Hamburg America Line ownership
The partly completed hull was launched on 20 December 1913. During this period, it was the intention of the Hamburg America Line to name the completed ship the SS Admiral von Tirpitz in honour of Alfred von Tirpitz.
This choice of name was odd, as Admiral von Tirpitz, who had done much to improve Germany’s navy, had anti-British sentiments and views. Albert Ballin did not share them, and he feared that a war between the two nations might be at hand.[5] This may be why the ship’s name was shortened to just Tirpitz in February 1914. Her final outfitting was held up due to the outbreak of World War I.[5]
Her first trip was under seizure as a war prize when she sailed from Hamburg to Hull on 1 December 1919. She was then used as a troop ship under P&O management.
Canadian Pacific ownership
Tirpitz was one of two German-built vessels purchased by Canadian Pacific Railway in 1921 which were both at somepoint renamed RMS Empress of China;[6] the first vessel SS Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm having briefly carried the name Empress of China before being renamed RMS Empress of India in advance of CPR's acquisition of the Tirpitz.
Thus Tirpitz became the third CPR vessel to carry the name Empress of China, however this would only last a matter of months.[6] She was refitted by John Brown & Company, Clydebank, and renamed by CPR yet again to become RMS Empress of Australia in August 1921. By 1922 she sailed from Greenock to the Pacific via the Panama Canal.
After 20 voyages across the Pacific, Canadian Pacific were forced to deal with the poor performance and chose to re-engine and re-boiler the ship. She sailed to Govan Fairfield at Glasgow, arriving 9 September 1926. The vastly complex work was made more difficult by her divided uptakes, offering no central space to remove machinery. Old boilers were sliced up and removed in pieces, the whole job lasting many months and cost over half a million pounds.
From near disaster to great distinction
On Saturday, 1 September 1923, at 11:55 am, Empress of Australia was making ready to depart from the docks at Yokohama, Japan. Several hundred people were on the docks, catching streamers and confetti from the passengers lining the rails, and waving their farewells. Tugs were about to ease the ship away from the dock when, without warning the 23,000 ton liner was flung violently from side to side. The earth trembled under several violent shocks and sections of the dock collapsed under the feet of the panic stricken crowds. The land and remaining dock structure began to roll in wave like motions as high as six to eight feet. In minutes the worst shocks were over, but after-shocks, some quite heavy, continued for some time, while winds rose to 70 mi/h. From the city a heavy rumbling sound could be heard as hundreds of buildings collapsed into rubble. This was the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, devastating Tokyo and Yokohama and the entire Kantō region of central Honshū. This was one of the worst earthquake disasters in recorded history.
Empress of Australia was in a very dangerous position. Crowded with passengers, she was still alongside the remains of the dock, with a freighter moored close behind so she could not clear without the aid of tugs. Meantime, Lyons Maru, moored to the east, had lost her cable and drifted across the harbour, colliding with the Empress at her stern. She then collided with a lighter loaded with lumber that had drifted alongside. This small vessel acted as a buffer between the two large ships and prevented further damage. Tugs had disappeared in the confusion and fires had started on the docks and were spreading rapidly. Available crew and passengers were put to work hosing down the ship to put out sparks and embers that were falling on the decks. Ropes and ladders were lowered over the side so that people trapped on the dock could climb aboard. Captain Robinson attempted to push the freighter moored astern with his ship, to allow enough room to maneuver away from the flaming docks.
Atlantic crossing and royal patronage
On 12 September 1923, Empress of Australia returned to her routine duties. In August, three years later, Empress of Australia departed from Hong Kong, after her twenty first and final Pacific voyage.
Canadian Pacific decided to transfer Empress of Australia to the companies Atlantic service. She sailed from Southampton for Quebec City on her first voyage on 25 June 1927, with the Prince of Wales and Prince George, Duke of Kent. The Royal princes and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin were bound for Diamond Jubilee celebrations in Canada.[7] In this new Atlantic route, she was teamed with two other ships — RMS Empress of Scotland (1906) (originally the SS Kaiserin Auguste Victoria) and RMS Empress of France (1914). In 1928 Empress of Australia began to cruise in the off season and to sail on round the world voyages.
After Empress of France was withdrawn from the service, Empress of Australia and Empress of Scotland carried on a two-ship service with white hulls with dark blue ribbon and green boot topping.
In 1938, the liner travelled to Harland & Wolff at Southampton for an overhaul, returning for the 1939 season.
On 8 March 1939, Empress of Australia collided with the French
Second World War service
Empress of Australia was sent to Southampton to be converted into a troopship; painted in grey, fitted with a three-inch (76 mm) gun and with a carrying capacity of 5,000. It was in this role that she would remain for the next 13 years. Empress of Australia left on her first wartime voyage to Ceylon and Bombay on 28 September 1939. Following this task, the ship then went across the Atlantic to Halifax, from where she joined a large convoy carrying Canadian soldiers to Europe.
Throughout the war Empress of Australia enjoyed very good luck. In 1941, it was widely reported that she'd been torpedoed off the coast of Africa, but she survived that brush with disaster.[9] She was only seriously damaged once, when she was holed by the Orient Line's 14,982 ton Ormonde during the North Africa campaign in January 1943. In 1945 she was sent to Okinawa carrying three RAF airfield construction squadrons in preparation for Operation Downfall.[10] Japan surrendered before she reached her destination, and as a consequence she was diverted to take part in the reoccupation of Hong Kong by the British. On 3 September 1945 Empress of Australia was one of the first British ships to re-enter Hong Kong.[11] Her final wartime voyage was from Hong Kong and
Post-war service
After World War II Empress of Australia operated worldwide as a troop ship, including carrying military personnel to Pusan during the Korean War.
In 1946 while anchoring off Liverpool her anchor fouled with that of the cargo liner Debrett; the two ships collided and seven tugs were needed to separate them. In December of that year, the liner was re-fitted for peace time trooping, offering more comfortable accommodations for the troops; She was repainted for post-war trooping operations on white with a blue line around the hull and yellow funnels. Notably, she ferried home the last British soldiers away from Bombay, just after they symbolically passed through the Gateway of India on 28 February 1948 following Indian independence in 1947. With this final act, centuries of British military presence in India were brought to an end.[13]
The liner continued to carry troops up to another overhaul in Liverpool in 1951. The final voyage was a trooping operation from Hong Kong to Liverpool in 1952 bringing back British regiments and families including 58 Medium Regiment Royal Artillery during the course of which she was diverted to Mombasa in Kenya to collect British families stranded after the disastrous failure of the British government's Ground Nut Scheme. After this, her 70th trooping voyage the vessel was sold.
On 8 May 1952 the Empress sailed from the Mersey to the Thos W Ward ship breaking yard in Inverkeithing, where she was scrapped.[4]
