Interestingly enough her sister ship, the Empress of Britain, was also involved in collisions, ramming two other ships and sinking them both. She rammed one ship in the St. Lawrence River in 1912 during fog, almost foreshadowing her sisters demise. She also struck an iceberg only eleven days after the Titanic did, but she survived.
Wait… was incidents with ships hitting icebergs common back then? I don’t think I’ve heard about another one besides the titanic and now you’re telling me it happened just eleven days after :O
@@TheaSvendsen I'm not sure how common it was, but it did happen from time to time. Keep in mind that the iceberg that the Titanic hit belonged to a huge ice field that was so extensive that other ships near the Titanic had been forced to stop for the night as they were almost surrounded by them. So another ship hitting another iceberg that season doesn't seem that surprising to me as there were plenty of icebergs around during that time frame.
@@TheaSvendsen It's always been common. Even now, the Institute for Ocean Technology maintains a database with 680+ collisions between ships and icebergs with roughly 2.3 per year. Even as recently as 2007 a cruise ship was sunk by one. (Thankfully, with no loss of life.)
@@TheaSvendsen It was pretty common in total 11 ships sank from icebergs in the years 1900-1913 and in tath time to over 100+ ships collided with icebergs but surviving
@@TheaSvendsen OK, so first, I'm going to say that if that is you in your profile photo, you are blindingly beautiful (sorry, it's just an observation, I'm married), but yes, it was a fairly common occurrence for ships of that era as well as eras before to come across and even collide with icebergs and field ice which almost always resulted in hull damage. That being said, after having researched maritime history for the last 33 years of my life I know for a fact that the SS Californian that was within 10-15 miles of Titanic and her officers actually saw the distress rockets that were being fired, had stopped for the night after having been surrounded by field ice. Her radio officer Cyril Evans had attempted to notify the Titanic's Marconi operators (Jack Phillips and Harold Bride) of their situation when Jack Phillips interrupted him and said, "shut up, shut up, I am busy," as he was sending passenger messages to the Cape Race station which was a nearby telegraph station in Newfoundland. Titanic's Marconi set had actually broken down a couple of nights before due to a short in the windings of the stator, and while Marconi operators were instructed NOT to attempt to repair any issues with the equipment, Phillips and Bride took it upon themselves to repair the issue. Just think, had they not attempted to repair it themselves, who knows if any lives would've been saved on April 14-15th, 1912? Very few people actually know this fact, and I admit that I still learn new facts every day from the disaster that other people bring to light.
My wife's Grandfather (Ronald Ferguson) was senior Marconi Wireless Operator on the Empress that night....he sent out the Mayday before she went down and was then rescued by the Lady Evelyn where he then used the tugs wireless room to continue sending survivors messages to Father Point. Nearly 70 years later (when he was 87) Jacques Cousteau took him down in his submersible to visit the wreck. Cousteau's crew were touched that they had a survivor of the wreck on board and treated him with great respect.
He was some guy: Served in the RFC in WW1 (flying over battles like the Somme and directing artillery by morse code, set up Egyptian State broadcasting with Marconi (later to become the BBC overseas service) was with Howard Carter when he opened Tutankhamens tomb, evacuated back to UK in WW2. Ended up as chairman of Marconi Marine. OBE, Egyptian Order of the nile.....died well into his 90s...Bit of a dude !
It's really sad that this video is longer than it took for the Empress to sink...chilling and horrifying. God rest the souls of those poor souls. It's a disgrace that more people don't know about her.
That, sir, was a superbly told tale, one of your very best. I had heard of this sinking but not the details and it's sad that even when a company does all it can to build and maintain a safe ship the worst can still occur. Her captain sounds like a very interesting chap, did he ever write a book on his life?
This is by far the most detailed and informative account of the Empress' tragic fate. You make it very accessible to picture the sudden horror, from normality to death within 15 brief minutes. The Henry Kendall/ Crippen connection is amazing - no one has ever brought this up before, at least on UA-cam. And then getting torpedoed on top of that- what an extraordinary life that man led, and I'll definitely be searching out more about him. Many, many thanks.
Yeah some collisions are... hard to imagine due to just how enormous the scale really is. This one... was intense. It could have been worse, but dang... it was horrible.
YEEEESSSSSSSS As a resident of quebec with a father who was in the Navy, I was raised with the history of this ship and it's disaster.... I still need to visit the Museum at Rimouski. So happy to see it there!!! ♥♥♥
First I heard of this tragedy was at my grandparents as they were parishioners of the local Salvation Army Church and noticed an article in the churches publication about the anniversary of the sinking.
Absolutely cruel luck. Both captains' seemed to be making reasonable decisions given what they knew...up until the very last one. Also looked up Kendall's story, is awesome. Truly a man made of sturdy stuff.
I was recently watching videos about the Costa Concordia. It's an interesting difference between that and this. A competent captain vs an incompetent one.
Currently in the process of getting a captains license and have a safety exam soon. Glad my favorite UA-camr uploaded again should be good motivation to study, lol
Great video! I did a big history project on the Empress when I was in grade 8, and I've been fascinated by her ever since. My Mum drove me to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto to see the Salvation Army monument to the 167 Salvationists lost in the sinking, and the graves of the 22 who were found. It was amazing and sobering to see these real-life monuments to history most people only read about in books. She sank in the blink of an eye, and was forgotten just as quickly when WW1 began. The Empress, her passengers and her crew will forever be a haunting, fascinating piece of history.
I beg to differ. Titanic had the richest people in the world on it. I'm thinking there have been a string of mass murders by the JESUIT Illuminati Freemasons. They made huge amounts of money - probably trillions, beginning with Bruce Ismay and JP Morgan sinking Titanic.
