Why Did She Sink So Fast? | RMS Empress of Ireland
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- Опубліковано 28 кві 2022
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In this video, we investigate what happened to "Canada's Titanic", the Empress of Ireland. She went down in the St. Laurence river in 1914, with the loss of 1012 lives, making it Canada's worst peacetime maritime disaster in history.
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The reason this disaster is largely forgotten is because World War 1 started a few weeks later.
And war is more popular than a ship that went under in 15 minutes.
@@notjebbutstillakerbal read up on the Hunting the Bismark Germany’s first super battleship, it was feared so much, that when it was spotted all allies in area started hunting her.
And the Titanic is also a lot more famous, and that also had just happened
@@clxwncrxwn What does the Bismarck have to do with this?
@@sirboomsalot4902 what does your question have to do with my question?
We need more ship sinking explained videos like this. Awesome video!
YEESS! I love these
Thanks. More like this will be coming!
Agreed. I really enjoyed this video.
@@CasualNavigation I'd love if they went even more in depth too! It felt like there was so much to be covered in this one that we just got a cursory glance at all the aspects. By the time it came to answering why it sank so quickly, there was less than a minute left in the video which was a bummer. There wasn't really an explanation of why inverted bows were so deadly in collisions like this, or why they were popular at the time.
I fully support this! It would be both educational and entertaining.
40 years later, the SS Andrea Doria had a collision and sank in a similar accident than the RMS Empress of Ireland. But almost all her passengers survived the accident thanks to years of improvements in shipping technology.
Phew!
In spite of the technology, the Andrea Doria still sinks. It's almost as if a Higher Power asks himself, "What's the one way this ship could actually sink?" Then proceeds to create just that situation. Lots of ships hit that one situation.
@@Carlton-B That's Muphy's law. "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."
@@Carlton-B Nah, it's just statistics. Thousands of ships are at sea every day (and in the 1950's) without incident. You get enough, eventually you'll get failures of even unlikely probability. And the news doesn't report on the thousands every day where nothing bad happens. It's kind of like serial killers: they're exceedingly rare, and people find them notable because of news coverage. But take a nation of ~300 million people (using US in the past as an example), there will be measurable numbers of them in existence.
It took 47 times longer for the Andrea Doria to sink than the Empress of Ireland.
Despite the Empress of Ireland resting at only 130 feet below the waves, at least six people have died exploring the wreck, some of which were experience divers. The site is dangerous due to the cold water, strong currents and restricted visibility.
I wonder if you can see from the wreck what story most likely is true.
@@Zyphera it's amazing that if the Empress had just kept going forward the accident wouldn't have happened
Still, anything past 35 m is an advanced dive, 130 feet sounds like it's not very far but when it's 130 feet of water and pressure above you it's quite a bit.
@@bencheevers6693 Absolutely. Problem for the Empress is also the fact that divers enter the wreck and get lost.
@@StudioPluche looks like the Andrea doria wreck is not as dangerous as it seems
The lesson of Empress of Ireland: if you are a foreign sailor involved in a serious accident, prepare to be the scapegoat.
Larger ship usually has the right of way.
@@ElGrandoCaymano Ye, because bigger usually means more powerful/deadly. In this case the Storstad was clearly the most deadly as it's bow is basically a ram so it can do more damage to the Empress than she could do to Storstad, so by the natural law of the jungle/sea, the Empress needs to get out of the way because she has more to lose in the case of a collision.
Larger or more powerful/deadly is irrelevant. Thats why there are international laws of the sea.
The Norwegian ship cant be totally blameless, as it did hit the Empress, however I find it very troubling, that the inquiry and subsequent civil lawsuit for damages both found the Storstad to be solely responsible, while both admitting, that the Storstad actually followed the law of the sea.
@@dfuher968 Obviously there was some bias against Norwegians in the inquiry.
Unless you actually understand the International Regs on Prevention of Collisions at Sea, of course, and then you realise that statement is nonsense.
There was also another tragedy in the court hearings. All of Storstad's crew where Norwegian speaking with very limited English capabilities. And the judge and panel was English, the Norwegians had therefore almost no say in the hearing nor the sentencing.
