Canadian Maritime History 101: Canadian Pacific Line's RMS Empress of Britain - Wednesday, July 13, 2011

I've been wanting to write about the Candian Pacific liner EMPRESS of BRITAIN (1931-40) for quite some time and now that I finally know how to properly load photos into my blog entries (still keeping my fingers crossed as I claim this) the time has finally arrived. Whenever any of us maritime historians or "ship nerds" write about any given ocean liner, we always try to provide the general background of each individual ship, such as her statistics, when she made her debut on the Seven Seas, what happened to her towards the end of her career and other specific tidbits. Even though such information is instantly available on any given internet search engine, I will include some of the statistics regarding the EMPRESS of BRITAIN; however, there are a couple more specific reasons why I am writing this piece on her now.

First, and yet foremost, as someone who strongly believes in the preservation of the maritime history of every nation on this planet, it is of my opinion that the Canadian people of today need to know that their country once had a profound symbol of national pride on the world-wide waterways in the form of the Canadian Pacific liner EMPRESS of BRITAIN; and, secondly, many historians out there genuinely, yet quite mistakenly, believe that just because the EMPRESS of BRITAIN was built in Great Britain as well as the fact that the British government was one of the main stockholders in the Canadian Pacific Line, that such factors classified the liner as British, not Canadian. Nothing could be further from the truth because quite frankly, the EMPRESS of BRITAIN was more than just Canada's largest, fastest and most luxurious ocean liner ever put into service - her prescence on every waterway she traversed symbolized both the ingenuity and individuality of the Canadian people themselves in an era when they needed it the most. How sad it is that the Canadians of today have no knowledge of the fact that a very long time ago, their EMPRESS of BRITAIN was as much a common household name as the other great liners of the world, such as the TITANIC, ILE-DE-FRANCE, QUEEN MARY, NORMANDIE, NIEUW AMSTERDAM, REX, AQUITANIA - and the list goes on and on.

Before I go any further, a special note to both my readers and any maritime historians out there. Please do not confuse the EMPRESS of BRITAIN (1931-40) in this piece with the other famous Canadian Pacific liner EMPRESS of BRITAIN (1906-30), a proud reliable liner unto herself, as well as the virtually identical sistership to the ill-fated EMPRESS of IRELAND (1906-1914). Incidentally, the British shipping lines werent the only ones who listed and numbered their vessels in specific chronological order. The EMPRESS of BRITAIN of 1906 was considered # "I", the ship in this piece considered #"II" and a later EMPRESS of BRITAIN of 1956, and one of the last Canadian Pacific liners built, was considered # "III." In addition, in this piece as well as any piece regarding ocean liners, you will notice that I refer to every ship as "she" only because that has always been a revered maritime tradition. The only exception to this rule in all of maritime history would had to have been the Compagnie Generale Tranatlantique's (the French Line's) superliner NORMANDIE (1935-42), whose board of directors always referred to as "He."

Although this may sound somewhat cliche due to the fact that it's been used to describe almost every single ocean liner ever created, the EMPRESS of BRITAIN was indeed one of the most unique liners ever built. The rationale behind her design was just as unique as the liner herself. The board of directors of the Canadian Pacific Line came up with the following concept - instead of having travelers, especially those more inland in Canada and the American Midwest, take a 3 to 4 day boat-train to board liners in the port of New York City, why not offer them the advantageous choice of taking a 2-day boat-train to Montreal, have them board the EMPRESS of BRITAIN and thus take the quicker St. Lawrence River route out to the open seas? In other words, give ocean travelers the same safe, fast, luxurious service to Europe they had grown accustomed to, only for a quicker trip and atta better price. Yet by the same token dont provide the public with the average, well-constructed sturdy vessel, rather make sucha ship one-of-a-kind, unlike any other out there. And that's exactly what they did.

Some of the statistics regarding the size and strength of the EMPRESS of BRITAIN are as follows: she was 760 feet long, 97 feet wide , towered 12 stories above the sea, weighed in at 42,348 tons and could travel atta overall speed of 25.5 knots, or roughly 47 mph(!) and carried 1,195 passengers and 714 crew members. She was dressed in the traditional color scheme of all of Canadian Pacific's "White Empress" liners - all-white lower and upper hull, green waterline cap-off, blue/green stripe around her entire upper hull and the traditional yellowish-buff colored funnels, 3 of the largest funnels ever installed on a ship, until the advent of the French liner NORMANDIE four years later. She was designed and built at the John Brown shipyards of Glasgow, Scotland, who would also be the future builders of Cunard's QUEEN MARY and QUEEN ELIZABETH. The EMPRESS of BRITAIN was not only the Canadian Pacific's new flagship and largest liner ever built, but she was also the largest Canadian liner ever built when she made her maiden voyage on May 27, 1931.

Her construction was nothing short of amazing for she was not only larger, heavier and faster than any battleship afloat during her era, but there were some details that went into her design that the majority of her contemporaries never had. Due to the fact that she would most likely encounter alot of the thick ice and smaller icechunk flows that were so prevalent on the St. Lawrence River during the winter months, she was designed with an extra-durable double hull in her bow section as a safety precaution. That's not to say she was unsinkable but unlike her North Atlantic counterparts, her hull needed extra reinforcing in order to ensure her longevity on the route she was designed for. She was also the first major liner to be utilized as a cruise-ship during a good portion of those off-season winter months when passaging up-n-down the vastly frozen St. Lawrence River basin sometime proved impossible. In addition, her yacht-like stern afforded her engines less pull when the ship was at full-speed status, thus allowing her to reach the heightened speed levels her owners hoped she would achieve. Although Canadian Pacific Line's original intent for her never came into full fruition - she wasnt the most profitable liner of her era, but well-traveled and well-loved nonetheless, the practicality of systematically shutting down a third or more of her boilers during cruising season, when she didnt need to travel as fast and thus not require as much fuel consumption, did indeed serve her owners wisely, especially in the depression-plagued world of the 1930's. 

