Transcriber’s Note
Spelling errors and other inaccuracies in the lists of survivors and rolls of the dead are preserved as printed.
The Tragic Story
Of The
Empress of Ireland
An Authentic Account of the Most
Horrible Disaster in Canadian History,
Constructed from the Real
Facts Obtained from Those on
Board Who Survived
And Other Great Sea Disasters
BY
LOGAN MARSHALL
Author of “The Story of Polar Conquest,” “The
Story of the Panama Canal,” Etc.
Containing the Statements of
CAPTAIN HENRY GEORGE KENDALL
Commanding the Empress of Ireland
——And——
CAPTAIN THOMAS ANDERSEN
Commanding the Storstad
ILLUSTRATED
With Numerous Authentic Photographs and Drawings
Copyright, 1914, by
L. T. MYERS
THE EMPRESS OF IRELAND
One of the finest ships of the Canadian line. Soon after leaving Quebec on her voyage to Liverpool with over 1,300 souls on board, she was struck by the Norwegian collier “Storstad” off Father Point, Quebec, on May 29, 1914, at 2.10 A. M., and sank about fifteen minutes later, carrying a thousand of her passengers down with her.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| Introduction | [9] | |
| I. | The Empress of Ireland Sails to Her Doom | [13] |
| II. | Captain Kendall Blames the Storstad | [29] |
| III. | Captain Andersen’s Defense | [33] |
| IV. | Miraculous Escape of the Few | [37] |
| V. | The Stricken Survivors Return | [44] |
| VI. | Heroes of the Empress Disaster | [64] |
| VII. | The Surgeon’s Thrilling Story | [71] |
| VIII. | Ship of Death Reaches Quebec | [74] |
| IX. | Solemn Services for the Dead | [83] |
| X. | Crippling Loss to the Salvation Army | [92] |
| XI. | Notable Passengers Aboard | [110] |
| XII. | List of Survivors and Roll of the Dead | [118] |
| XIII. | The Storstad Reaches Port | [125] |
| XIV. | Parliament Shocked by the Calamity | [132] |
| XV. | Messages of Sympathy and Help | [134] |
| XVI. | Placing the Blame | [140] |
| XVII. | Empress in Fact, as in Name | [156] |
| XVIII. | The Norwegian Collier Storstad | [161] |
| XIX. | The St. Lawrence: A Beautiful River | [163] |
| XX. | The Tragic Story of the Titanic Disaster | [175] |
| XXI. | The Most Sumptuous Palace Afloat | [178] |
| XXII. | The Titanic Strikes an Iceberg | [186] |
| XXIII. | “Women and Children First” | [197] |
| XXIV. | Left to Their Fate | [221] |
| XXV. | The Call for Help Heard | [231] |
| XXVI. | In the Drifting Life-Boats | [235] |
| XXVII. | The Tragic Home-Coming | [254] |
| XXVIII. | Other Great Marine Disasters | [284] |
| XXIX. | Development of Shipbuilding | [292] |
| XXX. | Safety and Life-Saving Devices | [300] |
| XXXI. | Seeking Safety at Sea | [307] |
FACTS ABOUT THE WRECK OF THE EMPRESS OF IRELAND
NUMBER of persons aboard, 1,475.
Number of persons saved, 397.
Number of persons dead, 1,078.
Total number of first-class passengers, 87.
Total number of second-class passengers, 256.
Total number of third-class passengers, 717.
Total number of crew, 415.
The Salvation Army Delegation numbered 150; of these 124 were lost.
The Empress of Ireland was a twin-screw vessel of 14,500 tons.
The vessel was built in Glasgow in 1906 by the Fairfield Company, Ltd., and was owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The Storstad is a single-screw vessel, registering 6,028 tons.
The vessel was built by the Armstrong, Whitworth Company at Newcastle in 1911, and is owned by the Dampsk Aktieselk Maritime of Christiania, Norway.
CANADA MOURNS
INTRODUCTION
THOSE who go down to the sea in ships” was once a synonym for those who gambled with death and put their lives upon the hazard. Today the mortality at sea is less than on common carriers on land. But the futility of absolute prevention of accident is emphasized again and again. The regulation of safety makes catastrophes like that of the Empress of Ireland all the more tragic and terrible. A blow, a ripping, the side taken out of a ship, darkness, the inrush of waters, a panic, and then in the hush the silent corpses drifting by.