Another fun fact, the first thing the captain on the Empress of Ireland said when he came onboard the Storstad after being rescued was "you sunk my ship captain"
Edit: I do love that I managed to start a discussion here, yes I might be wrong on certain facts but I'm learning to the best of my capabilities here.
Are you sure that is valid? Surely there would have been translators, and surely they hired a lawyer/barrister who was familiar with local laws, and who could speak English.
@@cannellofglory6968 Even still that likely would not be enough to sway the bias of native speakers and native casualties. Blame the foreigners is easier and pleases the most amount of people connected to the vessels and the passengers.
@@cannellofglory6968 Probably Norse is a bit correct and a bit incorrect. The inquiry was conducted in English and the owners of the Storstad - Klavness - were represented by English speaking lawyers. There was a bit of an issue in Canada at the time about foreign flagged vessels carrying coastal cargo so the Norwegians were an easy target. Having been an Assessor assisting Judges on Marine Courts of Inquiry the evidence presented here was at the least contradictory and we will probably never know exactly what happened other than the fact the ships hit each other. The Norwegians conducted a seperate court proceeding and blamed the Empress. There was not a sentencing, it was a civil case to apportion blame. Nobody was carted off in handcuffs like they would be today.
The Storestad and her captain were in my opinion blamed for a screw up by the CP Liner. Canadian courts at that time would be very prejudice towards the foreign party.
The fact they found the Storstad guilty while it says they followed procedure is troubling
What about your impression of Titanic? Mine is, it was indeed a mass murder crime scene, just like the WTC buildings on September 11 - Americans murdered Americans that day.
The watertight doors were hand cranked from the deck above and in grim twist of fate closed from starboard to port, thus making it much harder to seal them. Many of the stewards assigned to close these doors stayed at their posts until they drowned.
Before ships of this time were built a model would be built to by the shipyard to show the client what they were getting. It was a sales tool and the model was very detailed and painted in the line's livery. Many of these models were eventually donated to museums when the shipyards. The model of the Empress of Ireland was donated to Glasgow city by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering and ended up in the Glasgow Transport Museum where I saw it first saw it as a boy. I think that it may now be in the Glasgow Riverside Museum, but they display far fewer models than at the former site. The model itself is beautiful and the ship itself must have been a sight to behold. I was much more impressed by her comparatively modest lines than others built on the Clyde like the Queen Elizabeths and the Queen Mary.
Great video. Thank you. It brought back some great childhood memories of going round the old museum wide eyed and full of wonder. All the best everyone.
I stumbled on a fairly large model of the empress at the Greenwich Navel museum last year in an area showing a comparison of ship sizes. I only knew the story due to the this video.
@@jamieknight326 Museums do lend items, so it's probably the same model. 👍
The real lesson in all these stories is to NEVER be in an early 20th century ship just off the eastern shores of Canada
Thanks for the heads-up I'll try to avoid it
My whole life living in Canada of 34 years, and I've never heard this story. Yet half my family has been to the titanic museum in halifax.
Same. Kinda pisses me off that I hadn’t… stupid crap school system…
In Québec it was the subject of the state exams my year last year of primary, we did learn about it
Perhaps the canadians are shamed that they senteced innocent people... instead of accepting the fact: it was their fault.
I new this story as a kid back in USSR in 70-s
@@adrianciobotaru9595 We turned back a ship full of Jewish refugees that sailed from Germany during WW2- for them to have to return to their death. They taught that in school and that's way worse, so I disagree that's the reason.
Oh excellent! I have been hoping for this episode since I first started watching your channel a few years back! It is sad how this tragedy is often forgotten even in Canada :( It has always struck me how fast they were able to launch the lifeboats - 9 in 12 minutes. If anyone is interested in learning a bit more about the passengers on the ship, The Tragic Story of the Empress of Ireland and other Great Sea Disasters is an interesting contemporary source.
Cheers Bailey. There are so many that get overshadowed by Titanic, so I am hoping to cover more.
