Empress

The Canadian Pacific Steamship the Empress of Ireland was one of the more storied vessel wrecks in the history of Quebec. The Empress of Ireland went down with more than 1,000 people who perished on a foggy night in May of 1914.

This was an example of bad circumstances, and bad luck, which combined to bring two vessels together tragically. It is located in waters that are very cold, with a strong current, and diving is a dangerous and cold endeavor.

The Empress of Ireland collided with a coal vessel from Norway named the Storstad, and went down swiftly, within 14 minutes. The wreck lies in about 130 feet of very cold water in the Saint Lawrence river off the shores of Quebec, and it went down on May 29th, 1914.

Divers found the wreck again after many years in the 1980s, but it is a dive that requires a strong constitution, and a thermal wetsuit for the hearty diver.  The Empress of Ireland sank so swiftly that there was barely time to set up an SOS.

The culprit leading to the loss of the Empress of Ireland was the fog, but the fog that night in May of 1914 was unusually thick. The Empress of Ireland was outbound from Quebec, and the Norwegian ship Storstad was coming upriver and heavily loaded. When the two ships collided, the Storstad cut across the Empress of Ireland like a knife through butter, and it didn’t stand much of a chance up against the heavily loaded Storstad.

Exploring the wreckage today is possible, but the temperature of the water is normally close to 34 degrees year round, and the current is very strong. Those who wish to visit the Empress of Ireland definitely need a thermal wet suit and protection against the cold.