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RMS Empress of Japan (1891)
Encyclopedia
RMS Empress of Japan, also known as the "Queen of the Pacific
", was an ocean liner
built in 1890-1891 by Naval Construction & Armament Co., Barrow
, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship -- the first of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan -- regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1922.
Over the course of her career, the Empress traversed 4 million kilometres (2.5 million miles). She made 315 Pacific crossings.
", meaning "Royal Mail Ship." This is the ship prefix still in use today by seagoing vessels which carry mail under contract by Royal Mail
.
In 1891, Canadian Pacific Railway
(CPR) and the British government reached agreement on a contract for subsidized mail service between Britain
and Hong Kong
via Canada; and the route began to be serviced by three specially designed ocean liners. Each of these three yachtlike vessels was given an Imperial name.
The RMS Empress of Japan and her two sister-ships -- the RMS Empress of China
and the RMS Empress of India
-- created a flexible foundation for the CPR trans-Pacific fleet which would ply this route for the next half century.
The Empress of Japan was built by Naval Construction & Armament Co. (now absorbed into Vickers Armstrongs) at Barrow
, England. The 5,905-ton vessel had a length of 455.6 feet (138.9 m), and her beam was 51.2 feet (15.6 m). The white-painted, clipper-bowed ship had two buff-colored funnels with a band of black paint at the top, three lightweight schooner-type masts, and an average speed of 16-knots. This Empress and her two sister-ship Empresses were the first vessels in the Pacific to have twin propellers with reioprocating engines. The ship was designed to provide accommodation for 770 passengers (120 first class, 50 second class and 600 steerage).
She was launched on 13 December 1890 by Lady Alice Stanley, daughter-in-law of Lord Stanley
, who was then the Governor-General of Canada. The ship left Liverpool
on 11 April 1891 on her maiden voyage via Suez
to Hong Kong and Vancouver
, arriving in British Columbia
on the 2nd of June. Thereafter, she regularly sailed the route between Canada and the east coast of Asia. In the early days of wireless telegraphy, the call sign established for the Empress of Japan was "MPJ." It also transported passengers and cargo, notably Japanese tea
.
This vessel was part of a fleet of Empress ships, but somehow the Empress of Japan stood out, in part because she held the speed record for crossing the Pacific
for over two decades. Captained by Captain Henry Pybus, the RMS Empress of Japan won blue ribbon for record crossing of the Trans-Pacific crossing of 1897. The proud ship remained in active trans-Pacific service until 1922; and then she lingered, harbor-bound in Vancouver for several years. The dragon masthead has been preserved at the Seawall in Stanley Park
, this ship was the only one of the first three Empress ocean liners to return to the trans-Pacific route.
In 1923, the war-weary ship was used in a different kind of battle when CP used the aging Empress to house strikebreakers in a dispute with the Vancouver and District Waterfront Workers' Association
. The ship remained moored in Vancouver's harbor until 1926.
The CP eventually replaced the old ship with a new one, which was also called the RMS Empress of Japan
.
The figurehead was rescued after being discarded from during the salvage of the Empress of Japan by the Vancouver Daily Province
newspaper. It was restored and in 1927 was mounted for public display in Vancouver's Stanley Park
.
That figurehead was itself replaced in 1960 with a fiberglass replica, as the original was beginning to deteriorate. The original figurehead has been once again restored and is now housed at the Vancouver Maritime Museum
as part of its permanent collection.
Various portions of the ship's once lavish interior were also scavenged by local homeowners from Vancouver's wealthiest neighborhoods and added to their homes and property values.
Queen of the Pacific
Queen of the Pacific is a name or nickname of ships and places associated with the Pacific Ocean, the largest of Earth's oceans.-Ships:* In 1852, at the height of the age of the fast clipper sailing ships, the clipper Queen of the Pacific was launched from Pembroke, Maine.* In 1857, the wooden...
", was an ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
built in 1890-1891 by Naval Construction & Armament Co., Barrow
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...
, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship -- the first of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan -- regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1922.
Over the course of her career, the Empress traversed 4 million kilometres (2.5 million miles). She made 315 Pacific crossings.
Royal Mail Ship
This Empress enjoyed the "RMSRMS
-Science and technology:* Root mean square, a concept encapsulating the "average", in some sense, of a quantity. Frequently encountered in statistics, the physical sciences and electronics...
", meaning "Royal Mail Ship." This is the ship prefix still in use today by seagoing vessels which carry mail under contract by Royal Mail
Royal Mail
Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide...
.
In 1891, Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
(CPR) and the British government reached agreement on a contract for subsidized mail service between Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
via Canada; and the route began to be serviced by three specially designed ocean liners. Each of these three yachtlike vessels was given an Imperial name.
The RMS Empress of Japan and her two sister-ships -- the RMS Empress of China
RMS Empress of China (1891)
RMS Empress of China was an ocean liner built in 1890-1891 by Naval Construction & Armament Co., Barrow, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships...
and the RMS Empress of India
RMS Empress of India (1891)
RMS Empress of India was an ocean liner built in 1890-1891 by Naval Construction & Armament Co., Barrow, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships...
-- created a flexible foundation for the CPR trans-Pacific fleet which would ply this route for the next half century.
History
Barrow-in-Furness
Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...
