RMS Empress of Russia - World War I

World War I

The Empress was requisitioned by the British Admiralty twice during the First World War. Initially, the ship was refitted as an Armed Merchant Cruiser; she was attached to a squadron blockading German merchant shipping in Philippine waters. Later, she was transferred to the Indian Ocean.

In November 1914, the highlight of this Indian Ocean tour-of-duty followed from a rendezvous at sea with the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney. In what was called the Battle of Cocos, Sydney had engaged the German cruiser SMS Emden, forcing the raider to beach herself on North Keeling Island to avoid sinking. Some 230 of the Emden survivors were transferred from the Sydney to the Empress for transport to Colombo. At this point, the Empress was sailing in a convoy of troop ships carrying 30,000 ANZACs from Albany, Australia to Suez and Europe.

In December 1914, the Empress was moved from the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea, where she continued through October 1915.

In one incident, the guns of the Empress were brought to bear on Hodeidah in what is modern Yemen. Bluntly, the Turks were told that if British and French counsels, who had been kidnapped, were not brought back, the port city would be demolished.

Shortly afterwards, the Empress was released by the Admiralty for a return to civilian service. The ship was refitted at Hong Kong, and the Empress of Russia returned to its familiar trans-Pacific route in February 1916. Amongst those sailing with the Empress in this period was Sumner Welles, who was to become one of President Franklin Roosevelt's foreign policy advisers.

The British Admiralty called the Empress to wartime service for a second time in early 1918. She was to be used in transporting American troops to Europe.

The Empress 's last wartime voyage began from Liverpool on 12 January 1919. She sailed to Le Havre where Chinese labor battalions boarded the Empress for the return voyage via Suez to Hong Kong. From the Far East, she sailed across the Pacific to Vancouver for re-fitting.

This ship remained a coal-burner after the Great War, even though many liners at that time were being converted to oil.