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Fact Sheet: Canadian Pacific Line EMPRESS OF RUSSIA

Rigging: steel quadruple screws, Schooner; 4 steel decks & steel shelter deck sheathed in teak; 12 cemented bulkheads; cruiser stern; fitted with electric light, submarine signaling device and wireless; cellular double bottom, aft 69 feet long, under engine & boilers 295 feet and forward 100 feet, 1,548 tons; Forward Peak Tank 160 tons.

Tonnage: 16,810 tons gross, 12,557 under deck and 8,789 net.

Dimensions: 570.2 feet long, 68.2 foot beam and holds 42 feet deep; Bridge & Forecastle on shelter deck 394 feet long.

Construction: 1913, Fairfield Co. Ltd. in Glasgow.

Propulsion: 4 steam turbines operating at 190 p.s.i.; 6 double ended & 4 single ended boilers; 64 corrugated furnaces; grate surface 1,344 sq. ft.; heating surface 54,251 sq. ft.; forced draught; engine built by Fairfields Ship Building & Engine Co. Ltd. in Glasgow.

Owners: Canadian Pacific Railway Ocean Lines (Canadian Pacific Ocean Service Ltd. managers).

Port of registry: Vancouver, B.C.

The turbine ship EMPRESS OF RUSSIA was built for the Canadian Pacific Line by Fairfield Co Ltd, Glasgow (ship #484), and launched on 28 August 1912. She was a 16,810 gross ton ship, length 570ft x beam 68ft (180,4 x 20,8 meters), three funnels, two masts, cruiser stern, twin screw, quadruple-screw propulsion, and a service speed of 20 knots (21.2 knots maximum). There was accommodation for 284-1st, 100-2nd and 808-steerage class passengers; crew of 475.

On 1 April 1913 she sailed her maiden voyage, Liverpool-Suez Canal-Hong Kong-Vancouver; then was placed in the Vancouver-Yokohama service sailing to Vancouver via Shanghai, Nagasaki, Kobe, and Yokohama.

On 22 August 1914 she was requisitioned at Hong Kong and converted to an Armed Merchant Cruiser. Used to blockade German merchant ships in the Philippines, and later transferred to the Indian Ocean.

On 13 November 1914 she met the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and took aboard 230 survivors from the German cruiser "Emden" and was later used for patrol duties in the Red Sea. She was paid off at Bombay in October 1915 and returned to Hong Kong for refit before being returned to the Pacific service on 12 February 1916.

On 6 May 1918 she was requisitioned again and used from 6 July-12 November 1918 to transport US troops across the Atlantic, New York-Liverpool (3 1/2 roundtrip voyages), and finally left Liverpool on 12 January 1919 for Havre, and Suez to Hong Kong. She was refurbished providing passenger accommodations of 350 in 1st class, 70 in 2nd class, 90 in 3rd class, 728 in steerage then returned to the trans Pacific service and made 310 crossings before being again requisitioned in 1940 as a troopship. She was used on the UK - Freetown - Cape Town - Suez route and returned via Cape Town - Newport News and Halifax to bring Canadian troops to England.

In 1943 she was used to support the North Africa landings and later the same year made a special voyage to Gothenburg to exchange prisoners of war.

After various trooping duties, she was laid up at Gareloch until June 1945 when she was sent to Barrow in Furness to be refitted for the repatriation of Canadian troops after the war. However, on 8 September 1945 she was gutted by fire, declared a total loss and scrapped by T. W. Ward, Barrow-in-Furness .