RMS Empress of Russia was a steam turbine ocean liner built in 1912–13 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific steamships (CP). She regularly worked the trans-Pacific route between Canada and the Far East.
History
Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company built the ship at Govan near Glasgow in Scotland. Empress of Russia was launched on 28 August 1912 and completed in March 1913.
She left Liverpool on 1 April 1913 on her maiden voyage via Suez to Hong Kong and Vancouver. Thereafter, she regularly sailed back and forth along the Hong Kong – Shanghai – Nagasaki – Kobe – Yokohama – Vancouver route. In 1913 she broke the record for the fastest trans-Pacific crossing which was formerly held by ; but her sister ship, broke that record in May 1914, crossing the Pacific in nine days, two hours, and fifteen minutes. The popularity of the short route from Vancouver to the Orient was so great that these two additional CP Empress'ocean liners were necessary.
The vessel had a length of , and her beam was . She had three funnels and two masts. Her four steam turbines drove four screws, giving her a cruising speed of . 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. 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.
Empress of Russias UK official number was 135197 and until 1933 her code letters were JBSQ. In 1934 her code letters were superseded by the call sign VGKW.
World War I
Empress of Russia was requisitioned by the British Admiralty twice during the First World War. Initially, the ship was refitted as an armed merchant cruiser at Hong Kong; she was attached to a squadron blockading German merchant shipping in Philippine waters and retained her Chinese crew, but took on French sailors to man her guns. Later, she was transferred to the Indian Ocean.
In November 1914, the highlight of this Indian Ocean tour of duty followed from a rendezvous at sea with the Australian cruiser . In what was called the Battle of Cocos, Sydney had engaged the German cruiser , forcing the raider to beach herself on North Keeling Island to avoid sinking. Some 230 Emden survivors were transferred from Sydney to Empress of Russia for transport to Colombo. At this point, Empress of Russia was sailing in a convoy of troop ships carrying 30,000 ANZACs from Albany, Australia to Suez and Europe.
On April 30, 1915, Empress of Russia sailed from Hong Kong to the Red Sea, where she served until October 1915.
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.
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. 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.
In April 1917 Empress of Russia brought 2,056 members of the Chinese Labor Corps (CLC) from Weihaiwei in China across the Pacific to Williams Head on Vancouver Island. After quarantine the CLC were then transshipped to Port Moody on the Canadian mainland and transported by the Canadian Pacific Railway in guarded cattle trucks across Canada to the Atlantic Coast, where other Empress ships took them to Dunkirk.
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 Russias 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.
This ship remained a coal-burner after the Great War, even though many liners at that time were being converted to oil.