way to attend the International Congress in London as well as other passengers who were mourned on both sides of the Atlantic. David Zeni's book, Forgotten Empress: The Empress of Ireland Story, contains a copy of the Passenger Manifest in one of its appendices. Of course, not only the passengers were in peril. The fate of the crew drew people in search of news in Liverpool, where many a breadwinner hailed from.
News was scarce right after the sinking but when it came it was worse than many of the rumours that had proceeded it. Many more passengers and crew were lost than had been thought.
In 1914, the CPR made attempts to recover the people who had gone down with the ship but only about 200 bodies were recovered. The silver, mail and purser's safe were recovered successfully.*2
As diving technology progressed, later divers have been successful in retrieving items from the wreck of the Empress of Ireland. Not that it was easy. Some of the divers who were lured by the challenge of diving the wreck also lost their lives.
Empress of Ireland wreck position
The loss of life was sad but it has left behind a wealth of information about the ship which enabled me to create a more informed picture about my grandfather's passage to Canada. It also gives me the chance of seeing artifacts from the very ship he was on display at the Pointe-au Père Maritime Historic Site.
Sources:
Croall, James. Fourteen Minutes: The last voyage of the
Empress of Ireland. Michael Joseph Limited, London, 1978.
McMurray, Kevin F. Dark Descent: Diving and the Deadly Allure
of the Empress of Ireland. International Marine/McGraw-Hill Companies, New
York, 2004.*p50 + *2p43
Zeni, David. Forgotten Empress: The Empress of Ireland
Story. Goose Lane Editions. Fredericton, New Brunswick, 1998.
Photos:
Empress of Ireland picture - by Agence Rol - Bibliothèque nationale
de France, Public Domain,
Empress of Ireland wreck position - by user:Clipper - Site [1]Cart
Nbr: 307 . Canada RIVER ST LAWRENCE WEST PT OF ANTICOSTI TO SAGUENAY RIVER,
Public Domain,
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