RMS Empress of Russia
Empress of Russia
| |
History | |
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Canada | |
Name | Empress of Russia |
Owner | Canadian Pacific Railway |
Operator | Canadian Pacific SS Co Ltd |
Port of registry | Vancouver |
Route | Vancouver – Hong Kong |
Builder | Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Govan |
Yard number | 484 |
Launched | 28 August 1912 |
Completed | March 1913 |
Maiden voyage | 1 April 1913 |
Identification |
|
Fate | Scrapped 1945, Barrow |
General characteristics | |
Type | Ocean liner |
Tonnage | |
Length | 570 ft (173.7 m) |
Beam | 68 ft (20.7 m) |
Installed power | 8,720 NHP |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) |
Capacity |
|
Notes | sister ship: Empress of Asia |
RMS Empress of Russia was a
History
Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company built the ship at Govan near Glasgow in Scotland.[1] Empress of Russia was launched on 28 August 1912 and completed in March 1913.[2]
She left
The 16,810 GRT vessel had a length of 570 feet (173.7 m), and her beam was 68 feet (20.7 m). She had three funnels and two masts. Her four steam turbines drove four screws, giving her a cruising speed of 19 knots (35 km/h). The ocean liner provided accommodation for 284 first-class passengers and for 100 second class passengers. There was also room for up to 800 steerage-class passengers.[3] This was the first liner to have a straight stern like a warship; and the advantages of this type of stern were revealed in terms of speed, vibration, steering and seagoing qualities.[7]
Empress of Russia's UK official number was 135197 and until 1933 her code letters were JBSQ.[8] In 1934 her code letters were superseded by the call sign VGKW.[9]
World War I
Empress of Russia was requisitioned by the
In November 1914, the highlight of this Indian Ocean tour of duty followed from a rendezvous at sea with the Australian cruiser
On April 30, 1915, Empress of Russia sailed from Hong Kong to the Red Sea, where she served until October 1915.[13]
In one incident, the guns of Empress of Russia were brought to bear on Hodeidah in what is modern Yemen. Bluntly, the Turks were told that if British and French consuls, who had been kidnapped, were not brought back, the port city would be demolished.[13]
Shortly afterwards, Empress of Russia was released by the Admiralty for a return to civilian service. The ship was refitted at Hong Kong, arriving there on 19 October, going into dock on 25 October and finally paying off on 12 February 1916. Empress of Russia then returned to her familiar trans-Pacific route.[3] Amongst those sailing with Empress of Russia in this period was Sumner Welles, who was to become one of President Franklin Roosevelt's foreign policy advisers.[14]
In April 1917 Empress of Russia brought 2,056 members of the
The British Admiralty called Empress of Russia to wartime service for a second time in early 1918. She was to be used in transporting American troops to Europe.
Empress of Russia's last wartime voyage began from Liverpool on 12 January 1919. She sailed to Le Havre where Chinese labor battalions boarded Empress of Russia for the return voyage via Suez to Hong Kong. From the Far East, she sailed across the Pacific to Vancouver for re-fitting.[3]
This ship remained a coal-burner after the Great War, even though many liners at that time were being converted to oil.[16]
Between the wars
Between the wars, Empress of Russia resumed regular trans-Pacific crossings. Her first post-war voyage began on 10 April 1919; and the pre-war route was somewhat modified on this trip. On this occasion, she sailed from Vancouver to Manila outward bound; and she stopped at Vladivostok on the return voyage to North America from the Far East to pick up Canadian soldiers who had served at part of the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force during the Russian Revolution. In this period, Empress of Russia transported Philippine Senator Manuel L. Quezon on his return to Manila from the first Independence Mission to the US Congress in 1919.[17] These trans-Pacific sailings continued up through December 1940.
The routine nature of her schedule did nothing to diminish public interest in the comings and goings of Empress of Russia. For example, The New York Times regularly published news of mail ships sailings. In an era when airplanes carrying mail was still relatively novel, for example, the newspaper published a regular "Shipping and Mails" column. In a 1938 edition, the Times reported:
Letter mail and printed matter for China, Brunei, Dutch East Indies (including Sumatra), French Indo-China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Labuan, Malay States, North Borneo, Philippine islands, Sarawak and Straits Settlements and printed matter for Siam via Yokohama. 27 April. Shanghai 2 May. Hong Kong 5 May and Manila 7 May. Parcel Post for China, French Indo-China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Siam. Air mail closes G.P.O 10 P.M. 14 April.
— The New York Times, [18]
During this peacetime period, she completed 310 crossings.[3] Amongst the famous passengers who traveled on Empress of Russia were Chinese Nationalist leaders Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek, who sailed from Hong Kong to Shanghai in 1922;[19] and American humorist Will Rogers who sailed to Japan in late-November 1932.[20]
World War II
Empress of Russia was again commissioned by the British Admiralty as a troop transport. Initially, she carried Australian and New Zealand Air Force recruits to Canada for flight school training. In March 1941, she was refitted at dockyards on the River Clyde in Scotland.[3]
The captain of Empress of Russia in 1941–42 would only realize many years later that he had had a VIP aboard — a young Midshipman Philip Mountbatten (later to become Duke of Edinburgh) is remembered for having helped stoke the boilers in 1941.[21]
Empress of Russia was involved in the North Africa landings in 1943. In October 1943, she made a special trip to Gothenburg to exchange prisoners of war. This was followed by seven trips to Reykjavík for the RAF.[3]
In early 1944, she was used as an accommodation ship at Rosyth for Russian crews who were to take over a number of British warships. In June, she was moved to Spithead where she was used as a depot ship for tugs after the D-Day landings.