She is actually marked as a historic wreck on the area's nautical charts which is neat. Only one I can think of off the top of my head. I didn't know about her until I found a 1914 copy of 'The Tragic story of the Empress of Ireland and Other Great Sea Disasters' at a used book store in 2013
im so glad to hear you speaking about this horrible tragedy. i come from rimouski and lived my whole childhood in the small village right next to father point, Sainte Luce. the sinking happened directly in front of it's 1.8km beach, about 2km's offshore. there are lots of plaques and pictures with maps.and informations, and there's a full museum in her honor at father point, at the foot of the lighthouse. they added a submarine to their exhibitions interesting fact: the external shape of the museum's building mimicks how the wreck s sitting at the bottom of the River
Great video. Interesting that they were able to salvage items from the wreck over the years and that now wreck is a protected site. PS - salvage crew recovered 318 bags of mail and 251 bars of silver bullion.
This story is so similar to the Andrea Doria. Both liners were struck by Scandinavian icebreakers after miscommunications, and both Stockholm and Storstad saved many passengers.
Teak is beautiful wood, my parents had a teak set of desk, bar, coffee table, and end tables they bought when he was stationed in Thailand. It did fine in FL with its high humidity, but when they lived in other places like Washington state, it had to be hauled outside and oiled thoroughly every year or it would dry out and crack. Thank you for this coverage of the Empress, good to have you back! I wouldn't mind a series about the lives of some of the captains/crews who went down with famous shipwrecks.
My mom grew up in northern Thailand from the 1950s to the 1970s. To this day, one of her most prized possessions is a large teak trunk her parents bought her when she was a child.
The inquiry’s transcript makes for fascinating reading, both for the information about the ship and accident and for showing the courtroom brilliance of Butler Aspinall, arguing for CPR. The Norwegian crew didn’t have a coherent, consistent story. The inquiry would be worthy of an in-depth video of its own.
Very interesting question--why is Titanic remembered and other disasters not? I recall that Stephen Cox, in "The Titanic Story," argued that the Titanic took 2 hrs and 40 minutes to sink, which is about the length of a Shakespeare play. This required people aboard to make decisions but gave them time to think and notice what others were doing, thus providing much more human interest than the horrifying disasters of the Empress and the Lusitania, which sank in minutes.
Probably because it was one of the first and biggest, being touted as unsinkable the tragedy would've received a massive amount of media coverage, especially with it being a Whitestar Line ship. A company widely regarded for its luxury ships and shipping prowess
I had known about the disaster for a long time now and I am glad people like you are telling this tale as the sinking was mostly forgotten by many for years
Interesting book. Good way to piss off 38 million Canadians though. Still I am a Cussler fan and have read all his books. “Ripping yarns” as my grandfather would have said.
The sinking of the Empress plays a significant part of the plot of the 1981 Clive Cussler novel, "Night Probe!". Before I read the novel, I had never heard of this wreck.
@@jon9021 Read the book "Night Probe". *Spoilers* The UK was in financial straits and needed money just before WW1, so they made a secret deal to sell Canada to the US for 1 billion. Both sides agreed, but both copies of the Treaty were lost: One on a train, the "Manhattan Limited" going off a bridge and the other copy went down on the RMS "Empress of Ireland". When Parliament got wind of the PM selling Canada, they threw a snit and had any records buried. Fast forward to the 1980s and the (alternate history) United States is in such bad shape that when someone finds out about this forgotten treaty, they decide to search for the copies and justify claiming all of Canada as part of the United States so they can have access to all the resources. The UK gets wind and send MI6 agents to stop it and destroy both copies out of fear the other nations in the Commonwealth will leave and take the UK down as a result.
The History Museum in Ottawa had an event sized display covering this exact ship. I was an interesting journey that walked you through the tragedy, as well as showing stuff like what the eating arrangements were and the menus used for ordering food. I wouldn't mind seeing it again, someday.
So glad you covered this one, I first heard of the empress of Ireland from my great grandmother, but never knew the full story till now, keep up the good work man.
In all honesty the only reason why i remember the empress of Ireland is for how quick and brutal it sank, i knew about it for some time though i wish it would get talked about more, great work as always
I will admit that while I have been researching Titanic and maritime history in general for the last 33 years, I didn't know about the Empress of Ireland until about 15 years ago and I felt like I didn't know anything. I've researched the Halifax Explosion of the collision between the SS Imo and the Mont Blanc, I've known about the Lusitania disaster, the Titanic (obviously), the Britannic during WWI, the Eastland, but at the time there weren't too many references to the Empress at the time. Even Dr. Bob Ballard felt regret when having never heard of the Empress of Ireland disaster. This is a very well researched and put together documentary of the great ship and the following disaster thanks to the mistakes of the crew from both the Empress as well as the Storstad.
Somewhat eerily similar to the Stockholm Vs Andrea Doria incident. Well done for digging this story out of mists of time. Your videos just get better and better, and as a bonus, you have the perfect voice to go with it.
And I was just rewatching some of your older videos last night after thinking you haven't posted in a while. This was a pleasant surprise to come home from work to.
Tragic story which I knew a little about. What I was unaware of the fact the two vessels had come to a full stop! I cannot imagine drowning in steerage. RIP
Thank you so much for coverning the Empress' story! Ever since I was a kid, I had an obsession with her history, mainly fueled by rage that she was never able to be grieved properly because of the war... I actually got to visit the Empress of Ireland museum in Rimouski twice, and I got to touch different parts of the glorious ship. My very first job choice was actually a diver, able to withstand the strong currents and icy waters of the St-Lawrence River and be able to visit the Empress. Of course, I never got to acheive that dream but I'd be lying if i said it wasn't still on my bucket list! I still keep a little shrine for the passengers and make sure that they are remembered to this day. Thank you again for sharing one of the most tragic events in maritime history (atleast in my opinion), and the story of her passengers. Edit: Captain Kendall was my first crush, to show you how obsessed I was
I’m not sure why but I am so interested in these story’s. Most I have heard none of. It seems the only story anyone really knows about inside and out is Titanic. There are so many other lost ships with so many more aboard dying as there ship goes down. So many other sad story’s of so many people with a future, drowned. I have to say you tell there story’s so we’ll. I can see it in my mind and then of coarse the pictures in your video help also. Thank you for telling there story’s. R.I.P. to all of those many people that were lost or the many with ptsd for the rest of there lives that went threw hell to survive. (What an amazing captain, it’s just bad luck where they were hit and the time of the crash. )Hearing how many children and women that passed hurts my heart. The sad part is this is still happening even today. Not as many lost and not so often I believe mostly in the 80’s and 90’s. But still just as sad. Again Thank you for your videos. These story’s need to be heard. ❤❤🙏🏽🙏🏽♥️♥️ Great job.
