The tug Eureka and the launch Lady
Evelyn had just returned to dock from picking up the pilot from and exchanging
mail with the outbound Empress Of Ireland when they were ordered to turn around
immediately and head back out, the Empress was sinking.
It
had only been the previous afternoon of May 28, 1914 at about 4:30 when the
Canadian Pacific steamship set sail from Quebec City down the St. Lawrence
River bound for Liverpool. On board were
1,479 passengers and crew, including a contingent of delegates of Salvation Army
people bound for a convention in England.
The
pilot had been dropped off at 1:20 AM at about the same time the mail was
exchanged. A short time later at about 1:38 the lights of a steamer, the
Norwegian collier Storstad, were sighted heading upstream. Fog quickly
enveloped both ships. At about 1:55 the crew of the Empress were shocked to see
the Storstad heading right towards them. The captain ordered full speed ahead,
but it was too late and Storstad hit the Empress between the two funnels
opening up a 350 square foot hole. The mortally wounded Empress turned on its
side and 14 minutes after the collision it was on the bottom of the St.
Lawrence.
Of
the 1,477 passengers and crew on board only 465 survived. More passengers died
on the Empress Of Ireland than on the Titanic. The official inquiry held in
June, 1914, conducted by Lord Mersey, who also conducted the inquiries into the
loss of the Titanic and the Lusitania, found the Storstad at fault for altering
course. However, the Storstad intended a port to port passing while the Empress
intended a starboard to starboard passing. Something similar occurred in 1956
in the collision between the Stockholm and Andrea Doria. Other factors
contributing to the sinking were both the portholes and the watertight doors
were open allowing the ship to sink quickly, factors also contributing to the
rapid sinking of the Lusitania the following year.
Thomas
Anderson captained the Storstad and Henry George Kendall captained the Empress
Of Ireland. Kendall never went to sea again after the sinking.
Following
the sinking of the Lusitania on May 7, 1915 a story arose of a fireman named
Frank “Lucky” Tower who supposedly survived the sinkings of the Titanic,
Empress Of Ireland and Lusitania. Many decades afterwards when it was found
that no such man was a member of the crew of any of the three ships the story
was thought to be a legend. Research by Senan Molony suggests that the original
story was based on the misspelling of a fireman named Frank Toner, who survived
the Lusitania and claimed to have survived the sinkings of the other two ships
as well.
No
such man is listed as a member of the crew of either the Titanic or the Empress
Of Ireland. Furthermore no further record is found of Frank Toner, who simply
disappeared. Molony suggests that Frank Toner was really William Clark, who was
a crew member of both ships and survived. In comparing the two men he noticed a
number of similarities suggesting they were one in the same person.
For
further information on this see http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/lucky-tower.html
Incidentally
despite being the worse maritime disaster in Canadian history Canada AM, which
spent a week in North Ireland for the Titanic’s anniversary, devoted a mere
five minutes to the disaster. This speaks volumes.
I
first learned of the Empress Of Ireland in the 1970s from a book on Canadian
disasters and from the book Great Ship Disasters by A. A. Hoehling. The date
also marks the anniversary of my wife and I first meeting face to face. (We met
online.)
For
additional information on the Empress Of Ireland see
Wikipedia’s
article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland
Encyclopedia
Titanica’s article
PBS
Except From “Lost Liners”
Short
Video Of The Empress Of Ireland
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