In October 1944, she sailed to
See also
- CP Ships
- List of ocean liners
- List of ships in British Columbia
Notes
- ^ Johnston, Ian. "Govan Shipyard" in Ships Monthly. Archived 11 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine June 1985.
- ^ "Empress of Russia (1135197)". Miramar Ship Index. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Swiggum, Susan; Kohli, Marjorie (28 July 2010). "Ship Descriptions – E". The Ships List. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
- ^ Musk, George. (1981). Canadian Pacific: The Story of the Famous Shipping Line, p. 129.
- ^ Hammer, Joshua. (2006). Yokohama Burning: The Deadly 1923 Earthquake and Fire that Helped Forge the Path to World War II, p. 60.
- ^ Macmillan, Allister. (1925). Seaports of the Far East: Historical and Descriptive, Commercial and Industrial Facts, Figures, & Resources, p. 247.
- ^ "S/S Empress of Russia, Canadian Pacific Line". Norway–Heritage.
- ^ Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1930. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
- ^ Lloyd's Register, Steamers & Motorships (PDF). London: Lloyd's Register. 1945. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
- ^ British Admiralty War Medal Rolls. The National Archives
- ^ images in the Vancouver City Archives
- ^ "When Australians Sailed to the War; Like a Vast Regatta at Sea, the Troopship Armada Moved North with 30,000 Soldiers." The New York Times. 31 January 1915.
- ^ a b Correspondents of the London Times. (1920). The Times History of the War, p. 125.
- ^ Welles, Benjamin. (1997) Sumner Welles: FDR's Global Strategist : a Biography, p. 51.
- ^ Johnson, Peter. Quarantined – Life and Death at Williams Head Station 1872–1959.[page needed]
- ^ CPR Ships: Partial List, Empress of Russia.
- ^ Quirino, Carlos. (1971). Quezon: Paladin of Philippine Freedom, p. 135.
- ^ "Shipping and Mails; Ships Which Arrived Yesterday Incoming Passenger and Mail Ships Ships Which Departed Yesterday Outgoing Passenger and Mail Ships Panama Canal Outgoing Freighters Carrying No Mail Incoming Foreign Mail Outgoing Transpacific Mail". The New York Times. 11 April 1938.
- ^ Jieru Chen, Ch'en Chieh-Ju. (1993). Chiang Kai-shek's Secret Past: The Memoir of His Second Wife, Ch'en,
- ^ Rogers, W. et al. (2005). The Papers of Will Rogers. p. 26.
- ^ Royal Navy Reserve Officers, 1939–1945: Maurice Jeffrey Dabbs Mayall, Cdre. 2nd cl. (ret), 1882–1966.
References
- Chen, Jieru (Ch'en Chieh-Ju). (1993). Chiang Kai-shek's Secret Past: The Memoir of His Second Wife, Ch'en. Boulder, Colorado: ISBN 978-0-8133-1825-7(paper)
- Correspondents of the London Times. (1920).The Times History of the War. London: The Times (London).
- Macmillan, Allister. (1925). Seaports of the Far East: Historical and Descriptive, Commercial and Industrial Facts, Figures, & Resources. London: W. H. & L. Collingridge. ASIN: B0008C4XZI
- Musk, George. (1981). Canadian Pacific: The Story of the Famous Shipping Line. Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada.
- Osborne, Richard; Spong, Harry & Grover, Tom (2007). Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878–1945. Windsor, UK: World Warship Society. ISBN 978-0-9543310-8-5.
- Quirino, Carlos. (1971). Quezon: Paladin of Philippine Freedom. Manila: Filipiniana Book Guild. ASIN: B0006BZVVQ
- Rogers, William, ISBN 978-0-8061-3768-1(cloth)
- Welles, Benjamin. (1997). Sumner Welles: FDR's Global Strategist : a Biography. New York: ISBN 978-0-312-17440-8(cloth)
External links
- Swiggum, Susan; Kohli, Marjorie (28 July 2010). "Ship Descriptions – E". The Ships List.
- "Canadian Pacific, CP Page 1 – Ocean Liners up to 1914". Simplon Postcards. – photograph of RMS Empress of Russia
- "Troop transport Empress of Russia in 1942". BBC WW2 People's War. Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
- "accompanying Empress of Russia to Iceland in 1944". BBC WW2 People's War. Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
- "Empress of Russia, p. 10" (PDF). ships pictures index. Australian National Maritime Museum Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 July 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2008.
- "Empress of Russia, Photo NS. 13944, 1925". Archives. Canadian Pacific Railway. Archived from the original on 17 March 2005.[dead link]