History
The ship was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan near Glasgow in Scotland. The SS Empress of Russia was launched on 28 August 1912. She left Liverpool on 1 April 1913 on her maiden voyage via Suez to Hong Kong and Vancouver. Thereafter, she regularly sailed back and forth along the Hong Kong - Shanghai - Nagasaki - Kobe - Yokohama - Vancouver route. In 1913, she broke the record for the fastest trans-Pacific crossing which was formerly held by RMS Empress of Japan; but her sister ship, the RMS Empress of Asia broke that record in May 1914, crossing the Pacific in nine days, two hours, and fifteen minutes. The popularity of the short route from Vancouver to the Orient was so great that these two additional CP Empress ocean liners were necessary.
The 16,810-ton vessel had a length of 570 feet (170 m), and her beam was 68 feet (21 m). The ship had three funnels, two masts, quadruple screws and an average speed of 19-knots. The ocean liner provided accommodation for 284 first-class passengers and for 100 second class passengers. There was also room for up to 800 steerage-class passengers. This was the first liner to have a straight stern like a warship; and the advantages of this type of stern were revealed in terms of speed, vibration, steering and seagoing qualities.
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