RMS Empress of Canada was an ocean liner launched in 1960 and completed the following year by Vickers-Armstrongs of Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. This ship, the third CP vessel to be named Empress of Canada, regularly traversed the transatlantic route between Liverpool and Canada for the next decade. Although Canadian Pacific Railways was incorporated in Canada, the Atlantic (and pre-war Pacific) liners were owned and operated by the British registered subsidiary Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. and were always British flagged and crewed and therefore Empress of Canada was not the flagship of the Canadian Merchant Marine.
Background Following the end of World War II Canadian Pacific Steamships in 1946 resumed providing a transatlantic service utilizing the cargo liners Beaverburn and , which were joined in 1947-50 by the refitted Empress of Canada (ex-Duchess of Richmond), (ex-Duchess of Bedford), and then Empress of Scotland (ex-Empress of Japan). A dramatic post-war increase in immigration to Canada prompted the company to order the construction of the Empress of Britain and Empress of England which entered service in 1956-57.
The company in July 1957 commenced planning for the construction of a replacement for the Empress of Scotland, which would join the and on the transatlantic route from Liverpool to Montreal. During the months that the St. Lawrence River was frozen (typically November to April) the ships sailed from Liverpool To Saint John, New Brunswick. In addition to servicing the transatlantic trade the Empress of Canada was designed to be Canadian Pacific's premier cruise ship during the winter months and rarely sailed on the liner service in winter.
Design The Empress of Canada measured with a length of and a beam of . She was longer than her earlier sister ships due to a more curved bow and she had more beam. Unlike the earlier CP ships, she had a bulbous bow.
Three Foster Wheeler boilers fed steam (operating at ) to two Pametrada double reduction geared turbines, one for each of her two propellers. The hull was strengthened for ice and fitted with Denny-Brown stabilisers. Designed for a service speed of , she achieved on her trials.
As it had proven popular with the other two new "Empresses" her aluminium funnel (which was of a different design to theirs) was placed amidships with divided uptakes, thus ensuring a long view through the public rooms. She had full air-conditioning with accommodation divided into 192 first class passengers and 856 tourist class. All first class cabins and 70% of tourist class had private facilities. The indoor pool, cinema and two-floor high Canada Room were shared by both classes. During the cruise seasons, the vessel operated as a one class ship. The interior was designed by Patrick McBride of McInnis, Gardiner and Paul Gell.
Construction
The order for the vessel was announced on 3 January 1958 with the £7.5 million contract being awarded to the Vickers-Armstrong yard in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne on the River Tyne in England. This company had built Empress of England on the same slip four years previously. The keel was laid in January 1959, the vessel's name was announced on 11 January 1960 and she was launched on 10 May 1960, one day before the French liner SS France was launched. by Olive Diefenbaker, the wife of the Canadian Prime Minister.
In February 1961 the vessel was moved into the dry dock at Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson's yard at Wallsend. A month later, on 7 March 1961, she departed for her trials in the Firth of Clyde where on 10 March her performance was checked over the Firth of Clyde's Arran measured mile. Following the vessel's return to Vickers-Armstrong for correction of some minor defects she departed for Liverpool late on 25 March 1961, arriving two days later.
On 29 March what was subsequently to be the company's last passenger liner was commissioned into Canadian Pacific service at Liverpool. She remained at Liverpool for a month during which time she was open for inspection by the travel trade and reporters.
Service Canadian Pacific
On 24 April 1961 the Empress of Canada left Liverpool bound for Montreal on her maiden voyage, arriving on the 2 May having become the largest passenger ship to sail up the St Lawrence River. Among the 912 passengers (147 First and 765 Tourist) was author Nicholas Monsarrat.
The liner departed from Montreal on 10 November 1961 at the end of her inaugural transatlantic season bound for Liverpool, from where she departed on 12 December on her maiden crossing to New York, arriving on 19 December following a delay due to bad weather off the US coast. After making three West Indies cruises from New York, she departed on 9 February 1962 carrying 640 passengers on a 61-day, 31 port voyage of the Mediterranean. The ship then returned to the transatlantic service for the rest of the year during which she and her sister Empresses made a total of 33 round voyages between Liverpool and Montreal. On 18 February 1963 the ship departed from New York on her second Mediterranean cruise which over 61 days called at 28 ports. For this cruise which offered single-sitting dining the passenger capacity was limited to 570 guests with 70 extra catering staff employed to look after them.
