The Empress of Ireland Disaster: Canada’s Titanic
By Jack Ripley | May 24, 2024
Lessons Learned After the Titanic
The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 was still fresh in the minds of many people when another maritime disaster occurred in North America in the wee hours of May 29, 1914. In this incident, a passenger ship named The Empress of Ireland, outfitted with the latest safety updates implemented after the loss of the Titanic, struck another ship in the foggy Saint Lawrence River and sank in less than 15 minutes. Let’s take a closer look at this incident, which has the notoriety of being Canada’s worst peacetime maritime disaster.
Following the sinking of the Titanic, changes were made to passenger ships. Ships needed to be equipped with watertight compartments and there needed to be enough lifeboats for every person on board.
The Empress of Ireland
The Empress of Ireland complied with these upgrades. The Empress of Ireland, along with her sister ship, The Empress of Britain, was built in Scotland by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, which called itself the “world’s greatest transportation system.” Both ships were being used by the Canadian Pacific Steamships to run their passenger route across the North Atlantic, transporting passengers between Liverpool, England, and Quebec City, Quebec. They were instrumental in boosting the population of Canada in the early 1900s. In just a few years, tens of thousands of passengers traveled on either The Empress of Ireland or The Empress of Britain, making it the primary mode of transportation between Canada and Great Britain. The Empress of Ireland had a great track record. It had 95 uneventful crossings. It was the 96th one that proved fateful.
The Saint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence River is a vital waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean with Lake Ontario and, thus, the rest of the Great Lakes. Situated on the Saint Lawrence River, Quebec City was a growing city, one of the oldest European cities in North America, and the chief port for immigrants coming into Canada.
The Accident
The Empress of Ireland set out from Quebec City on its way to Liverpool in the evening hours of May 28, 1914. The fog was thick on the Saint Lawrence River, making visibility reduced. At 1:38 a.m. on the morning of May 29, 1914, a sailor positioned in the ship’s crow’s nest reported the headlight of an oncoming ship, The Storstad, a Norwegian vessel laden with 10,000 tons of coal. Although an alert was sounded, the captains of both boats were confused about each other’s positions in the river. For nine full minutes, the two ships steamed toward each other without slowing. At 1:47 a.m., The Storstad struck The Empress of Ireland, ripping a massive 350-square-foot hole in her side. The Storstad was undamaged in the incident. But the fate of The Empress of Ireland was sealed.
Sleeping Passengers
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The Empress of Ireland was carrying 1,477 passengers at the time of the accident. Second and third-class passengers were sleeping in quarters in the lower parts of the ship, while first-class passengers were in cabins higher up on the ship. Water poured into the passenger ship at the rate of about 60 gallons per second. The first-class passengers had only minutes to get out. The second and third-class passengers had even less time. Just over 14 minutes after the collision, The Empress of Ireland completely sank below the waters of the Saint Lawrence River.
Rescue Efforts
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The crew of The Storstad immediately began rescuing survivors from The Empress of Ireland. Other ships from the nearest town, Rimouski, came to assist with the rescue efforts. Sadly, there were only 465 people to be rescued. The remaining 1,012 people were unable to make it out of the rapidly sinking ship. To add to the heartbreak, of the 138 children aboard the ship, only four survived. The comparable loss of life led to the sinking of The Empress of Ireland to be called ‘Canada’s Titanic’.
The Luckiest Passenger of All
William Clarke, who hailed from County Louth in Ireland, could easily claim the title of the luckiest person aboard The Empress of Ireland. A firefighter by trade, Clarke was a crew member on the Titanic and survived the sinking of that ship just two years earlier. He then signed onto the crew of The Empress of Ireland and managed to survive the sinking of this ship as well.
Why Haven’t You Heard About This Disaster?
While most people have heard of the Titanic disaster, the sinking of The Empress of Ireland is not as well known. There are a few key reasons for that. First, the incident took place in Canada, not the United States. It was national news in Canada, but not so much in the U.S. Second, the focus of the world was on the trouble brewing in Europe at the time. Two months after The Empress of Ireland disaster, World War I broke out.
