Canadian Transport Sourcebook

During the Great War Canadian Pacific ships played their part in achieving victory, and a record of these vessels is among the proudest annals of a Company rich in stories of adventure and daring enterprise.

The "Empress of France" was requisitioned for war purposes under Royal proclamation immediately upon her arrival at Liverpool at midnight, August 6th, in the fateful year 1914. After completion of discharge, the entire removal of all passenger accommodation and other woodwork, she was armed with eight six-inch guns, commissioned and manned by a naval crew, and attached to the Tenth Cruiser Squadron on northern patrol duty, sailing from Liverpool on August 15th. In December she was made flagship of the squadron to which she was attached. During her service as flagship of this patrol—between the Shetlands and Iceland—she intercepted fifteen thousand ships. Later, in 1918, owing to the reduction of the Tenth Cruiser Squadron, this vessel was stationed on the North Atlantic route in convoy capacity. while so engaged she escorted nine convoys of about twenty vessels each, carry an estimated number of 30,000 troops per convoy. While in war commission, the "Empress of France" steamed 266,740 knots.

The "Empress of Britain," commissioned for war service in August, 1914, served on South African patrol, and after nearly a year's service was fitted out as a transport carrying troops to the Dardanelles, Egypt and India, also from Canada for the Western Front during the remaining period of hostilities. It was during one of her trips across the Atlantic, with five thousand troops aboard, that a German submarine launched two torpedoes one of which, due to a lucky zig-zag, missed the bow by three feet, while the other passed a dozen feet astern.

The fine new steamer "Calgarian," of the Atlantic service, was one of the thirteen Canadian Pacific ships lost by enemy action during the war. First she was despatched to the mouth of the Tagus, and, with the famous "Vindictive," blocked Lisbon so that the German ships sheltering there could not come out raiding in the Atlantic. Next she was employed in patrolling the Atlantic trade routes, and later was attached to the North American and West Indian Squadron, for about a year being stationed outside New York to prevent the interned German liners from escaping. Her career was ended suddenly on March 1st, 1918, when she was convoying thirty vessels across the Atlantic, although four torpedoes had to be fired at this vessel before she could be sunk. Forty-nine lives were lost in this disaster.

The war service of the "Empress of Russia" as an Admiralty cruiser was as thrilling as it was intense. When this vessel left Vancouver in August, 1914, she was already marked for patrol work, and when she reached Hong Kong her interior fittings were torn out and replaced with coal bunkers. Four 4.7 guns were mounted forward and four aft. The Chinese crew was paid off, and British naval reservists and French gun crews shipped for the Indian Ocean. She met the cruiser "Sydney" after that ship had made a mass of tangled wreckage of the roving "Emden," and took off the prisoner members of the "Emden's" crew, including the captain, Von Muller, and carried them to Ceylon. With the aid of Indian territorial troops and several fifteen pounder guns, the "Empress of Russia" captured the Turkish post and fort of Kamaran, in the Red Sea. For twenty-three days she and the "Empress of Asia" guarded the British port of Aden until the arrival of British warships. After further adventures, the "Empress of Russia," the "Empress of Asia," the "Empress of Japan," the cruiser "Himalaya," and the destroyer "Ribble" maintained a blockade of the port of Manila, where fifteen German steamers were lurking during the early days of the war, hoping for a chance to get out and deliver the cargoes of supplies destined for German warships. Finally, after a year spent in Eastern waters, the "Empress of Russia" went back into her regular service on the Pacific.

Over a million troops and passengers on war business were carried on Canadian Pacific ships between August, 1914, and October, 1919. They carried over four million tons of cargo and munitions of war, and many thousand of horses and mules. Many of the commanders and other officers of these ships were specially commended by the Admiralty for courage and seamanship, and altogether the record achieved by the Company's vessels and men in the war service of the British Empire during the greatest of all human upheavals is a just cause of pride.

With the coming of peace came the vigorous renewal of the Canadian Pacific Company's maritime activities and expansion. Magnificent and luxurious new liners were built or purchased, and these vessels have added importance to the Atlantic and Pacific trade routes and prestige to their owners.