In the book Fourteen Minutes: The Last Voyage of the Empress of Ireland, the author, James Croall notes that one of the problems with the design of the Empresses was that the stairways were oriented athwartship, first outboard and then halfway up they reversed direction and continued inboard to the next deck. As the ship heeled over, at least half of each stairway was therefore vertical trapping passengers and crew belowdecks.
I could see this being done for safety reasons. In heavy seas, one might get thrown down a flight of stairs by a large wave hitting the bow and angling the ship sharply upwards if they were oriented fore and aft. Instead, a person would only get thrown against the wall/railing.
@@Crosshair84 Just the opposite. It was actually done for aesthetic reasons. The designers thought they could get away with it because the ship was so big that it rolled less than a smaller ship in any given sea state. They were tragically wrong.
Truth is that ships roll far more severely than they pitch. Always have. That is why default in 90% of all cases ladders run fore and aft. Even where athwartship ladders were used they were always in pairs, one rising to port and the other to starboard. That way at least one was available at any given moment. Since this accident the rules were changed so that only fore and aft ladders were counted when determining escape routes.
The Empress of Ireland was an even more horrifying shipwreck than the Titanic in my opinion. Fewer people died, but it was a greater percentage of the passengers and almost all the children died.
My great-grandmother emigrated from the UK to Canada with her four young sons on the Empress of Ireland in November of 1912, just months after the sinking of the Titanic. Hard to believe that less than two years later another huge loss of life would occur when she sank on a return journey to Liverpool.
Jesus what bad luck!
Have you covered the SS Eastland yet? It was a ship that got overloaded in port at Chicago and rolled over with 2000 people on it. Basically the weight was too high on the ship (as I recall). Might be a good video simply because the disaster illustrates a lot of the concepts you cover on this channel about center of buoyancy.
I haven't covered it yet, but it is definitely one to consider.
Classic tale
A tale as old as time, sadly.
@@CasualNavigation Interesting wrinkle as I was reading into it more. A law had been passed in the US recently that required the Eastland to have enough lifeboats for all of it’s passengers. It had not been designed that way and adding in all the extra boats moved it’s weight up as well, making it less stable. As you may be aware, that law came as the result of the Titanic sinking. It’s possible that, in a round about way, the Titanic disaster was in part responsible for this disaster as well (I mean, really it’s idiotic law makers painting with too broad of a brush and ship makers not implementing the rules correctly, but I think you get what I mean). If we frame it that way, 1600 or so died with the Titanic directly, then another 800 died here. So that’s 2400 deaths that could, theoretically, be attributed to the Titanic (and I wonder if there were more…)
Fascinating horror did a video on it. Look his channel up
So to recap: The Storstad followed the law of the sea, but was still solely blamed for hitting the Empress in the thick fog. While the Empress and her captain got zero blame despite NOT following the law of the sea AND being at the very least negligent by sailing with open portholes and open watertight doors.
Right.
Humanity is great isn't it?
That's not ENTIRELY true. The Empress repeatedly used their fog whistles to try and warn the Storstad that they were there, which they should have been able to hear. So I don't think a side is entirely blameless or entirely to blame either.
Like someone else said “Larger ships usually have the right of way.”
I've visited the museum for this ship, which is in view of the wreck site. There are a variety of nearly perfectly preserved artifacts that gave you glimpses in to the passenger's routine. It made me quite sad, a feeling I also felt looking at Titanic artifacts in Halifax. Terrible time to be on an ocean liner in Eastern North America
the Rimouski musuem I guess ?
By the time you finish this video, the Empress would be half way through her entire sinking. In that time, you would have been woken up from the crash, needed to understand an emergency was happening, formulate a plan of escape, and be executing it. It's honestly amazing anyone survived - I would probably be just getting my pants on when the water came in.
A lot of people tall about the tragedy of the Titanic shipwreck, but the real heartache can be found with the Empress. Imagine standing on her side as she is going down, being able to see the shore, but the water is too cold to survive or even attempt a swim for safety.
I've been interested in air crash reports for some time now. Now ship sinking reports are my go-to videos. Please do more of these!
I am experimenting with more of these investigation style videos now.
Better than boring nascar.
