Sister of Empress of Britain, the ill-fated Empress of Ireland was also
built in Glasgow by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering. She was
launched in 1906 and made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Quebec on
29 June of that year. She served on the Liverpool-Canada service her
entire career.
Early on the morning of 29 May 1914, eastbound from Quebec, Empress of
Ireland encountered dense fog in the St. Lawrence River and after an
approaching ship was sighted, she put her engines astern. She was struck
broadside, between her funnels, by the Norwegian collier Storstad. The
damage to Empress of Ireland was so great that her watertight doors could
not be closed. In addition, she had no power so she could not be beached
and only four lifeboats could be gotten away. Fifteen minutes after the
collision, Empress of Ireland sank to the bottom of the river with over
1,000 deaths. In addition to 172 crew members, 840 passengers died, the
largest number of passenger fatalities of any peacetime maritime accident.
