RMS ''Empress of India'' was an ocean liner built in 1890-1891 by

Naval Construction & Armaments Co Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Ltd (VSEL) was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in northwest England that built warships, civilian ships, submarines and armaments. The company was historically the Naval Construct ...

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of B ...

, England for

Canadian Pacific Steamships CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canada's largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships fr ...

. This ship would be the first of two CP vessels to be named ''Empress of India,'' and on 28 April 1891, she was the very first of many ships named ''Empress'' arriving at Vancouver harbor. ''Empress of India'' regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until she was sold to the

Maharajah Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

in 1914 and renamed in 1915.Ship List
Description of ''Empress of India''
In 1891, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and the British government reached agreement on a contract for subsidized mail service between

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

via Canada; and the route began to be serviced by three specially designed ocean liners. Each of these three vessels was given an Imperial name.Miller, William H. (1984). ''The First Great Ocean Liners in Photographs,'' p. 52. ''Empress of India'' and her two running mates— RMS ''Empress of China'' and RMS ''Empress of Japan''—created a flexible foundation for the CPR trans-Pacific fleet which would ply this route for the next half century.

History

''Empress of India'' was built by Naval Construction & Armaments Co. (now absorbed into

Vickers Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, wi ...

) at Barrow, England. The keel was laid in 1890. She was launched on 30 August 1890 by Lady Louisa Egerton, wife of Admiral Hon. Francis Egerton and sister of Lord Hartington, chairman of the shipbuilders. The 5,905-ton vessel had a length of 455.6 feet, and her beam was 51.2 feet. The graceful white-painted, clipper-bowed ship had two buff-colored funnels with a band of black paint at the top, three lightweight schooner-type masts, and an average speed of 16-knots. ''Empress of India'' and her running mate ''Empresses'' were the first vessels in the Pacific to have twin propellers with reciprocating engines. The ship was designed to provide accommodation for 770 passengers (120 first class, 50 second class and 600 steerage). ''Empress of India'' left

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

on 8 February 1891 on her maiden voyage via

Suez Suez ( ar, السويس '; ) is a seaport city (population of about 750,000 ) in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez (a branch of the Red Sea), near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same bou ...

to Hong Kong and

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. Thereafter, she regularly sailed back and forth along the Hong Kong -

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...

- Kobe -

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

- Vancouver route. In the early days of wireless telegraphy, the call sign established for ''Empress of India'' was "MPI." R M S Empress of India (HS85-10-9446)

Much of what would have been construed as ordinary, even unremarkable during this period was an inextricable part of the ship's history. In the conventional course of trans-Pacific traffic, the ship was sometimes held in quarantine, as when it was discovered that a passenger from Hong Kong to Kobe showed signs of smallpox, and the vessel was held in Yokohama port until the incubation period for the disease had passed. The cargo holds of the ''Empress'' would have been routinely examined in the normal course of harbor-master's business in Hong Kong, Yokohama or Vancouver. On 17 August 1903, ''Empress of India'' collided with and sank the Chinese cruiser ''Huang Tai.'' The vessel was reported sold on 19 December 1914, to

Scindia The Scindia dynasty (anglicized from Shinde) is a Hindu Maratha dynasty of maratha origin that ruled the erstwhile State of Gwalior. It had the Patil-ship of Kumberkerrab in Wai. It was founded by Ranoji Scindia, who started as a personal serva ...

(also known as the

). "''Empress of India'' Sold; Scindia of Gwalior Buys Liner to Serve as Hospital Ship,"
''New York Times.'' 20 December 1914. The former ''Empress'' was re-fitted as a

hospital ship A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the military forces (mostly navies) of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones. I ...

for Indian troops. On 19 January 1915, the ship was renamed ''Loyalty''. In March 1919, she was sold to

The Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd. The Scindia Steam Navigation Company, founded in 1919, is the second oldest shipping company of India. The first being the Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company of VOC Pillai in today's Tamilnadu that was founded in 1906. History Foundation an ...

Company in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

(now

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

). In February 1923, the ship was sold for scrapping at Bombay. CP ''Empresses of India''
In 1921, Canadian Pacific added two German-built vessels to ''Empress'' fleet; and initially, both were confusingly renamed ''Empress of China.'' Within months, one of these ships will be renamed ''Empress of India'' and the other will be renamed the ''Empress of Australia''. A quick explanation will help distinguish these quite different ships which each sailed with the same name. * The first SS ''Empress of India'' was a 5,905-ton vessel, launched in 1890 from Barrow, England. The Empress would be sold in 1914, renamed SS ''Loyalty'' in 1915, and scrapped in Bombay in 1919. ** A CP sister-ship, the first SS ''Empress of China'', was also a Barrow-built, 5,905-ton vessel; but was launched a few months later, in 1891. The ship was later wrecked on a reef at Tokyo Bay in 1911, and subsequently scrapped in 1912.White Empress fleet
20 ships, descriptions
/ref> * The second SS ''Empress of India'' was a 16,992-ton vessel launched in 1907 from Geestemunde, Germany as the SS ''Prince Freidrich Wilhelm.'' The ship was purchased in 1921 by Canadian Pacific and then immediately, the ship was renamed ''Empress of China'' for only a short time. **This second SS ''Empress of China'' and ''of India'' would be renamed several more times—as SS ''Montlaurier'' in 1922; and as SS ''Montnairn'' in 1925. The ship was scrapped 1929. This vessel from Barrow is the first of two CP ships named ''Empress of India''.

Notes

References

* Dept. of Agriculture, Canada. (1907)
''Report of the Minister of Agriculture for Canada.''
Ottawa: S.E. Dawson (King's Printer). * Miller, William H. (1984). ''The First Great Ocean Liners in Photographs.'' New York:

Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, book ...

. * Musk, George. (1981)
''Canadian Pacific: The Story of the Famous Shipping Line.''
Newton Abbot, Devon:

David & Charles David & Charles Ltd is an English publishing company. It is the owner of the David & Charles imprint, which specialises in craft and lifestyle publishing. David and Charles Ltd acts as distributor for all David and Charles Ltd books and cont ...

. * Parliament, Canada. (1892
''Sessional Papers.''
Ottawa: S.E. Dawson (King's Printer). * Tate, E. Mowbray. (1986
''Transpacific Steam: The Story of Steam Navigation from the Pacific Coast of North America to the Far East and the Antipodes, 1867-1941.''
Cranbury, New Jersey : Cornwall Books/Associated University Presses. (cloth) * Trevent, Edward. (1911
''The A B C of Wireless Telegraphy: A Plain Treatise on Hertzian Wave Signalling.''
Lynne, Massachusetts: Bubier Publishing.

External links

* The Ships List

* Simplon Postcards
Canadian Pacific postcard images
{{DEFAULTSORT:Empress of India (1890) 1890 ships Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness Ships of CP Ships Steamships of Canada Ocean liners of Canada Victorian-era merchant ships of Canada Steamships of India Hospital ships in World War I Maritime incidents in 1903

History

See also

Notes

References

External links