There's never been a full animation of the sinking of the HMS Hood after the explosion. The wreck site doesn't make sense there are parts that shouldn't be where they lie. Around a third of the ship was vaporised while in a high speed turn. Imagine twisting, pulling, bending and stretching a baguette while another person crushes a third of it to dust. Prop shafts were pulled out, 15 inch gun turrets blown off, machinery spilled out. The main hull section is upside down, the bow tip on its side, the stern tip stuck straight up and the armoured conning tower that should have fallen straight down is well away from the main Hull. It's a tragic mystery.
"Q-wee-beck City"
Sorry but as a Canadian I could not stop laughing at that pronunciation, thank you
LMAO same
more like "kehbek," right? I love hearing ya'll mispronounce it on purpose tho, in a variety of ways...
I think it's funny that Canadians were too lazy to make a vlog on a national tragedy in their own waters, so leave it up to foreigners to do their hard work. Then instead of complimenting them for covering a domestic story, instead laugh at how they talk. So funny.
Clive Cussler taught me about the Empress in his book Night Probe (fiction). A compelling story that described the wreck in all its magnificence.
wow, thanks for that video
i lived my whole childhood in a village directly in front of where it actually happened on the st.lawrence river .there is now a museum next to the Pointe-au-Père lighthouse commemorating this terrible event
fun fact: if you look for pictures of the museum, the outside shape of the museum mimics the position of the wreckage at the bottom of the river.
it's really worth the drive if you're into that kind of things and happen to be in Quebec
Some years back, they added a complete Diesel/Electric submarine for tourists and curious people to go trough and learn more about the silent service and life aboard a sub. it is quite a sight to see the submarine out of the water like it is. there is also an episode of Mighty Moves about how they did bring it there and pulled it out on shore.
The watertight bulkhead doors were open because during regular operations crew have to pass between the bulkheads.
However, Empress of Ireland either lacked remote electrical closure (something the Olympic-class ships had) or the electrical control was damaged by the crash, and the flooding was too rapid for manual closure.
About the Storstad's bow: I believe it was specifically popular for help with ice-breaking.
She did not have electrical closure at all. Remember, that was state of the art, and the Empress of Ireland was pushing 40. Her doors where hand cranked. And fatefully closed starboard to port, making most of them near impossible to close with a starboard list.
@@hanzzel6086 Given she was ordered in 1905 (and looks nothing like what a 1870/80's vessel would have looked like), Empress of Ireland was not pushing 40 years old. She wasn't even ten years old.
Though your point about the electric closure system on the Olympic class being state of the art still stands. Technology was advancing at an extremely rapid pace at that point in time, so even a relatively young ship like Empress of Ireland would have been several years out of date (technology wise) by 1914.
@@andrewlucia865 Ah, I was always under the impression she was an older vessel. Thanks for the correction.
Watertight doors should be closed in restricted visibility where there is a higher risk of collision...that should have been a procedure to ensure the reserve buoyancy at all times, especially times of increased risk, otherwise what was the point at that time of knowing about reserve buoyancy and watertight integrity if they weren't implementing it?
I love when UA-camrs bring to light unheard of, yet important, stories. Thanks again!
at 5:38 the lights were really helpful, please continue on using these
Have to say, that first bit...adding to basket , click. Was excellent 👍😂 👍
The problem with the Storstad was not the shape of the bow. It was that the Storstad was longitudinally-framed, a practice that was banned after this collision. In a longitudinally-framed ship the hull supports run continuously fore and aft and are heavier than the intermittent transverse (port to starboard) framing. Modern ships are all transverse-framed with the heavier, continuous frames running side to side and smaller, intermittent framing running fore and aft. This allows the bow to crush and absorb much of the energy. Although a much larger ship, the transverse-framed Stockholm actually did much less damage to the Andrea Dorea than Storstad did to the Empress of Ireland.
My great grandfather went down on this ship. He had brought part of the family to Canada and was on his way back to England for the remaining family members.
There are comments like this one every single shipwreck video, I don’t know how people just expect us to believe them. Most of the time, these are just people looking for attention, and that is indescribably disrespectful to the victims. If this IS true, I’m sorry for your loss.