Very well done ! I’ve read and seen several accounts of this disaster. This presentation is much more complete telling many more legs of the story. Thank you very much for your work. I subscribed. Take care from Alaska
I look forward to this video, like all of them. I wonder if you could cover the Costa Concordia next? I know it's been covered by others, but I'd like to see it done with your own style of video and storytelling.
He's mentioned before he's really cautious about doing videos about modern disasters. He's worried about a survivor or a family member of a victim coming across his video and there being some inaccuracy or something that offends them.
Right, the podcast Well There’s Your Problem has already done the Costa as irreverently and goofily as possible, I’m sure Maritime Disasters would do it justice.
Thank you for all the effort you put into the research for these. This isn't meant as a criticism of another channel, but I recently watched a video on this disaster, as well as their coverage of the Halifax disaster, and with both I was really wanting to hear your far more in depth and respectful retelling of the story. I ended up rewatching your Halifax disaster video, and now this one filled in so many gaps and gave the story the seriousness it deserved.
Empress of Ireland: Overshadowed by the sinking of Titanic and the start of the First World War later on. Forgotten by the world Never forgotten by historians
Glad to see you back, I’m battling a cold, and was delighted to see this new content from your channel! Thanks again bro, hope everything going well for you, stay safe out there and keep up the great work!
I'm from Canada and a lot of people there don't know about this ship. Dr. James Grant's daughter is a good friend of my grandmother. Dr. Grant has a remarkable story: it took him several minutes just to open the door to his cabin because of the list, he was walking on the walls inside the ship, and when the ship had rolled completely onto its side, he was pulled through a porthole; the man emerging from a porthole in the portrait at 29:10 is likely Grant.
I'm from Quebec and I am a huge fan of nautical disasters and consequently, your channel for quite sometime. Your video was incredible, very thorough research and I truly appreciate the amount of work you put into it. It's really touching that you took the time to cover our local maritime history. It's a small detail but I wanna specify that Rimouski is pronounced MOU like moose and not MOW like wow. 😊
these stories make me appreciate the safety and comfort of my home office as I watch this on my monitor. what a truly horrifying way to die. cold, sudden darkness, lungs filling up. in many cases, your children being ripped from you to suffer the same horrible demise. ugh truly horrific just awful
A video about Captain Kendall would be most welcome. He is an interesting character! In the matter of Dr Crippen, Inspector Dew of Scotland Yard crossed the Atlantic on the Laurentic and boarded the Montrose as a pilot to arrest Crippen.
I cant find any just about him but Crippen books mention him (obviously haha) plus you could try Forgotten Empress: The Empress of Ireland Story by David Zeni
There's a book titled The Man Who Caught Crippen about Kendall. It's pretty good - written by Joe Saward, a motorsports journalist. The Grand Prix Saboteurs, also by Saward, is quite good as well.
Wow, never heard of the Empress of Ireland! What is it with Scandinavians getting in the way of passenger liners, though? This is about the third time I've heard that happen...
Fun fact its even more chilling for me since I live in Rimouski. Beautiful rendition of this horrible tragedy and it’s a shame that this story was overshadowed by the titanic.
Glad to see you back, mate. The behaviour of the Storstad's captain after the fact always seemed dogdy to me, to say the least. The enquiry is online at the Princes of Ireland Enquiry Project site for everyone to read. The man tried to weasel his way out of it, throwing the First Officer - Toftenes - under the bus in the meantime. I'm sure it's not the rule of thumb by which we should measure Norwegian captains but both Andersen of the SS Storstad and From of the SS Imo set the bar pretty low. Looking forward to the next one. Cheers.
Absolutely love your videos. I am absolutely fascinated with any kind of maritime history. Awesome work. How do I donate? Can you do a couple of your awesome videos on the ships of the great lakes?
I live close to to rimouski when inwas little, went to the museum quite a few time in childhood. Empress of ireland has always been a favorite of mine. Im suprised only few know the story of the empress compared to the titanic
Brilliantly done and absolutely a superb choice. Very few people have heard of the Empress of Ireland let alone the massive tragedy she became "famous" for 10/10 (had lessons been better learned from this perhaps the accident with the Stockholm and Andrea Doria wouldn't have happened)
Not in the USSR. We knew this catastrophe as "Canada's Black Friday." This was the title of a chapter in the book "Secrets of Marine Disasters" by the Soviet marine writer Lev Skryagin.
@@karolinasandrapaulinamarit8090 that's really interesting because the Canadian government weren't even aware of it until late last century. Fascinating that another country is more familiar with the tragedy than the country involved. "Fourteen Minutes" is a really good book on the Empress of Ireland if you're interested. And thank you for sharing that 😊
@@lordcaptainvonthrust3rd Well, Lev Skryagin, IMHO, was the best naval diplomat in the whole human history. For example, he received a personal permission from the Canadian government to visit the Sable Island. The Soviet diplomat. In 1976. Lev Skryagin also had the great connections. He personaly knew such people as John Finlay and Riss Harill. He had official access to the most famous maritime archives. And, most importantly, he shared his great knowledge with the people. Here is a far from complete list of books written by this truly great man: "In the footsteps of sea disasters", "Secrets of sea disasters", "How the ship ruined the city", "The last SOS of "Volturno"".
