Empress of Ireland disaster was a deadly collision of two steamships on Canada’s Saint Lawrence River on May 29, 1914. In the early morning in a heavy fog, the Norwegian ship Storstad crashed into the Empress of Ireland, a Canadian ship. The collision opened a large hole in the side of the Empress, and the ship sank in 14 minutes. More than 1,000 passengers and crew members died in the disaster.
The Empress was a cargo and passenger ship owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway. From 1906 to 1914, it carried many European emigrants across the Atlantic Ocean to Quebec. The Storstad was a _collier—_that is, a ship that carries coal.
Early on May 29, 1914, the Empress was headed east from Rimouski, Quebec. It had stopped there to pick up mail. The Storstad, loaded with coal, was traveling west. Shortly before 2:00 a.m., the ships encountered heavy fog. The crew of the Storstad adjusted the ship’s course to avoid the area where they thought the Empress was. However, the Storstad ’_s crew had misjudged the intended course of the _Empress. As a result, the Storstad crashed into the Empress’_s _starboard (right) side.
Because the Storstad was loaded with coal and sitting low in the water, it struck the Empress well below the river’s surface. Water rushed into the hole in the side of the Empress so quickly that the ship’s crew could not activate its safety features. Only about five life boats were lowered into the water before the Empress overturned and sank. After the collision, the crew of the Storstad stopped their ship to take stock of their own damages. They heard cries through the fog. They then returned to the site of the crash, launched their four life boats, and began to rescue survivors from the Empress.
Fewer than 500 people aboard the Empress survived. One of the survivors was the ship’s captain, Henry Kendall. An official Canadian inquiry found the Storstad responsible for the wreck.
The Empress of Ireland remains on the floor of the St. Lawrence River. It is about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from the city of Pointe-au-Père, Quebec. A buoy on the water’s surface marks the location. A museum at Pointe-au-Père commemorates the shipwreck. Many of the people who died in the accident are buried nearby at Métis-sur-Mer, Quebec.
See also Saint Lawrence River (map).