Among these leviathans of the sea, the worthily named "Empress of Scotland" holds pride of place, not only as the largest vessel in the Company's service, but as the largest on the Canadian route. she has a gross tonnage of 25,000 tons, and is beautifully equipped for passenger traffic. Equally attractive in equipment for passenger traffic are the "Empress of France," of 18,500 tons, the "Montlaurier," of 17,100 tons, the "Montcalm," the "Montclare," and the "Montrose," of 16,400 tons each, the "Empress of Britain," of 15,850 tons, the "Minnedosa," and the "Melita," of 14,000 tons each, and the "Metagama," of 12,450 tons. These ships, with a number of others, operate on the Atlantic route and splendidly maintain the Company's high standard of comfort and efficiency.

The All-British route of the Canadian Pacific via Quebec and Montreal, not only to Canada, but also to the heart of the United States, is becoming increasingly popular each year with British, Canadian and American travellers. The Company's vessels, by taking the northern route to Quebec, not only brings the Dominion, China and Japan much nearer to Britain than by the more circuitous New York route, but cuts short the ocean passage to one of but little more than four days, and gives the passenger the joy of the journey up the smooth waters, encompassed by beautiful scenery, of the St. Lawrence River. On this route Chicago is nearly two hundred miles nearer to Southampton, via Quebec and Toronto, than it is via New York. This means that the States of the Mid and Far West can be reached quicker and cheaper by the St. Lawrence highway, and the connections maintained by the Canadian Pacific by their fast service from Vancouver to the Orient gives additional value to the All-British line of communication between the two hemispheres.

On the Pacific the palatial "Empress of Canada," of 22,000 tons, holds pride of place among all vessels operating on the world's biggest sea. In size, grace, and luxury she is the unrivalled Queen of the Pacific. The "Empress of Australia," of 21,500 tons, and the "Empress of Asia" and "Empress of Russia," of 16,850 tons each, complete a quartette of passenger-carrying ships which no other Pacific line can equal.

'The most advance nations are always those who navigate the most,' says Emerson. The steamship services maintained by the Canadian Pacific Company are an inestimable asset of the British Empire. Their house-flag flies on the oceans of the world. From Southampton, Liverpool, Glasgow, London, Bristol, Belfast, Hamburg, Antwerp, Havre, Cherbourg, Genoa, Danzig, Naples, Quebec, Montreal, St. John, Havana, the West Indies, Vancouver, Victoria, Hong Kong, Kobe, Manila, Moji, Nagasaki, Shanghai, Singapore and Yokohama, east and west, north and south, Canadian Pacific vessels make regular sailings, carrying passengers and merchandise across the mighty waters. With Canada's sister Dominions, Australia and New Zealand, the Company maintain maritime connection, through close association with the Canadian-Australasian line.

The Imperial value of the Canadian Pacific is thus self-evident. In his book 'The Future of the Empire,' Saxon Mills reminds us that a primary characteristic of the British Empire, distinguishing it from all the empires of antiquity and several of to-day, is its geographical dispersion. It is not like the old Roman Empire, spread along a continuous surface, but is scattered all over the face of the planet, its largest blocks of territory being separated from one another and from the Empire centre by vast ocean abysses. 'Here the political results are profound. Hence spring nearly all our great Empire problems. It was a comparatively easy task to create the United States of America. The State has advanced pari passu with the advance of the pioneers into the wilderness. So, too, Canada, with its vast unbroken territory, has become a Dominion, Australia is a Commonwealth, and South Africa a Union. But it is a very different proposition to bring under one and the same constitutional roof all these far-sundered communities, to build that long-contemplated fabric of a Federated British Empire. Sir Charles Lucas tells us that 'the problem of Empire is, in plain English, how to hold together lands and peoples which are distant or diverse or both.'

If this is the problem, the Canadian Pacific Company, with their half-a-million tons of shipping operating on the trade routes of Empire, are helping splendidly in its solution.

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Copyright/Licence: The author or authors of this work died in 1964 or earlier, and this work was first published no later than 1964. Therefore, this work is in the public domain in Canada per sections 6 and 7 of the Copyright Act. See disclaimers.