My great great grandmother Elizabeth Hailey drowned when the Empress of Ireland went down. She had travelled from New Zealand to visit family in Vancouver, and was on her way home. I never knew this until I read about it on the Papers Past website.
In my case it is true. So who is being indescribably disrespectful to the victims, other than you? Personally I don't give a rat's arse what you choose to believe, and even less for your faux sympathy.
@@northlandrider5396 you actually gave proof that you lost someone, so condolences, absolutely. But people who just try to say they lost someone in a shipwreck without elaborating is just looking for attention 99% of the time. People like this who use a horrible tragedy to gain attention is sickening and disgusting.
@@Goat_Lord What proof? There is no more proof in my comment than there is in RC's contribution to this story, both of which add a human element. That's a very interesting percentage, old hoss. Must have hurt, pulling that factoid out of your bum.
Why the Empress of Ireland sank so quickly is like asking why someone who just took a 50 cal round to the gut is dying so quickly. What essentially happened is what happens to your opponent in Mortal Kombat when you rip his heart out. The EoI was ploughed into by the Storstad, they seperated and the MASSIVE hole ripped into her not only killed her propulsion, but also allowed water to rush in so quickly that there was almost no chance for escape for those trapped aboard.
If you live in Québec, I really recommend going to the museum for this boat. It is a super cool place and museum.
This is one of the few issues within admiralty law. The main focus is always on the most reasonable commercial outcomes (remedies for damages) instead of prevention of these conflicts.
They weren’t escaping out of the portholes after the ship rolled. The portholes on the Empress of Ireland were only about nine inches or so. Many survivors standing on the hull reported people trapped in their cabins unable to escape and desperately grasping through the open portholes until the very end. Some accounts speak of trapped passengers seriously injuring themselves trying to fit through.
This video actually mentions the longitudinal bulkheads which I think was a big factor in the ship’s quick capsize. Most places don’t ever mention this so I’m very happy you did. You have a new subscriber now.
I think a bajor part in this situation is safe speed. All vessels are required to proceed at a speed under which it can stop within half of the visible range - even if that means stopping. The Empress of Ireland did that by eventually stopping, while the Storstad did not.
It is not required anymore at least to be able to stop at half the visible distance. This is because it could mean that vessels don't have enough speed to safely manouvre
@@samuelzackrisson8865 how do you understand rule 6 then? It is still taught like that in German maritime schools.
Edit: You are correct in the sense that if wind or current has a strong effect on your vessel you may keep enough engine power to not lose control over your vessel. In this case it sounded like they never even reduced and there was no mention of strong environmental vectors.
Ironicaly, since the Empress was stoped at the time of the colision, had she been moving the Storstad would probably passed her astern...
@@Bird_Dog00 the same is true for her going astern, what's your point?
@@hanswurst107 Just pointing out the irony of her doing what was probably the right thing ending up contributing to the disaster.
I always get very empathetic during storytelling, and I have no navigation abilities at all so when i think about navigating all i can do is guess. The moment when you made the lights disappear because of the fog was TERRIFYING, i had NO idea what I was supposed to do, thinking i was in this situation
well, that's easy what to do. turn off your device you're watching this video on. badabing badaboom, no more terrifying lights in sight. there you go!
well, actually there are some safety measures that you have to take. idk how it was back in the days, most of the laws and rules are pretty new (1990 and later)
- you are only allowed to cross green light on green light. red on red is not allowed anymore. or you gotta slow down and change your course visibly and drastically to pass behind them, if you are crossing.
- as soon as you can first visibly detect a ship, you need to figure out who needs to keep their course and who has to alter it. if the ship is on your right side, you have to alter your course.
- during fog, you have to make the sound at least every two minutes, or more often. if you hear the sound coming from in front of you of more to the front than the side, you gotta slow down A LOT. you need to reduce the speed to a minimum where you can still steer, but you gotta be able to stop the boat quickly.
- we also have electronic devices now, especially the radar and AIS. AIS transmits a ship’s GPS and other info (size, name, course) to all ships in the area automatically. and with radar, you can plot them on a map too.
all in all:
- there sound have been more sound signals.
- they should have both lowered their speed a lot.
