"Empress of Ireland"

Think of a major shipping disaster and the first that jumps into mind is that of the Titanic, the White Start liner sunk by an iceberg on her maiden voyage. However, only two years later, a tragedy of similar epic proportions took place of the confines of the St Lawrence River. On a dark night in May 1914 the Norwegian collier Storstad rammed the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Ireland. In less than fifteen minutes over 1,000 people drowned trying to escape. They died within sight of land. The Empress disaster has been overlooked for years, always overshadows by Titanic, but, unlike Titanic, the Empress had been in service for eight years. She was inherently safe, fast and luxurious and she and her sister, Empress of Britain, had carried many thousands of people to Canada from the UK, Ireland and Europe. This is the story not just of that fateful night but also of the ship, her crew and her passengers over her short life.