But like so very many of the other great ocean liners of her era, when war clouds loomed everywhere in Europe in September,1939, the EMPRESS of BRITAIN would find herself painted battleship grey and serving her country in one of the worst world wars known to mankind. Sad to say, like many of her fellow liners, she too would become a tragic victim of man-made warfare. On October 26, 1940, while laden down with troops, the EMPRESS of BRITAIN was spotted by German bombers off the northwestern coast of Ireland and successfully divebombed twice, which in turn set the ship on fire. The next day, with the ship still burning, British naval destroyers and other aiding craft successfully set up tow-lines to her to attempt to bring her to safety. But to no avail. On October 28, the German submarine U-32 spotted the burning EMPRESS of BRITAIN and torpedoed her twice, with only one of the two detonating. So, the captain fired yet a third torpedo into the EMPRESS'S hull, which set off explosions within her hull, and thus caused her to list over on her starboard side and sink. The EMPRESS of BRITAIN wasnt the only ocean liner victim of World War II but she was the largest passenger liner ever sunk during wartime circumstances and when you encounter the story of her final days, you'll usually find the moniker "largest British passenger liner ever sunk during wartime." And that's where I have a HUGE problem with her story. 

Yes, the EMPRESS of BRITAIN truly was the largest ocean liner ever sunk during wartime circumstances; but, it's the "British" part that I not only feel is inaccurate but is also largely responsible for the fact that most of Canada's younger generations have never even heard of this beautiful liner because their connection to her, as well their country's ownership of the vessel, has been taken away from them by many misinformed historians out there. By allowing sucha travesty to remain in force, contemporary historians are not only both defaming and staining the memory of the EMPRESS of BRITAIN, but they are also allowing her history to fade away and die and that is wrong. As a matter of fact, it's more than wrong and I for one choose to stand up against it today and every day from here on out until this horrible wrong has been righted.

I've always been passionate about my stance to both preserve and promote the true stories of the Canadian Pacific liner EMPRESS of BRITAIN but in the last several weeks, especially since the 70th anniversary of her maiden voyage took place this year, it's been bothering me something fierce. I even went to one of the creators of one of the ocean liner webpages on Facebook and asked about why the Canadians dont justifiably claim ownership of the great liner's memory and he told me what alotta maritime historians claim - that the Canadian Pacific Line was mainly run by the Brits and that her port of registry was London, which therefore made the EMPRESS a British ship. To him and every other maritime historian all I can say is this - I totally disagree.

Just because an ocean liner is built in any given country, that does NOT mean that that vessel is soley owned by that country. My gawd, over the last 100 years or so, there have been so many ocean liners built in this-or-that country for shipping lines in this-or-that country, as well as had ports-of-registry totally different from their national origins, that it's nothing new in the maritime world. During the 1930's, the EMPRESS of BRITAIN was not the only ship built, as well as port-registered, in a country foreign to her own - the STOCKHOLM of 1938 is a classic example of this. She was built in Italy yet she was never even launched, but destroyed on the very same stockyards where her keel was laid down. This was not true just of these two liners, there were a whole slew of liners which were constructed in the same exact manner. In other words, does that mean the STOCKHOLM was an Italian liner because she was built there? Absolutely not. The Swedish American Line ordered her to be built there and when she was destroyed during the war, it was Sweden's loss, not Italy's. I think y'all get the point of what I'm saying. It is historical blasphemy that every book, every periodical and every website that has information pertaining to the EMPRESS of BRITAIN insists that all claims regarding her belong to the British beause they dont, they belong to Canada. She was a Canadian ocean liner built for and managed by a shipping line in her home country, so it only makes sense that the history of this vessel be both preserved and revered in her native land, Canada.

I'm sure there are folks over in Canada who could give a rat's ass either way about any and everything pertaining to the EMPRESS of BRITAIN but for those Canadian citizens who do care about their maritime history, I would very much like to say to them "Look, it's your national right, as well as your country's historical right, to lay permanent claim to this ship and it's history." For those of you over in Canada who are just as passionate about ocean liners as I am, you dont have to sit back in your chairs and say "Damn, we never even hadda national flagship in our country's history" because you most certainly did. And you still do. Dont get me wrong, I'm not encouraging or fostering anymore anti-British sentiment than what already exists over there in Canada but what I am stating is that as Canadian citizens, you do have the right to justifiably reclaim your country's maritime history - or any other part of its history for that matter.

It's been said that one person cannot change the world, that they can definitely make a profound difference, but that it takes more than just the actions of one to make a major impact. Maybe that is true and maybe no matter how much I try to defend as well as promote what I know is the truth regarding the EMPRESS of BRITAIN, maybe things wont change but I hope that in time they will. One thing is for certain, at least by writing about her and sharing her story with others, I have managed to keep her memory alive, here in the year 2011 and hopefully even beyond that. Thank you for reading.

Note: I loaded at least one dozen or more images into this piece and I truly dont know if they'll all copy okay or not so if any of this looks jagged after I post it, please keep in mind that I am still experimenting with images yet and will eventually get it downpat to the point where it all will look very nice and professional - or so I hope!

Posted via email from Luctor Et Emergo