- from today’s perspective, the first course change of the empress was wrong, because you shouldn’t alter to course TOWARDS someone, especially if the sight is going to be limited (they should know the weather in advance).
Well done explanation. I appreciate the absence of silliness that's so common in YT videos.
Quality and informative content as always! Keep up the good work
I wonder why the sound signals did not at least led to slowing down both of them. Fog on the sea is so creepy, and they could literally see nothing.
It sounds like the empress maybe did come to a stop.
@@ladyeowyn42 the empress stopped but the Norwegians didn't. I'm not sure what the correct procedure was but it seems weird that in heavy fog with both ships sounding their horns that they didn't realize they were on a collision course until 100ft from impact.
I've been several times to the Pointe au Père maritime museum, where the sinking occured. worth the visit!
Coal ship saw red and was right to assume fhe outcome. But once the fog rolls in, you need to take into account what could go wrong. They should have stopped like the liner did.
No, they are Norwegian Vikings, the sea belongs to them! They where merely teaching the descendants of their former rebellious vassal state of Great Brittan to fear their superiors by ramming them. The Anglo shall fear the Viking!
There was a documentary about this, saw it on yt a long time ago, and it was said that ships at the time has this common practics of over steering by the helmsmen to get to the ordered course for larger ships like the empress, don't remember why. So when stortads claim seeing empress green light transitioning to red was somewhat true, before the fog rolled in and didn't see the empress going to its intended course, going for a green to green passing. So when both ships where in the fog storstad slowed down to let the empress pass a head of them and empress went to it's intended course for a green to green passing not slowing down. As time goes on the storstad became worried that they might collide with the empress since they belived to be going for a red to red passing. So the captian ordered to increase speed and turn away but this unfortunately put the ship in the path of the empress, and it was noted that the empress was going in a relativly high speed comapred to the storstad. I think at the end of the documentary they concluded both captains are not at fault or not? and it was the fog was the ture culprit for the tragedy? which is kind of weired to me blamming the fog which is like blamming the iceburg for titanics singking. But this video was a really nice to see since the empress of ireland was a somewhat of a forgotten ship and the tragedy was over shadowed by WW1.
Excellent video as usual! 👏👏
Your videos are top notch!!! I have no personal interest in boats, but your videos are so interesting and well made!!!!
Thanks Spirit.Canada!
Why this tragedy remains forgotten comes down to just two reasons for me... 1 she sank just before world war I started, and 2 because the survivors and other relatives refused to bring it up because of the painful memories
Probably another factor is just how often it gets talked about. The Titanic and the Fitzgerald are both enshrined in media (movie and song respectively), and others like the Lusitania and Maine resulted in nations starting or joining major wars.
In contrast many lost ships that didn't have anything else associated with them beyond the tragedy of the ship itself get forgotten because once the pain is over it has nothing left to make it stick in people's minds.
Your videos are great and just getting better.
I absolutely enjoy them. Keep up the great work.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy them.
@@CasualNavigation I'm Canadian and never knew this
Beautiful animation. Well done!
incredible video! thank you! 💗
Thank you for making these videos.
Glad you like them!
Been waiting on this one! Thank you! You are the best!
Thanks Katheryne
I actually did read a book about this during my ocean liner fanboy days as a teen in the 80s. It was a reasonably well known incident in that world, and the general public here in Canada did get some exposure to it from at least one major book circa the 80s, but it definitely was not as widely known as the Titanic. It was probably just the Titanic for most people even then, and those interested in the wars had heard of the Lusitania, and perhaps some followers of mid century celebrity culture knew the Andrea Doria, but not many people knew this story outside that brief era of media coverage of the book. Then in 1997 that movie came out and Titanic, already in the top position, just swallowed everything whole.
The book was "Fourteen Minutes" by James Croall, published 1980.
Also the Edmund Fitzgerald is relatively famous, mainly because its sinking is described in a song of the same name.
But you are definitely right that most famous ship sinkings are either enshrined in media like the titanic movie, or important in history due to its relation to a war. (Like the Lusitania, the Maine, and the Arizona)
Great production as per usual.
I like this in-depth video of a forgotten sinking, can't wait for more!
