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RMS Empress
Posted by Raven on July 27th, 2008
The RMS Empress
Builder: John Brown & Co.(Clydebank) Ltd, Clydebank, Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Yard Number:530
Date of Build: 1930
Length: 760.6 ft
Breadth: 97.6 ft
Draft: 32 ft
Gross Registered Tonnage: 42,348 tonnes
Power: Steam turbines developing 62,500 shaft horse power driving quadruple screws.
Maximum Speed: 26 knots
Service Speed: 24 knots
Passengers & Crew: 465 First Class, 260 Tourist Class, 470 Third Class and 714 crew
The RMS Empress was designed as a dual role ship for the service from Southampton to Quebec City via Cherbourg and for world cruising. Her world cruises in the 1930s during the winter season soon became legendary circumnavigations of the world… A tradition that has been continued by the legendary RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 today.
She did not sail on the most prestigious of ocean liner routes, that from Europe to New York, but instead the route to Canada. Despite this she was certainly the equal of any of the grand ships of state that plied that route and indeed she surpassed many of them. With her three imposing funnels and white hull and superstructure, she imparted an air of majesty and power – while her interiors were a combination of traditional period styles touched with the glamour of art deco. She indeed was the most stylish and highly individual liner ever built for a British company. At 42,348 grt she also was the largest liner to sail between any two ports of the British Empire and deservedly was Canadian Pacific’s flagship.
In 1940 tragedy struck when the great liner was attacked by German bombers off the coast of Ireland and set on fire. The stricken liner was then taken under tow bound for the Clyde. However she was again attacked and torpedoed by a German U-boat. On the 28th October 1940 the Empress of Britain slipped beneath the waves of the North Atlantic, a mere 1/2 day’s sailing from the shipyard where she had been built. Britain’s greatest liner was no more.