This is a very sad story because, there was no greed involved. No malice, no incompetence or cowardice, not even the enemy action one would expect in a war. This was just, pure misfortune. Both Captains did the best they could with the information they had. This was just, bad luck. If not for that fog bank, the two ships would likely have passed each other with little more than an "Oh hey, another ship. Neat."
Perhaps that might be why the story is so unknown compared to the Titanic. This story has no 'unsinkable' ship being lost on its maiden voyage as though nature itself was insulted by the arrogance of man. No small army of the most famous people of the day being onboard. No overlooked pieces of information that could have avoided the tragedy entirely. The titanic lets people look through all the mistakes in hindsight and assign blame accordingly, and believe that they would have obviously seen the warning signs and prevented it. This story has no obvious villain, likely no villain at all, just 2 captains that wished for nothing more than to avoid the collision, and both tried to evade in just the right way that they both contributed to making the collision unavoidable. theres no moralistic lesson about arrogance and believing you have conquered some natural force, no greed and ambition pushing over a thousand people into danger to prove how fast your ship can cross an ocean.This story is uncomfortable because it shows that sometimes trying to avoid a tragedy, through cruel misfortune, can doom you all the same.
@@restitvtororbis5330 another major reason for why the Empress of Ireland's story is not as well-known is because WW1 began a couple of months after the sinking
@@shadowldrago yeah. It was both those reasons. You are right about there not being a villain. The captains made mistakes but that was because of being disorientated by the fog. A 2004 inquiry determined that is what happened
@@emerybonner7973 That doesn't surprise me. Fog isn't fun to deal with on land, where vehicles have MUCH less mass than at sea, so in 1905 with only horns to signal what they intend to do and the size of the ships? Woof...
The new logo art is AMAZING!!! It would make an awesome animated background worth a purchase. Going to order a mug and some stickers soon. Thanks for all your effort put into these videos, I'm always happy to see a new upload!!
Good one. I've seen soem fine retellings of the "Empress of Ireland" sinking before, but this is the first one to touch on the intriguing character of Cpt. Kendall, which maybe you *should* do as a separate video.
Interestingly enough her sister ship, the Empress of Britain, was also involved in collisions, ramming two other ships and sinking them both. She rammed one ship in the St. Lawrence River in 1912 during fog, almost foreshadowing her sisters demise. She also struck an iceberg only eleven days after the Titanic did, but she survived.
Wait… was incidents with ships hitting icebergs common back then? I don’t think I’ve heard about another one besides the titanic and now you’re telling me it happened just eleven days after :O
@@TheaSvendsen I'm not sure how common it was, but it did happen from time to time. Keep in mind that the iceberg that the Titanic hit belonged to a huge ice field that was so extensive that other ships near the Titanic had been forced to stop for the night as they were almost surrounded by them. So another ship hitting another iceberg that season doesn't seem that surprising to me as there were plenty of icebergs around during that time frame.
@@TheaSvendsen It's always been common. Even now, the Institute for Ocean Technology maintains a database with 680+ collisions between ships and icebergs with roughly 2.3 per year. Even as recently as 2007 a cruise ship was sunk by one. (Thankfully, with no loss of life.)
@@TheaSvendsen It was pretty common in total 11 ships sank from icebergs in the years 1900-1913 and in tath time to over 100+ ships collided with icebergs but surviving
@@TheaSvendsen OK, so first, I'm going to say that if that is you in your profile photo, you are blindingly beautiful (sorry, it's just an observation, I'm married), but yes, it was a fairly common occurrence for ships of that era as well as eras before to come across and even collide with icebergs and field ice which almost always resulted in hull damage. That being said, after having researched maritime history for the last 33 years of my life I know for a fact that the SS Californian that was within 10-15 miles of Titanic and her officers actually saw the distress rockets that were being fired, had stopped for the night after having been surrounded by field ice. Her radio officer Cyril Evans had attempted to notify the Titanic's Marconi operators (Jack Phillips and Harold Bride) of their situation when Jack Phillips interrupted him and said, "shut up, shut up, I am busy," as he was sending passenger messages to the Cape Race station which was a nearby telegraph station in Newfoundland. Titanic's Marconi set had actually broken down a couple of nights before due to a short in the windings of the stator, and while Marconi operators were instructed NOT to attempt to repair any issues with the equipment, Phillips and Bride took it upon themselves to repair the issue. Just think, had they not attempted to repair it themselves, who knows if any lives would've been saved on April 14-15th, 1912? Very few people actually know this fact, and I admit that I still learn new facts every day from the disaster that other people bring to light.
When we needed him the most. He returned
I thought the same, have a nice day man!
A
Jesus? Thank God!
Indeed. Broke my left wrist Sunday and this is the perfect distraction from the pain.
Boo
My wife's Grandfather (Ronald Ferguson) was senior Marconi Wireless Operator on the Empress that night....he sent out the Mayday before she went down and was then rescued by the Lady Evelyn where he then used the tugs wireless room to continue sending survivors messages to Father Point. Nearly 70 years later (when he was 87) Jacques Cousteau took him down in his submersible to visit the wreck. Cousteau's crew were touched that they had a survivor of the wreck on board and treated him with great respect.
I think that’s brave of him to go down and see the wreck. No doubt it brought back horrible memories.
He was some guy: Served in the RFC in WW1 (flying over battles like the Somme and directing artillery by morse code, set up Egyptian State broadcasting with Marconi (later to become the BBC overseas service) was with Howard Carter when he opened Tutankhamens tomb, evacuated back to UK in WW2. Ended up as chairman of Marconi Marine. OBE, Egyptian Order of the nile.....died well into his 90s...Bit of a dude !