This was very informative!
Finally, another one to cherish. Thanks Casual!
One of those channels I can upvote before watching, because I am convinced content will be amazing.
Excellent video as always. Q-bec made me laugh.
feels like an obvious thing to do is slow down when you know there's another ship nearby that you've lost sight of, arriving an hour late is better than never arriving..
An hour late is barely slowing down at all. And ships can’t steer if they sail too slowly
@@BennnWJK sail? But we're talking about ships with engines here.
@@swedneck The rudder doesn't do anything unless it's cutting through water.
The Quebec Empress Boat Crash the wreck is still there but it is like a pool depth you can dive their with your own pool clothes instead of a scuba diving suit
I give you great props to the the CG work you do. Love the crooked P at the 1:12 mark.
The Storstad was a smaller ship, but her full cargo of coal made her very heavy and turned her into a battering ram.
She also had a bow designed to break through heavy ice.
I recently watched your video over the Andrea Doria and it reminded me of a video I saw talking about the incredible response of ships during the 9/11 attacks in New York, I know you could definitely make an incredible video over it!
2:28 That's certainly something you never want to see - another ship's lights so goddamn close, coming out of the fog.
She was a really beautiful ship. Great video!
Many thanks!
I’m convinced that putting the letters RMS in the name of a ship gives it a curse which will increase likelihood of sinking
Nearly all commonwealth flagged liners had RMS in their title. That stands for Royal Mail Ship.
Giving the acronym “ *R* oyal *M* ail *S* hip a threat. Calling a ship unsinkable is a death sentence.
I’ve watched your shizzle for long time.
This video is excellent. I’ll see you at the top
It's always a good day when casual navigation uploads a video 🙌
I would argue that the Halifax explosion would probably be considered a worse disaster than this.
Definitely an even worth covering as well. But I wonder if the large impact on land makes it less of a maritime disaster, even if it was more of an outright disaster.
The Halifax explosion wasn't peace time. Some of the conditions that caused it were only present due to the war so it's not necessarily a good comparison.
What part of "peace time" did you miss
Great video. I've always been a little hazy on the exact circumstances leading to the sinking. Not just what happened but what the Empress thought the Storstad was doing and vice versa.
Have you considered covering the PS General Slocum on this channel? It was one of the worst maritime disasters in US history and was considered the worst tragedy to occur in New York until the September 11th attacks! the sinking and tragic loss of life occured due to a lack of any safety measures to both prevent and escape from disaster aboard the ship, and I think it'd make a good point to emphasize the importance of not only the passengers aboard the ship knowing how to be safe; but how important complying with safety regulations on the part of the ship companies themselves in order to be sure accidents like that of the Slocum never occur again.
The past is full of tragic stories like this 😔
Sad story indeed. It's strange that is so unpopular.
A century later are these kind of collisions during fog a common thing nowadays considering that there are new technologies like GPS and radars?
The radar would likely be useless under foggy conditions. The GPS signal is variable depending on where the collision happened.
@@LegoWormNoah101 why would radar be effected by fog?
@@LegoWormNoah101 radar is the most useful during restricted visibility. it even works in severe storms if you turn up the FTC enough
The radar helps, but still relies on safe speed and ships taking the correct action.
the three pieces of tech that are most useful to prevent these kinds of collision are Radar, AIS, and Radio.
picture this: fog rolls in, visibility 91, you can't see shit, you can't even see your own bow from the wheelhouse. you glue yourself to the radar, turn up the gain, cut engine speed by half, and check your fixes and PI lines.
radar picks up a contact fine on the starboard bow. ARPA gives you a solution to avoid collision by one half mile if you alter course to starboard in 6 minutes, Pass Port to Port like the rulebook says.
you call up another mate, and you check the AIS panel to see what it knows about the other vessel. a vessel about the same distance and direction away has their transponder on, and their MMSI is listed.
you key into your VHF a DSC call with their MMSI. you don't even have to know the vessel's name. the Mate on the bridge of the other vessel picks up their handset, there's 4 minutes until you need to turn
you have a conversation, what you're seeing, the heading you intend to come to in order to dodge them, the CPA you want, and you'd like to cross red to red.