The ship's first cruise from Britain departed from Liverpool on 21 December 1962 and called at Madeira, Tenerife, Sao Vincente, Las Palmas, Casablanca and Tangier, before ending at Southampton on 7 January 1963. Subsequent she departed on 10 January 1963 on a 28-day cruise of the West Indies. Following her return to Britain at the end of this cruise the Empress of Canada departed Southampton on 12 February 1963 for New York. From New York she then made another Mediterranean cruise which attracted only 369 passengers, which was lower than in previous years, causing her owners to never offer it again. The ship then returned to the transatlantic service for the rest of the year. While on a voyage from Liverpool in September of that year mechanical trouble caused the vessel to end her voyage at Quebec on 18 September 1963 where all her passengers disembarked. She then proceeded to Montreal without them, where repairs were undertaken. Her next voyage from Liverpool was disrupted by a strike of St Lawrence longshoremen, which prevented her from berthing following her arrival off Quebec on 8 October 1963. After two days at anchor she sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she discharged her passengers and cargo. On 15 October she departed for Liverpool with one First class and five Tourist class passengers, looked after by a crew of 400.
Her last transatlantic crossing from Liverpool was to St John where she arrived on 13 December 1963. She then proceeded to New York from where over the winter of 1963-64 she made six Caribbean cruises of between nine and 16 days in duration. The last of the cruises departed from New York on 27 March 1964 with 715 passengers which was the most she had ever carried up until then. On her regular transatlantic crossings she continued to carry many immigrants, an example being that 500 of the 1,006 passengers that she landed at Quebec on 12 July 1965 were immigrants. A strike had prevented her transporting them all the way to Montreal and the same for the next crossing from Liverpool. Over the winter season from 11 December 1965 to 19 March 1966 the ship made eight cruises of up to 15 days in duration.
Her owners had programmed a total of 23 transatlantic sailings for 1966 but a strike by the National Union of Seamen disrupted these plans. This caused her to sit after docking at Liverpool on 20 May until the 4 July when she was finally able to depart for Montreal, arriving on 11 July. The backlog of passengers due to the strike meant that the 1,087 passengers she carried on this voyage was her highest ever. Over the 1966-67 winter season she made seven cruises between 10 December 1966 and 24 March 1967. Among the 24 transatlantic sailings that she completed in 1967 she made five special Expo branded sailings from Liverpool to support Expo 67, which was being held in Montreal. Among the passengers on the Expo sailing that arrived in Montreal on 5 July 1967 were Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco and their three children.
Her last winter crossing for 1967 departed from Liverpool on 24 November 1967 to Quebec from where she made a coastal cruise to New York on 2 December from where she provided seven winter cruises, the last being completed on 23 March 1968. During one of them she ran aground at San Juan, Puerto Rico on 8 February 1968, but was pulled free with no damage. On 4 May in that same year she struck a whale which became impaled on her bow. It was dislodged by going full astern. In 1968 she made 24 transatlantic sailings followed by 16 cruises with the season being extended by her sailing from New York on 3 June 1969 direct to Liverpool, from where she made three summer cruises: 14 days to the Scandinavian capitals and the North Cape starting on 2 July, a three-day mini cruise on 1 August, and a 15-day Mediterranean trip on 19 September, interspersed with the occasional transatlantic service.
In 1968, Canadian Pacific modernised her look, changing their house flag, colour schemes and introducing a new funnel design. As the 1960s progressed transatlantic passenger crossings began to dramatically decrease due to the impact of increased air traffic following developments in aviation design which resulted in faster flights across the ocean. The decline in profitability on the transatlantic route resulted in a number of famous ships leaving or never sailing again such as the and . As time went on Empress of Canada completed fewer and fewer trips across the Atlantic each year and by 1969 she completed only seven Atlantic voyages, compensating by spending the period between 6 December and 25 May 1970 on an extended cruise season during which she made 11 Caribbean cruises of between nine and 20 days in duration from New York and Port Everglades. On her last New York departure, she sailed on a four-day mini-cruise to Montreal on 5 April 1970, before commencing the first of the 11 Atlantic crossings that she undertook in 1970 during which the liner maintained an 82 per cent load factor. Over the winter of 1970-71 her cruise season lasted 7 December through 17 April before she returned to servicing the transatlantic trade. While one day out of Liverpool heading for Canada there was a blowback in one of her boilers which caused a fire in the boiler room at 8:15pm on 22 August 1971. It was serious enough that passengers were assembled by the life boats, but the fire was under control within ten minutes.
On 9 November 1971 Canadian Pacific unexpectedly announced that they were immediately withdrawing the Empress of Canada from service, claiming that she was becoming economically unviable. As well as the decline in transatlantic tourist numbers, immigrant patronage had collapsed as by 1970 of the 26,500 Britons who had immigrated to Canada in that year only 4,400 had travelled by sea. Also contributing to the decision had the impact of a devalued US dollar which had reduced the profitably of the cruise voyage as well as continuing labour troubles among her British crew and in Canada. The previously announced cruises were cancelled, and she departed on 17 November 1971 from Montreal under the command of Captain W.E. Williams on her last North Atlantic crossing to Liverpool with 274 (19 First and 255 Tourist) passengers aboard and 360 crew. She made her final arrival at Liverpool on 23 November 1971 having completing 121 transatlantic voyages and 82 cruises for the Canadian Pacific line, thus closing for good the Liverpool–Canada link.