The Empress of Ireland remains the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in Canadian history

On my walk to Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto I visited the memorial site of the Salvation Army officers who lost their lives on the Empress of Ireland that sank in 14 minutes on May 29, 1914 on the St. Lawrence River claiming the lives of 1,012 victims. This was called “Canada’s Titanic”.

This will be the fourth ocean liner disaster I have profiled, The Titanic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Lusitania victims memorial at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Toronto, the SS Noronic at Mt. Pleasant and now the Empress of Ireland.

Top: Bow of the Titanic (North Atlantic Ocean) and the Lusitania (Celtic Sea)

Botton: Bow of Empress of Ireland (St. Lawrence River) and the SS Noronic ( Toronto Harbour)

A thick fog bank peculiar to the St. Lawrence River enveloped both vessels, completely obscuring visibility. At 1:55 a.m. the Storstad, a Norwegian coal freighter emerged from the fog and rammed the Empress of Ireland. The ocean liner sank incredibly fast, going down in 14 minutes after colliding making it the worst peacetime maritime disaster in Canadian history. 

On board were Salvation Army officers heading to London, England to attend the Salvation Army’s Third International Congress. Of the 171 Salvation Army officers travelling all but eight survived.

22 Salvation Army victims of the Empress of Ireland sinking are buried at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. 

 Despite the scale of the tragedy, the Empress of Ireland was quickly overshadowed by the outbreak of World War I and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand just weeks later. 

In 1999 the wreck was declared a site of historical and archaeological importance and listed in the register of Historic Sites of Canada. This was the first time that an underwater site had received this status in Quebec.