So with the Canadian liner. She has gone to her grave leaving a trail of sorrow behind her. Hundreds of human hearts and homes are in mourning for the loss of dear companions and friends. The universal sympathy which is written in every face and heard in every voice proves that man is more than the beasts that perish. It is an evidence of the divine in humanity. Why should we care? There is no reason in the world, unless there is something in us that is different from lime and carbon and phosphorus, something that makes us mortals able to suffer together—
“For we have all of us an human heart.”
The collision which sent the Empress of Ireland to the bottom of the St. Lawrence with hundreds of passengers in their berths produced a shudder throughout the civilized world. And the effect on the spirits of the millions who received the shock will not soon pass off. The Titanic tragedy sat heavy on the minds of the people of this generation for months after it happened.
There is hardly any one in touch with world affairs who will not feel himself drawn into the circle of mourners over such a disaster. From every center of great calamity waves of sympathetic sorrow spread to far-distant strangers, but the perishing of great numbers in a shipwreck seems to impress our human nature more profoundly than do accidents or visitations of other kinds in which the toll of death is as great. Our concern for those in danger seems to turn especially to those in peril on the sea.
Science has wrought miracles for the greater protection of those afloat. Wireless telegraphy, air-tight compartments, the construction which has produced what is called “the unsinkable ship,” have added greatly to the safety of ocean travel. But science cannot eliminate the element of error. None of the aids that the workers for safe transit have bestowed on navigation could avail to prevent what happened in the early hours of May 29, 1914. The Empress of Ireland was rammed by another vessel, and so crushed as to be unable to remain afloat for more than fifteen minutes after the impact.
Overwhelmed by the catastrophe we fall back upon that faith in the Unseen Power which is never shaken by the appearance of what seems to be unnecessary evil or inexplicable cruelty. Trust in God involves the belief that behind the stupendous processes of natural life there is a divine wisdom so deeply grounded upon reality that no human mind can comprehend its precepts and a divine love so boundless in its compassion that no human heart can measure its scope. We concede the knowledge of the divine mind to be “too wonderful” for our understanding. “It is high: I cannot attain unto it.”
Therefore we are prepared for the awful, the mysterious, and even the terrible. Nothing in the universal process can disturb or confound us. If a thing appears to be evil it is wisdom which is at fault. If an event seems to be cruel it is our love which is blind. We look upon the chances and changes of human experience even as we gaze at night upon the movements of the heavenly spheres; we would as little think of questioning the beneficence of the one as of the other.
Come sorrow or joy, failure or success, death or life—it is all the same. We trust God, and therefore we trust life, which is simply the thing that God is doing. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him!” Yea, it is only when God seems to slay us that we can trust in Him, for trust begins only when knowledge fails; just as the stars shine only when the sun is gone!
HE IS THE PILOT IN A FOG
CHAPTER I
The Empress of Ireland Sails to Her Doom
ANOTHER TOLL OF THE SEA—THE EMPRESS SAILS FROM QUEBEC—THE HOLIDAY HUMOR OF THE PASSENGERS—CAPTAIN KENDALL WARNED OF FOGS—THE STORSTAD SIGHTED—FOG SUDDENLY SETTLES—THE STORSTAD CRASHES INTO THE EMPRESS—INJURY ON STARBOARD SIDE—A MORTAL BLOW—WIRELESS CALLS FOR HELP—HUNDREDS DROWN IN CABIN—NO TIME TO ROUSE PASSENGERS—LIFE-BOATS LAUNCHED IN RECORD TIME—THE EMPRESS GOES DOWN
ONCE again an appalling sea disaster comes to remind us that no precautions man can take will make him immune against the forces that nature, when she so wills, can assemble against him. It is a truism to say that the most recent marine disaster was preventable. An accident suggests the idea of preventability. The Empress of Ireland was equipped with modern appliances for safety. She had longitudinal and transverse water-tight steel bulkheads and the submarine signaling and wireless apparatus. She was being navigated with all the precaution and care which the dangers of the course and the atmospheric conditions demanded. The Storstad had been sighted and signaled. The Empress was at a standstill, or slowly moving backward in response to a hasty reversal of the engines. Nothing apparently that those responsible for the lives of their passengers could do to safeguard those lives was left undone, and yet hundreds of people perished miserably.