RMS ''Empress of India'' was an

ocean liner An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...

built in 1890-1891 by Naval Construction & Armaments Co,

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...

, 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 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 Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a prince. However, in late ancient India ...

Gwalior Gwalior (Hindi: , ) is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; It is known as the Music City of India having oldest Gwalior gharana, musical gharana in existence. It is a major sports, cultural, industrial, and political c ...

in 1914 and renamed in 1915.Ship List
Description of ''Empress of India''
In 1891,

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

(CPR) and the British government reached agreement on a contract for subsidized mail service between

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

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 Armstrong Whitworth, Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the ...

) 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 port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

on 8 February 1891 on her maiden voyage via

Suez Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...

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 cit ...

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

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

- Vancouver route. In the early days of wireless telegraphy, the call sign established for ''Empress of India'' was "MPI." 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 House of Scindia or earlier known as the Sendrak was a Hindu Maratha Royal House that ruled the erstwhile Gwalior State in central India. Ranoji Scindia rose as a prominent military commander under Peshwa Bajirao I. Ranoji and his descendants ...

(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 healthcare, medical treatment facility or hospital. Most are operated by the military forces (mostly navy, navies) of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or ...

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. Company in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

(now

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

). 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