"Nordic Cygnus Copies, we'll alter 5° to starboard as well to give you a little breathing room; standing by 12 14 16 out."
and you pass safely.
Very useful telling which finally shows how navigation light interpretation works in the moment
Que-Beck
I pronounce it Kwa-Beck
But either way works
Also awesome video on Canadian vessels, as a Canadian this was very informative, and I love it!
There is alot of history in the St Lawrence River, including a sunken vessel named "Conestoga" located near Cardinal Ontario, and one near the Niagara Falls as well!
Love the videos as always! And have a wonderful day!
And Cheers from Canada!
lovely video
00:27 well considering they ordered the ship off of amazon, I wouldn't have expected it to last.
The pilot ship Eureka was actually the last ship (besides the Storstad) that saw the Empress of Ireland afloat. She guided the larger ship out of port and thought nothing of it since she had done it many times before. It must have been a somber scene picking up the cold passengers after having seen them happy and excited shortly before.
An inverted bow appears to be a pretty good ramming bow.
I had two relatives on the Empress of Ireland, who were there during the sinking. Master John Heath and Mister Hugh Heath. They were both American second class passengers from Chicago and died in the sinking.
What was the internal structure of the Empress that hurt her chances of controlling the flooding? The basics of the incident were there but the inquiry / cause section lacked the most basic information about why and how to stop it from recurring.
The band from the Salvation Army in Toronto was also lost and the Salvation Army still conduct a sunrise Memorial Service in Prospect Cemetery to commemorate those lost from the sinking on the St. Lawrence River. Yes, I caught the headline error.
With most of her water tight compartments closed, the Empress of Ireland could have remained afloat quite a bit longer most likely. I'm thinking maybe a couple of hours longer, but probably at least thirty minutes.
Grow Sir, grow!
You deserve it
MORE ANALYSIS OF SHIPS SINKING PLEASE!
Great video! What a terrible accident.
I can't believe I've never heard of this horrendous tragedy before now. I can't imagine the terror and suffering of those poor souls. To be trapped inside a sinking ship with the water rising until it finally drowned you is a horrible drawn out way to face your end. But to have it happen to so many is gut wrenching.
02:30
I can't even begin to imagine how horrifying that must have been...
2:50 i love how the storstad just noclips throw the empress of ireland
This comment is just a joke ok?
One lesson learned, at least in Ireland and the UK, is that now any marine investigation report contains a statement declaring that the contents cannot be used in any court of law.
I just want to recommend the Farlay Mowat book "The Grey Seas Under", about a nova scotia-based salvage tug that operated during WW2. It's a really good read.
Thank you. That is a lot of information for less than 10 minutes.
Great video. Very few know of the tragedy of the sinking of Wilhelm Gustloff (sic). Perhaps that one at some point?
I can see you as a good introduction to this subject for many people.
Thank you for telling me keep it nice and short 🎉your the best!🎉🎉🎉
As a Québecois myself, I am impressed with the effort and care you put in pronouncing Québec and Pointe-au-Père. Cheers. 👌
Also, my mother comes from Mont-Joli, which is pretty close to Pointe-au-Père, and she grew up in the 50's learning all about the tragedy of the Empress of Ireland. There's a museum dedicated to the incident, in Pointe-au-Père, which I visited with her as a kid. The tragedy really left its imprint in the local people's imagination.
I nearly cried just now. What a disaster!
Inverted bows are a trend in large cruise ships: the Prima-class of NCL and the Lady-class of Virgin Voyages…
The Halifax explosion also overshadowed this sinking in terms of impact on the general public
Great video as always. But why was the 'P' on the Quebec Port sign crooked. Was the port known to be in disrepair? Again, this is a great channel and a great video!
Thanks for this information.
One thing that I would include though about lessons learned, is that nowadays we have radar, sonar, GPS navigation, and electronic charts indicating what other ships and boats planned routes are, and presumably in real time where those other ships and boats are. Presumably identification becons too on board ships, like a civilian version of the military friend or foe indicators.
Again, technology that wouldn't have been developed for a long time, but incidents like this would presumably have been inspiration for developing them.