RMS Empress of Japan (1890)

RMS Empress of Japan, also known as the "Queen of the Pacific", was an ocean liner built in 1890–1891[1] by Naval Construction & Armaments Co, Barrow-in-Furness, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP).[2] This ship – the first of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan[3] – regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1922.[4] During the First World War she served as armed merchant cruiser, becoming HMS Empress of Japan for the period that she was a commissioned ship of the Royal Navy. Over the course of her career, Empress of Japan traversed 4 million kilometres (2.5 million miles).[5] She made 315 Pacific crossings.[4]

History

Empress of Japan was built by Naval Construction & Armaments Co. (now absorbed into Vickers Armstrongs) at Barrow-in-Furness, England. The 5,905-ton vessel had a length of 455.6 ft, and her beam was 51.2 ft. The white-painted, clipper-bowed ship had two buff-colored funnels with a band of black paint at the top, three lightweight schooner-type masts, and an average speed of 16-knots. Empress of Japan and her two sister-ships were the first vessels in the Pacific to have twin propellers with reciprocating engines.[7] The ship was designed to provide accommodation for 770 passengers (120 first class, 50 second class and 600 steerage).[6]

She was launched on 13 December 1890 by Lady Alice Stanley, daughter-in-law of Lord Stanley, who was then the Governor General of Canada.[8] The ship left Liverpool on 11 April 1891 on her maiden voyage via Suez to Hong Kong and Vancouver, arriving in British Columbia on 2 June. Thereafter, she regularly sailed the route between Canada and the east coast of Asia.[4] In the early days of wireless telegraphy, the call sign established for the Empress of Japan was "MPJ."[9] It also transported passengers and cargo, notably Japanese tea.

Captained by Captain Henry Pybus, Empress of Japan won blue ribbon for record crossing of the Trans-Pacific crossing of 1897.[10] The ship remained in active trans-Pacific service until 1922; and then she remained harbor-bound in Vancouver for several years.[5] The dragon figurehead has been preserved at the Seawall in Stanley Park[10]

World War I

Empress of Japan was refitted as an Armed merchantman during the Great War; and consequently, she lost the elegant white gleam associated with luxury cruise ships. The agreement of commission between Canadian Pacific Railway, the Canadian Federal Government and the British Parliament included a clause which stated that in the event of war, Empress of Japan would be re-fitted to meet Admiralty requirements. In 1914, two days before Empress of Japan arrived in Yokohama on a routine trip to Asia, World War I broke out in Europe. His Majesty's Admiralty acted swiftly to take advantage of the wartime commissioning clause, and Empress of Japan was re-fitted.[11] During the war years, SS Empress of Japan was also refitted as an Armed Merchant Cruiser.[4] After the Armistice, this ship was the only one of the first three Empress ocean liners to return to the trans-Pacific route.[12]

In 1923, the war-weary ship was used in a different kind of battle when Canadian Pacific used the aging Empress of Japan to house strikebreakers in a dispute with the Vancouver and District Waterfront Workers' Association.[13]

country	Canada
owner	Canadian Pacific house flag.svg Canadian Pacific Steamship Company
registry	Canada
route	Pacific (Vancouver - Yokohama - Kobe - Nagasaki - Shanghai - Hong Kong)
builder	Naval Construction & Armaments Co, Barrow-in-Furness
launched	13 December 1890 by Lady Alice Stanley
out of service	1922
fate	Scrapped in 1926

RMS Empress of Japan (1890)

History

World War I

See also

External links

References

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