....and I'm sitting staring at the Empress Canadian Pacific dinner service plate Cousteau recovered for him.
@timbrown4576 what a full life! Sounds like he'd have had a great many stories to share
Amazing
My girlfriend just asked me "Are you watching Sad Boat Show, again?" haha
Well, time to change my channel name to something far superior lol
@@MaritimeHorrors she said "you're welcome" haha
Don’t lie….. it was your mom.
I ❤ boats
"Worse Things Happen At Sea"
It's really sad that this video is longer than it took for the Empress to sink...chilling and horrifying. God rest the souls of those poor souls. It's a disgrace that more people don't know about her.
Her sinking was overshadowed by the start of WW1 a couple months later. That is why many people do not know her story.
some dank even faster than the Empress of Ireland .
@@peterf.229 Dank?
Sad? I think you need to to revisit what you said here.
@@peterf.229sank? Auto correct is incorrect often. 😮
That, sir, was a superbly told tale, one of your very best. I had heard of this sinking but not the details and it's sad that even when a company does all it can to build and maintain a safe ship the worst can still occur. Her captain sounds like a very interesting chap, did he ever write a book on his life?
Joe Saward has written a book about him, titled “The Man Who Caught Crippen”, just in case you are interested.
This is by far the most detailed and informative account of the Empress' tragic fate. You make it very accessible to picture the sudden horror, from normality to death within 15 brief minutes.
The Henry Kendall/ Crippen connection is amazing - no one has ever brought this up before, at least on UA-cam. And then getting torpedoed on top of that- what an extraordinary life that man led, and I'll definitely be searching out more about him. Many, many thanks.
Yeah some collisions are... hard to imagine due to just how enormous the scale really is. This one... was intense. It could have been worse, but dang... it was horrible.
YEEEESSSSSSSS
As a resident of quebec with a father who was in the Navy, I was raised with the history of this ship and it's disaster....
I still need to visit the Museum at Rimouski.
So happy to see it there!!! ♥♥♥
First I heard of this tragedy was at my grandparents as they were parishioners of the local Salvation Army Church and noticed an article in the churches publication about the anniversary of the sinking.
I needed this so much today. It's always a great day when Maritime Horrors posts a new video
Imagine "needing" stimulation so badly yet being so inept at creating it for yourself :')
@@r0br33r Maybe they were a bit stressed after having a bad day and needed something to unwind… have some empathy dude
As a Canadian, I’m glad that the empress is getting more recognition.
Absolutely cruel luck. Both captains' seemed to be making reasonable decisions given what they knew...up until the very last one.
Also looked up Kendall's story, is awesome. Truly a man made of sturdy stuff.
Lived in to his 90's! A life long well lived
agreed here.
@@jamesfracasse8178 It's surprising he remained in the navy after first sinking and went on to survive second.
I was recently watching videos about the Costa Concordia. It's an interesting difference between that and this. A competent captain vs an incompetent one.
Currently in the process of getting a captains license and have a safety exam soon. Glad my favorite UA-camr uploaded again should be good motivation to study, lol
The best motivation for any new Captain: Don't show up on Maritime Horrors' channel lol
Great video! I did a big history project on the Empress when I was in grade 8, and I've been fascinated by her ever since. My Mum drove me to Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto to see the Salvation Army monument to the 167 Salvationists lost in the sinking, and the graves of the 22 who were found. It was amazing and sobering to see these real-life monuments to history most people only read about in books.
She sank in the blink of an eye, and was forgotten just as quickly when WW1 began. The Empress, her passengers and her crew will forever be a haunting, fascinating piece of history.
I read the title and immediately knew what ship it was! Even more tragic then the Titanic yet relatively obscure in the public!
Well, the loss of the Empress of Ireland was overshadowed by WW1, which began two months after she sank
I beg to differ. Titanic had the richest people in the world on it. I'm thinking there have been a string of mass murders by the JESUIT Illuminati Freemasons.
They made huge amounts of money - probably trillions, beginning with Bruce Ismay and JP Morgan sinking Titanic.
@@emerybonner7973 - I suspect that this event was also intended to incite war. Somehow it got suppressed.
She is actually marked as a historic wreck on the area's nautical charts which is neat. Only one I can think of off the top of my head. I didn't know about her until I found a 1914 copy of 'The Tragic story of the Empress of Ireland and Other Great Sea Disasters' at a used book store in 2013
im so glad to hear you speaking about this horrible tragedy.
i come from rimouski and lived my whole childhood in the small village right next to father point, Sainte Luce. the sinking happened directly in front of it's 1.8km beach, about 2km's offshore.
there are lots of plaques and pictures with maps.and informations, and there's a full museum in her honor at father point, at the foot of the lighthouse.
they added a submarine to their exhibitions
interesting fact: the external shape of the museum's building mimicks how the wreck s sitting at the bottom of the River
🎉 wow. Thank you for sharing that information.
I love when people make sure History is respected. ❤
Great video. Interesting that they were able to salvage items from the wreck over the years and that now wreck is a protected site.
PS - salvage crew recovered 318 bags of mail and 251 bars of silver bullion.
This story is so similar to the Andrea Doria. Both liners were struck by Scandinavian icebreakers after miscommunications, and both Stockholm and Storstad saved many passengers.
Count on vikings to look for slaves among the survivors...
I have watched many accounts of the sinking. This is far and away one of the very best.
Thank you for sharing this.
Great video as always. Keep it up.
May all lost during the sinking of RMS Empress of Ireland on May 29, 1914 never be forgotten.
Teak is beautiful wood, my parents had a teak set of desk, bar, coffee table, and end tables they bought when he was stationed in Thailand. It did fine in FL with its high humidity, but when they lived in other places like Washington state, it had to be hauled outside and oiled thoroughly every year or it would dry out and crack.
