RMS Empress of China
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The RMS Empress of China (I) was an ocean liner of the Canadian Pacific Line put into service in 1891 , which transported passengers, mail and cargo on the Pacific route between Canada and Asia until its sinking in 1911 .
history
The Empress of China and her two sister ships Empress of India and Empress of Japan , all three of which entered service in 1891, were the first ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway , which had entered the shipping business in 1884. After the company had only used chartered ships up until then, three newbuildings were commissioned in 1890 from the Naval Construction & Armament Company shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness .
The background to this was a contract between the Canadian Pacific Railway and the British government, which provided for the subsidized transport of mail between Great Britain and Hong Kong via Canada. To this end, three new ocean liners were commissioned in Great Britain to serve this service. These three ships formed the basis for the Canadian Pacific Railway's success in merchant shipping. All three had yacht-like contours and a white hull , which made them look very elegant. They were the first ships in the Pacific to be equipped with twin propellers and piston engines.
The 5,905 gross registered tons (GRT) steamship was the first of the three sisters to be launched on March 25, 1890. It was Lady Alice Stafford Northcote, wife of Baron Henry Stafford Northcote , in the name of Empress of China baptized. The ship had a clipper -Bug, two chimneys, three poles and two propellers . On board there was space for 50 passengers in the first, 150 in the second and 400 in the third class. The two triple expansion steam engines developed 10,000 PSi and could accelerate the ship to up to 17.5 knots.
On 15 July 1891, put Empress of China in Liverpool on her maiden voyage to Hong Kong and Sue and Vancouver from. For the next 20 years, it remained constant on the Pacific route. On August 25, 1893, the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand boarded the Empress of China in Yokohama to go to Vancouver. On July 27, 1911, the Empress of China ran in thick fog and heavy seas 65 nautical miles south of Tokyo Bay on an underwater rock and sank in front of the Nojima-saki lighthouse at the southern end of the Bōsō Peninsula . The two Japanese cruisers Aso and Sōya helped recover the 185 passengers and the post. There was no personal injury and the mail could be saved. In October 1912 the wreck was lifted, towed to Yokohama and demolished there near Sasso Shojiro.