, England. The 5,905-ton vessel had a length of 455.6 feet (138.9 m), and her beam was 51.2 feet (15.6 m). The white-painted, clipper-bowed ship had two buff-colored funnels with a band of black paint at the top, three lightweight schooner-type masts, and an average speed of 16-knots. This Empress and her two sister-ship Empresses were the first vessels in the Pacific to have twin propellers with reioprocating engines. The ship was designed to provide accommodation for 770 passengers (120 first class, 50 second class and 600 steerage).
She was launched on 13 December 1890 by Lady Alice Stanley, daughter-in-law of Lord Stanley
Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby
Frederick Arthur Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby KG, GCB, GCVO, PC , known as Frederick Stanley until 1886 and as Lord Stanley of Preston between 1886 and 1893, was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom who served as Colonial Secretary from 1885 to 1886 and the sixth Governor General...
, who was then the Governor-General of Canada. The ship left Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
on 11 April 1891 on her maiden voyage via Suez
Suez
Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
to Hong Kong and Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, arriving in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
on the 2nd of June. Thereafter, she regularly sailed the route between Canada and the east coast of Asia. In the early days of wireless telegraphy, the call sign established for the Empress of Japan was "MPJ." It also transported passengers and cargo, notably Japanese tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
.
This vessel was part of a fleet of Empress ships, but somehow the Empress of Japan stood out, in part because she held the speed record for crossing the Pacific
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
for over two decades. Captained by Captain Henry Pybus, the RMS Empress of Japan won blue ribbon for record crossing of the Trans-Pacific crossing of 1897. The proud ship remained in active trans-Pacific service until 1922; and then she lingered, harbor-bound in Vancouver for several years. The dragon masthead has been preserved at the Seawall in Stanley Park
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada....
World War I
The Empress was refitted as an Armed merchantman during the Great War; and consequently, she lost the elegant white gleam associated with luxury cruise ships. The agreement of commission between Canadian Pacific Railway, the Canadian Federal Government and the British Parliament included a clause which stated that in the event of war, the Empress of Japan would be re-fitted to meet Admiralty requirements. In 1914, two days before the Empress arrived in Yokohama on a routine trip to Asia, World War I broke out in Europe. His Majesty's Admiralty acted swiftly to take advantage of the wartime commissioning clause, and the Empress was re-fitted. During the war years, SS Empress of Japan was also refitted as an Armed Auxiliary Cruiser. After the ArmisticeArmistice
An armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
, this ship was the only one of the first three Empress ocean liners to return to the trans-Pacific route.
In 1923, the war-weary ship was used in a different kind of battle when CP used the aging Empress to house strikebreakers in a dispute with the Vancouver and District Waterfront Workers' Association
Vancouver and District Waterfront Workers' Association
The Vancouver and District Waterfront Association was the union for longshoremen working on Vancouver's waterfront between 1923 and 1935.It was established as a company union by the Shipping Federation of British Columbia after it defeated a strike and broke the local of the International...
. The ship remained moored in Vancouver's harbor until 1926.
The CP eventually replaced the old ship with a new one, which was also called the RMS Empress of Japan
RMS Empress of Japan (1930)
RMS Empress of Japan was an ocean liner built in 1929-1930 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific Steamships . This ship -- the second of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan -- regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route...
.
Salvage
The Province
The Province is a daily, tabloid format newspaper published in British Columbia by Postmedia. It has been a daily newspaper since 1898.According to a recent NADbank survey, The Provinces average weekday readership was 520,100, making it British Columbia's most read newspaper...
newspaper. It was restored and in 1927 was mounted for public display in Vancouver's Stanley Park
Stanley Park
Stanley Park is a 404.9 hectare urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was opened in 1888 by David Oppenheimer in the name of Lord Stanley of Preston, the Governor-General of Canada....
.
That figurehead was itself replaced in 1960 with a fiberglass replica, as the original was beginning to deteriorate. The original figurehead has been once again restored and is now housed at the Vancouver Maritime Museum
Vancouver Maritime Museum
The Vancouver Maritime Museum is a Maritime museum devoted to presenting the maritime history of Vancouver, British Columbia, and the Canadian Arctic. Opened in 1959 as a Vancouver centennial project, it is located within Vanier Park just west of False Creek on the Vancouver waterfront. The main...
as part of its permanent collection.
Various portions of the ship's once lavish interior were also scavenged by local homeowners from Vancouver's wealthiest neighborhoods and added to their homes and property values.
External links
- McCord Museum/Musée McCord: "Empress of Japan II" (photo, c. 1935)
- The Ships List: Passenger ships web site
See also
- CP ShipsCP ShipsCP Ships was a large Canadian container shipping company, prior to being taken over by Hapag Lloyd in late 2005. CP Ships had its head office in the City of Westminster in London and later in the City Place Gatwick development on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex.The...
- List of ocean liners
- List of ships in British Columbia
- List of attractions and monuments in Stanley Park
- Samuel RobinsonSamuel Robinson (sea captain)Commander Sir Samuel Robinson KBE, RNR , born in Hull, England, was an early 20th century British-Canadian mariner, a Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve established under the Naval Reserve Act of 1859, and a captain of luxury liners in the fleet of Canadian Pacific Steamship Ocean Service Ltd....
, junior officer (1895), captain