Secrets of Quebec’s Maritime Region

By Lorraine Williams

I wonder why it’s only within the last fifteen years that I heard of Canada’s equivalent to the tragedy of the Titanic – the sinking of the Empress of Ireland. The first time was in Quebec in the Bernier Maritime Museum, where a modest display recounted the loss of over 1000 lives in the Saint Lawrence River. My curiousity was wetted, so when I had a chance to visit a second Quebec attraction, this one with a pavilion specifically devoted to that catastrophe, I took it! This was on Route 132 on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River – “Quebec’s Lighthouse Trail”, covering 43 traditional lighthouses along its Maritime coastline. The specific location is Pointe-au-Pere not far from Rimouski and only half an hour away from Bic National Park. The lighthouse at Point-au-Pere, which had a piloting station from 1905-1959 is magnificent, is one of the tallest in Canada. At this National Historic Site you can gaze out onto the mighty St. Lawrence, in whose very waters on May 29, 1914 the Empress of Ireland sank.

The Empress of Ireland and its twin sister, Empress of England, had their maiden voyages in 1906 after Canadian Pacific had commissioned them so as to enter the trans-Atlantic shipping/ passenger market. It was a beauty – almost 570 feet long and 66 feet wide and with seven bridges. After the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the owners made sure that there were more than sufficient life jackets and lifeboats on board. The designers even superstitiously avoided allowing any cabin to end in the number “13”.
When it sailed on May 1914 from Quebec City on its 2800-mile run to Liverpool England, it carried 1477 people. Of these, 420 were crew. Many of the 82 first class passengers were people of note, including a contemporary well-known Canadian actor, Mr. Lawrence Irving and wealthy Englishman Sir Henry Seton Karr, returning home from a Canadian hunting trip. Among the passengers in second class were 220 members of the Salvation Army, of which 39 were Army musicians, all on their way to a major conference in London.

Of the 717 passengers in third class, there were 300 workers from the Ford Plant in Detroit who’d been temporarily laid off and were on their way back home to Europe. This was to be the 192nd crossing of the Atlantic by the Empress.

By about eleven p.m. most of the passengers had gone to bed, after exploring the luxuries of this amazing vessel and enjoying some good meals (except for those in third class!). Around 1.40 a.m. The Empress reported a white light about six nautical miles away. It was an oncoming ship, but Captain Henry Kendall checked the other ship’s bearings and reckoned there was no danger. Then, about 15 minutes later that light was no longer visible, as an impenetrable fog surrounded the ship. Within minutes, the second ship, the Norwegian Charbonier Storstad freighter, carrying 11,000 tons of coal from Sydney to Montreal, and built to cut though pack ice, slammed into the starboard side of The Empress “with the power of a giant axe”, according to the reports.

The damage was incredible. The Storstad sliced into The Empress “like a can opener, cutting a hole of more than 350 square feet”. The St. Lawrence River waters burst like a dam hitting with more than 265 tons a second into the lower decks and cabins. Even worse than that blow, in which many passengers on the lower decks were killed instantly, only five or six lifeboats had time to be launched before the entire ship rolled onto her side. Any passengers, who had been lucky enough to put on life jackets, were swept under the ship as it went down. All this devastation took only fourteen minutes from beginning to end!

There were only 217 passengers and 248 crew saved. In the Empress of Ireland Pavilion (of which a portion of the show room is deliberately sinking into the ground to recall the sinking of the ship) you’ll be able to read and hear (through the voice of actors) the stories of some of the individual survivors. There is also a gripping 3-D multimedia presentation which brings the story alive. Of great interest to my husband and myself was the display of artifacts recovered from the Empress over a period of years by generations of divers. The china and silver were exquisite. The items salvaged that belonged to children filled us with sadness.

Fortunately, this dramatic but gripping story is mitigated somewhat by the other attractions here at Pointe-au-Pere. These are the previously mentioned Lighthouse, measuring 108 feet high with 128 steps you can climb to the top; the Keeper’s house with a 38-minute movie of underwater images of The Empress; the Foghorn warehouse, which explains how foghorns make their noise and various improvements to that procedure over the years. Finally, a new attraction, which the kids particularly love! – an actual submarine, the Onondaga, brought from Halifax over 1000 kms. away to here. You can take a 45-minute audio tour and find out what it’s like to live with a crew of 70 men under the water. Hearing about the obstacles encountered in getting the sub here (at one point it completely turned over on its side due to unpredictable tide conditions at one stage of the trip) makes your tour of it even more exciting.

The fate of The Empress of Ireland ranks as one of the three worst peacetime sea disasters in the world. And it happened right here in Canada.

(This site is open from June to October. For information, contact 418-724-6214 or www.museedelamer.qc.ca)