Thank you for this coverage of the Empress, good to have you back! I wouldn't mind a series about the lives of some of the captains/crews who went down with famous shipwrecks.
My mom grew up in northern Thailand from the 1950s to the 1970s. To this day, one of her most prized possessions is a large teak trunk her parents bought her when she was a child.
she is never forgotten by ship wreak buffs. but she is forgot by the world. sadly
Damn right I have 3 books about her
I'm a resident of the town that the Empress sinked at and this makes me very happy to see someone cover it! Thank you!
Thank You Sir,
Canadian here.
Truth is beauty
No matter the horror
Great to see you do a video on this disaster which has become known as Canada's titanic may all those lost in the sinking rest in peace.
I remember going to the Empress of Ireland Museum in Quebec. Amazing history forgotten in time even with such a great lose of life.
Wooo! Yeah baby! New video that's what I'm talkin about!!!
The inquiry’s transcript makes for fascinating reading, both for the information about the ship and accident and for showing the courtroom brilliance of Butler Aspinall, arguing for CPR. The Norwegian crew didn’t have a coherent, consistent story. The inquiry would be worthy of an in-depth video of its own.
Very interesting question--why is Titanic remembered and other disasters not? I recall that Stephen Cox, in "The Titanic Story," argued that the Titanic took 2 hrs and 40 minutes to sink, which is about the length of a Shakespeare play. This required people aboard to make decisions but gave them time to think and notice what others were doing, thus providing much more human interest than the horrifying disasters of the Empress and the Lusitania, which sank in minutes.
Probably because it was one of the first and biggest, being touted as unsinkable the tragedy would've received a massive amount of media coverage, especially with it being a Whitestar Line ship. A company widely regarded for its luxury ships and shipping prowess
the biggest, unsinkable ship sunk with a bunch of the people who were saved being rich celebs.
I had known about the disaster for a long time now and I am glad people like you are telling this tale as the sinking was mostly forgotten by many for years
Not quite forgotten, Clive Cussler used the ship sinking as a plot point in his early Dirk Pitt novel "Night Probe!"
Oh, how close America was to having Canada as the 51st state! 😉
I feel left out yall
My favorite Cussler novel!!!
i read that too 🤣
Interesting book. Good way to piss off 38 million Canadians though. Still I am a Cussler fan and have read all his books. “Ripping yarns” as my grandfather would have said.
The sinking of the Empress plays a significant part of the plot of the 1981 Clive Cussler novel, "Night Probe!". Before I read the novel, I had never heard of this wreck.
It's kinda unbelievable how these ships managed to hit each other.
Oh how close America was to having Canada as the 51st State! 😉
@@danielseelye6005 not really mate (War of 1812).
@@jon9021 Read the book "Night Probe".
*Spoilers*
The UK was in financial straits and needed money just before WW1, so they made a secret deal to sell Canada to the US for 1 billion. Both sides agreed, but both copies of the Treaty were lost: One on a train, the "Manhattan Limited" going off a bridge and the other copy went down on the RMS "Empress of Ireland". When Parliament got wind of the PM selling Canada, they threw a snit and had any records buried.
Fast forward to the 1980s and the (alternate history) United States is in such bad shape that when someone finds out about this forgotten treaty, they decide to search for the copies and justify claiming all of Canada as part of the United States so they can have access to all the resources. The UK gets wind and send MI6 agents to stop it and destroy both copies out of fear the other nations in the Commonwealth will leave and take the UK down as a result.
@@danielseelye6005 I will! I like Clive Cussler, haven’t read this one!
The History Museum in Ottawa had an event sized display covering this exact ship. I was an interesting journey that walked you through the tragedy, as well as showing stuff like what the eating arrangements were and the menus used for ordering food. I wouldn't mind seeing it again, someday.
Tales of the sea and the vessels that brave them are enthralling. Thank you
So glad you covered this one, I first heard of the empress of Ireland from my great grandmother, but never knew the full story till now, keep up the good work man.
Thank you so much. Love your stories!!!
After a nightmare of classes, i needed this. Great work🎉
Yes exactly what I needed today welcome back
Thank you so much for including the metric conversions 🙏
In all honesty the only reason why i remember the empress of Ireland is for how quick and brutal it sank, i knew about it for some time though i wish it would get talked about more, great work as always
I will admit that while I have been researching Titanic and maritime history in general for the last 33 years, I didn't know about the Empress of Ireland until about 15 years ago and I felt like I didn't know anything. I've researched the Halifax Explosion of the collision between the SS Imo and the Mont Blanc, I've known about the Lusitania disaster, the Titanic (obviously), the Britannic during WWI, the Eastland, but at the time there weren't too many references to the Empress at the time. Even Dr. Bob Ballard felt regret when having never heard of the Empress of Ireland disaster. This is a very well researched and put together documentary of the great ship and the following disaster thanks to the mistakes of the crew from both the Empress as well as the Storstad.
I'm pleased to see that you had enough free time to get this made. Happy sailing.
Somewhat eerily similar to the Stockholm Vs Andrea Doria incident.
Well done for digging this story out of mists of time. Your videos just get better and better, and as a bonus, you have the perfect voice to go with it.
I've heard of the Empress of Ireland, but never knew it sunk. Thought it was scrapped. Learn something new every day.
My gawd, I nearly burst into tears after hearing how many of the children were lost.
Was scrolling through aimlessly, decided to refresh it and then i stumbled on this, oh goodness me what a lucky day
I had heard of this one before but not in such detail...thanks for this amazing bit of history!
And I was just rewatching some of your older videos last night after thinking you haven't posted in a while. This was a pleasant surprise to come home from work to.
