Zero Hours: The Collision between the S/S Empress of Ireland and the S/S Storstad: (Russian Audio)

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• published: 25 Feb 2017
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Столкновение между S / S Императрицы Ирландии и S / S Storstad he Empress of Ireland, a Canadian Pacific Railway ocean liner, was built in the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Yards in Govan, Scotland. This luxurious CPR pride of the Atlantic set out on her maiden voyage to Canada on June 29, 1906. The Empress was 549 feet long, 66 feet wide, and had a gross tonnage of 14,191 tons, with twin propellers, and an average speed of 20 knots. The capacity was 1536 passengers: 310 in first class, 468 in 2nd class, and 758 in 3rd class. In winter she sailed between Liverpool and St. John, NB or Halifax, NS. In summer she docked in Quebec City. Between 1901 and 1911, the lure of free agricultural land made Canada the fastest growing country in the world. During this time, the Minister of the Interior sent out millions of pamphlets in a dozen European languages that promoted the virtues of farming in western Canada. CPR had offices and issued tickets from many locations in all of Scandinavia including Stavanger, Trondheim, Christiania (Oslo), Gothenburg, and Helsinki. Throughout its 96 voyages, the Empress brought over to Canada a total of 117,089 passengers. Thousands of these passengers were Scandinavians who continued westward to homestead in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. It is conservatively estimated that in western Canada, there are 400,000 residents alive today who have a connection to the liner. After the sinking of the Titanic, regulations regarding safety became very strict. The Empress of Ireland was fitted with 16 steel lifeboats to hold 764 persons; 20 Englehardt and 6 Berthon Types to hold another 1201 for a total of 1965 persons, far exceeding its total capacity of 1536 passengers. CPR had stringent rules for passenger safety. On May 15, 1914 while in Liverpool harbor, during a safety drill, all lifeboats were lowered within 4 minutes. On May 28, 1914, 1057 passengers boarded the Empress of Ireland at the harbor in Quebec City, for the first of the summer voyages from this city to Liverpool. First class was filled with 87 passenger. Most were business leaders and wealthy persons among whom were world traveler, Sir Henry Seton Karr, actors Mabel and Laurence Irving who had just completed a successful Canadian tour, and Ella Hart-Bennett the wife of the Colonial Secretary of the Bahamas. In Second class, there were 167 members of the Salvation Army on their way to the third Salvation Army International Congress in London. Most noted was the Commander of the Canadian Salvation Army, Commissioner Rees and his family. Third class was comprised of many ethnic groups: Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, Italians and Latvians. Most of these passengers were returning to their former homes in Europe to visit their relatives and, in many cases, to bring them over to Canada. This was the first east-bound trip Captain Henry George Kendall, the 39 year old rising star with Canadian Pacific Railway, had been in command of the liner. On May 28th, 1914 at 4.27 p.m. the Empress began its 96th transatlantic crossing. The Salvation Army Band struck up “God be With You till we Meet Again” as the liner pulled away from the pier. The evening was uneventful. Third class passengers chose what they could from the supper menu of gruel, cabin biscuits and cheese. In the second class music room, passengers were entertained by the Salvation Army band. The next morning, May 29th, around 1:30 a.m., as was the custom, the pilot departed the ship, now near Rimouski, Quebec. Then the Empress gathered up speed, and headed for open water on the wide St. Lawrence River. Captain Kendall had just arrived on the bridge when he observed a ship low in the water off the starboard side about six miles east. What Kendall saw was a 6,000 ton vessel heading up river from Sydney, Nova Scotia. It was the Norwegian collier, the Storstad, fully loaded with coal. The Empress altered course slightly, planning to pass green to green, or starboard to starboard. At this moment, a huge thick fog bank rolled in. Captain Kendall, certain that he had seen the green light of the other ship, ordered the Empress full astern and gave three short blasts indicating he was reversing. Then he stopped the ship and gave two more blasts, informing the oncoming vessel that the Empress was dead in the water.