Empress
of Ireland and her sister Empress of Britain were
built on a fixed-price contract. At a cost to Canadian Pacific
of £375,000 each, the vessels were to be delivered within
18 months. The contract stipulated that the vessels must sustain
a speed of 19.25 knots. At a time
when a few adventurous shipping lines were testing steam turbines
in their liners, Canadian Pacific took a conservative stance
and decided on traditional quadruple expansion steam engines.
As
it turned out, the generated 18,000 horsepower actually gave
Empress of Ireland a service speed of 20 knots.
Certainly a swift liner, if not the fastest, she would without
a doubt be one elegant lady.
As Canadian Pacific's new flagship, Empress of Ireland
was to be adorned with over 46,700 square feet of mahogany
and wherever it was feasible, solid woods were used. When this
presented a problem or was simply impractical, veneers were
used, applied in thin layers held together by adhesive. Passenger
spaces were panelled in mahogany as well as satinwood, alderwood
and bird's-eye maple. The panelling was framed by handcarved
moldings born of mahogany, oak and yellow pine. Walnut, various
other pines and teak were used extensively throughout the ship
in cabinetry and even furniture, which Fairfield manufactured
itself.
Empress of Ireland was comprised of eight decks. The
hull itself was divided into eleven watertight compartments,
any two of which could be flooded without fear of the vessel
sinking. Ten transverse bulkheads depended on 24 watertight
doors to be effective, though. Bulkhead No. 5, for example,
employed a vertically sliding door operated by a machinery engineer
and 4 horizontally sliding doors operated from one deck
up using a rack and pinion system. This bulkhead separated the
massive boiler rooms, which; due to their size, made Empress
of Ireland extremely vulnerable amidships. This apparent
lapse in judgement would prove her undoing years later...
Heating and cooling of passenger cabins was provided by Thermo-Tank
Ventilating Company of Glasgow. In cold weather, low pressure
steam from the ship's engines was pumped to heater tubes. Electric
fans then pulled in air from outside the ship and pulls it through
the tubes, directing it through a ventilation system to each
cabin via louvers near the ceiling. A fine spray of steam from
a need in the ventilation tube humidified the air. A louver
near the floor acted as an exhaust system. In warm weather the
system was reversed, with stale hot air exiting a cabin via
the ceiling louvers. The system was quite ingenious and claimed
a "...complete change of air (heating or cooling as desired)
once every ten minutes..."
One of the finest rooms aboard the Empress was the First-Class
Dining Room, located on the Shelter Deck, was situated amidships
to lessen the tossing of the ship in rough seas. Spanning the
entire width of the ship, this finely appointed room was 58
feet long and could seat 224 at one time. A large well rose
up through the next two decks (Lower and Upper Promenade Decks)
and was capped by a large skylight on the Boat Deck. The First-Class
Staircase provided access from the Boat Deck to the Dining Room.
Directly above the Dining Room was the café, which catered
to the whims of the First-Class passenger in need of light snacks
or beverages throughout the day. Finished in Italian walnut,
it came to be known as "the Italian Café"
and ironically was the venue for afternoon tea served in the
"proper British tradition". Travelling one deck up
from the café
through the central well would place you in the Music Room.
This room served as a recreational retreat for First-Class passengers.
Richly appointed with polished satinwood and chairs lavishly
upholstered in rose taffeta, the Music Room boasted
a Steinway grand piano and a coal-bruning fireplace.
Empress of Ireland was launched on Saturday January 27th,
1906. A large crowd gathered on the banks of the River Clyde
to see the new Canadian Pacific liner slip into the water for
the first time. This same month had seen the long-awaited royal
mail subsidy awarded to Canadian Pacific as well (it was actually
split between CPR and the Allan Line) so the launch of Emprress
of Ireland was a dubious occasion indeed. Only 3 months
earlier her sister ship Empress of Britain had been launched
and soon CPR would have it's queens steaming across the Atlantic
in unison. At approximately 2:30 PM, Mrs. Alexandar Gracie,
the wife of Fairfield's managing director, christened the Empress
and the warning signals were sounded to clear the river. As
the mighty hull travelled more than 928 feet, the crowd cheered
in celebration.
Her fitting out went fairly quickly and on June 5th Empress
of Ireland went through two days of sea trials, besting
her sister by topping 20 knots on the first day and on June
7th, the second day of trials, sustained 19.6 knots during an
endurance run. Empress of Britain was one-third knot
slower. After some additional changes were made, including the
addition of more electric lights, some alterations to the Music
Room and new curtains for the First-Class Dining Room, Empress
of Ireland was ready to depart Liverpool on her maiden voyage
on Friday June 29th, 1906. Under the command of Captain Frank
Carey, she sailed through the Irish Seato Moville, Ireland.
Here she docked until the next day when she headed out into
the Atlantic. Rough seas on July 4th and 5th kept her first
trip out from being a record-setter but nonetheless her 2,623
miles journey was heralded as a success for the Canadian Pacific
Line. Despite her 5:00 AM arrival in Quebec on Saturday July
7th, she was greeted by a large crowd of cheering well-wishers
wanting to get their first glimpse of the new liner.
On her third crossing, began July 16th, 1906, Empress of
Ireland did set a new record, though there was no Blue
Ribbad equivalent on the Canadian run. She traveled from Moville
to Pointe au Pere in 5 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes. Over the
course of the next 8 years, Empress of Ireland earned
a reputation as a safe and luxurious ship, surely the finest
on the Canadian run. Passengers recalled their voyages aboard
her with fondness and adoration. On May 1st, 1914 a new captain
stepped aboard at Halifax. Captain Henry George Kendell was
a seasoned Canadian Pacific skipper and despite his undeniable
worth as a sailor, some feared the reputation that preceded
him. Some say, and perhaps only in retrospect, that Kendell
brought with him the curse laid upon him several years earlier
by Doctor Hawley Harvey Crippin...
NEXT:
Crippin's Curse
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