Tragic story which I knew a little about. What I was unaware of the fact the two vessels had come to a full stop! I cannot imagine drowning in steerage. RIP
Thank God, I was worried. Glad you're back
Thank you so much for coverning the Empress' story! Ever since I was a kid, I had an obsession with her history, mainly fueled by rage that she was never able to be grieved properly because of the war... I actually got to visit the Empress of Ireland museum in Rimouski twice, and I got to touch different parts of the glorious ship. My very first job choice was actually a diver, able to withstand the strong currents and icy waters of the St-Lawrence River and be able to visit the Empress. Of course, I never got to acheive that dream but I'd be lying if i said it wasn't still on my bucket list! I still keep a little shrine for the passengers and make sure that they are remembered to this day. Thank you again for sharing one of the most tragic events in maritime history (atleast in my opinion), and the story of her passengers.
Edit: Captain Kendall was my first crush, to show you how obsessed I was
Has anyone ever told you that you're strange? Well, you're definitely strange.
I’m not sure why but I am so interested in these story’s. Most I have heard none of. It seems the only story anyone really knows about inside and out is Titanic. There are so many other lost ships with so many more aboard dying as there ship goes down. So many other sad story’s of so many people with a future, drowned. I have to say you tell there story’s so we’ll. I can see it in my mind and then of coarse the pictures in your video help also. Thank you for telling there story’s. R.I.P. to all of those many people that were lost or the many with ptsd for the rest of there lives that went threw hell to survive. (What an amazing captain, it’s just bad luck where they were hit and the time of the crash. )Hearing how many children and women that passed hurts my heart. The sad part is this is still happening even today. Not as many lost and not so often I believe mostly in the 80’s and 90’s. But still just as sad. Again Thank you for your videos. These story’s need to be heard. ❤❤🙏🏽🙏🏽♥️♥️ Great job.
Oh thank you. I was getting a little tired of listening to your old videos to fall asleep to. 🙂. Please can the next one be the Estonia?
Very well done ! I’ve read and seen several accounts of this disaster. This presentation is much more complete telling many more legs of the story. Thank you very much for your work. I subscribed. Take care from Alaska
Every time I see the words "Empress of Ireland" the Lost Liners theme plays in my head.
Any loss of life , from any cause is always worth remembering
Excellent video
He's back with another banger, lads! At your muster stations!
Welcome back bro...missed your uploads...this was awesome
I look forward to this video, like all of them. I wonder if you could cover the Costa Concordia next? I know it's been covered by others, but I'd like to see it done with your own style of video and storytelling.
I second this please!!!!
He's mentioned before he's really cautious about doing videos about modern disasters. He's worried about a survivor or a family member of a victim coming across his video and there being some inaccuracy or something that offends them.
I don't think he could outdo Internet Historian's opus. 😁
I'd assume that modern shipwrecks probably won't be covered.
Right, the podcast Well There’s Your Problem has already done the Costa as irreverently and goofily as possible, I’m sure Maritime Disasters would do it justice.
I love this disaster! My favorite after the Lusitania. Nice to have you back, Skipper.
Favorite disaster? You're messed up.
Thank you for all the effort you put into the research for these. This isn't meant as a criticism of another channel, but I recently watched a video on this disaster, as well as their coverage of the Halifax disaster, and with both I was really wanting to hear your far more in depth and respectful retelling of the story. I ended up rewatching your Halifax disaster video, and now this one filled in so many gaps and gave the story the seriousness it deserved.
Maritime Horror Awesome job from you again!! Thank you!! And big Thank You to Todd!
Empress of Ireland:
Overshadowed by the sinking of Titanic and the start of the First World War later on.
Forgotten by the world
Never forgotten by historians
Glad to see you back, I’m battling a cold, and was delighted to see this new content from your channel! Thanks again bro, hope everything going well for you, stay safe out there and keep up the great work!
Thank you for the new upload! You made my day good sir.
I'm from Canada and a lot of people there don't know about this ship.
Dr. James Grant's daughter is a good friend of my grandmother.
Dr. Grant has a remarkable story: it took him several minutes just to open the door to his cabin because of the list, he was walking on the walls inside the ship, and when the ship had rolled completely onto its side, he was pulled through a porthole; the man emerging from a porthole in the portrait at 29:10 is likely Grant.
I'm from Quebec and I am a huge fan of nautical disasters and consequently, your channel for quite sometime. Your video was incredible, very thorough research and I truly appreciate the amount of work you put into it. It's really touching that you took the time to cover our local maritime history. It's a small detail but I wanna specify that Rimouski is pronounced MOU like moose and not MOW like wow. 😊
these stories make me appreciate the safety and comfort of my home office as I watch this on my monitor. what a truly horrifying way to die. cold, sudden darkness, lungs filling up. in many cases, your children being ripped from you to suffer the same horrible demise.
ugh
truly horrific
just awful
Nice presentation; thanks!
Another fantastic and thorough video. This has in a short time become one of my favorites.
Excellent fact and context filled description of the fateful Empress of Ireland.
Excellent episode of a forgotten/unknown sea disaster, thank you Sir!!!🙏😢⚓❣️
My phone notified me a new Maritime Horrors was posted. I COULDN’T wait to get off work to fire up youtube on my drive home 🙏🏻
A video about Captain Kendall would be most welcome. He is an interesting character!
In the matter of Dr Crippen, Inspector Dew of Scotland Yard crossed the Atlantic on the Laurentic and boarded the Montrose as a pilot to arrest Crippen.
Thanks so much for this content.
Excellent, fascinating video! Thank you very much!
I wonder if there are any books about Henry Kendall. I'd love to read more about him, especially his encounters with those murderers.
For sure. He sounds like he has a crazy story
I cant find any just about him but Crippen books mention him (obviously haha) plus you could try Forgotten Empress: The Empress of Ireland Story by David Zeni
There's a book titled The Man Who Caught Crippen about Kendall. It's pretty good - written by Joe Saward, a motorsports journalist. The Grand Prix Saboteurs, also by Saward, is quite good as well.
Wow, never heard of the Empress of Ireland! What is it with Scandinavians getting in the way of passenger liners, though? This is about the third time I've heard that happen...
It’s the viking in them /s
Also that it happened two times in Canada, maybe it was the ghost of ex-Vinlanders avenging themselves.
It's the passenger liners that's in the way. If you see a viking coming at ya in the shippingchannel; GTFO :)
Fantastic work
Great video as usual! We need more
Fun fact its even more chilling for me since I live in Rimouski. Beautiful rendition of this horrible tragedy and it’s a shame that this story was overshadowed by the titanic.
Actually, it is because WW1 started a few months later that people have forgotten about this disaster
"The Unsinkable Henry Kendall" has a nice ring to it.
Glad to see you back, mate.
The behaviour of the Storstad's captain after the fact always seemed dogdy to me, to say the least. The enquiry is online at the Princes of Ireland Enquiry Project site for everyone to read. The man tried to weasel his way out of it, throwing the First Officer - Toftenes - under the bus in the meantime. I'm sure it's not the rule of thumb by which we should measure Norwegian captains but both Andersen of the SS Storstad and From of the SS Imo set the bar pretty low.
Looking forward to the next one.
Cheers.
I had no idea I liked maritime stories untill I found your channel
Absolutely love your videos. I am absolutely fascinated with any kind of maritime history. Awesome work. How do I donate? Can you do a couple of your awesome videos on the ships of the great lakes?
Brilliant episode Maritime, always love it when one of your vids pop up out of the blue)
So happy to have you back chap
I live close to to rimouski when inwas little, went to the museum quite a few time in childhood. Empress of ireland has always been a favorite of mine. Im suprised only few know the story of the empress compared to the titanic
Know the story well Canadian so it stuck with me.Great job as always.
I remember reading about this in Ballard's Shipwreck book
Brilliantly done and absolutely a superb choice.
Very few people have heard of the Empress of Ireland let alone the massive tragedy she became "famous" for
10/10
(had lessons been better learned from this perhaps the accident with the Stockholm and Andrea Doria wouldn't have happened)
Not in the USSR. We knew this catastrophe as "Canada's Black Friday." This was the title of a chapter in the book "Secrets of Marine Disasters" by the Soviet marine writer Lev Skryagin.
@@karolinasandrapaulinamarit8090 that's really interesting because the Canadian government weren't even aware of it until late last century.
Fascinating that another country is more familiar with the tragedy than the country involved.
"Fourteen Minutes" is a really good book on the Empress of Ireland if you're interested.
And thank you for sharing that 😊
@ Lord Captain von Thrust III Love, Love your YT handle! Sounds both regal & sus at the same time, lol 😆
@@lordcaptainvonthrust3rd
Well, Lev Skryagin, IMHO, was the best naval diplomat in the whole human history. For example, he received a personal permission from the Canadian government to visit the Sable Island.
The Soviet diplomat. In 1976.
Lev Skryagin also had the great connections. He personaly knew such people as John Finlay and Riss Harill. He had official access to the most famous maritime archives.
And, most importantly, he shared his great knowledge with the people.
Here is a far from complete list of books written by this truly great man:
"In the footsteps of sea disasters", "Secrets of sea disasters", "How the ship ruined the city", "The last SOS of "Volturno"".
Indeed, as worse a time as the Titanic. Yet she is in much shallower water and slowly being consumed by the current building silt
I sure hope you keep making these videos
Another wonderful video, thank you.
Always excellent, love these stories and crave those tasty details you always have
This is a very sad story because, there was no greed involved. No malice, no incompetence or cowardice, not even the enemy action one would expect in a war. This was just, pure misfortune. Both Captains did the best they could with the information they had. This was just, bad luck. If not for that fog bank, the two ships would likely have passed each other with little more than an "Oh hey, another ship. Neat."
Perhaps that might be why the story is so unknown compared to the Titanic. This story has no 'unsinkable' ship being lost on its maiden voyage as though nature itself was insulted by the arrogance of man. No small army of the most famous people of the day being onboard. No overlooked pieces of information that could have avoided the tragedy entirely. The titanic lets people look through all the mistakes in hindsight and assign blame accordingly, and believe that they would have obviously seen the warning signs and prevented it. This story has no obvious villain, likely no villain at all, just 2 captains that wished for nothing more than to avoid the collision, and both tried to evade in just the right way that they both contributed to making the collision unavoidable. theres no moralistic lesson about arrogance and believing you have conquered some natural force, no greed and ambition pushing over a thousand people into danger to prove how fast your ship can cross an ocean.This story is uncomfortable because it shows that sometimes trying to avoid a tragedy, through cruel misfortune, can doom you all the same.
@@restitvtororbis5330 another major reason for why the Empress of Ireland's story is not as well-known is because WW1 began a couple of months after the sinking
@@emerybonner7973 Could be both.
@@shadowldrago yeah. It was both those reasons.
You are right about there not being a villain. The captains made mistakes but that was because of being disorientated by the fog. A 2004 inquiry determined that is what happened
@@emerybonner7973 That doesn't surprise me. Fog isn't fun to deal with on land, where vehicles have MUCH less mass than at sea, so in 1905 with only horns to signal what they intend to do and the size of the ships? Woof...
Just found this channel and I love it! It's like a boat version of Disaster Breakdown
The new logo art is AMAZING!!! It would make an awesome animated background worth a purchase. Going to order a mug and some stickers soon. Thanks for all your effort put into these videos, I'm always happy to see a new upload!!
Good one. I've seen soem fine retellings of the "Empress of Ireland" sinking before, but this is the first one to touch on the intriguing character of Cpt. Kendall, which maybe you *should* do as a separate video.