Spirit of Empress of Ireland

I truly was a lovely ship, a ship that was loved by people. The company I served was great and I enjoyed it. I was a plumb-bowed ship with two funnels, two masts and twin propellers. I had an average speed of 18 knots. My maximum speed was 20 knots. I provided accommodation for 310 first-class passengers and for 470 second-class passengers, I also had room for up to 750 third-class passengers.This meant that I had an overall capacity of 1,580. Boy, that's a lot of people for me to carry but, hey, that's what I was built for, to make people comfortable while riding on me. I set out on my maiden voyage from Liverpool, proving myself as both reliable and fast. This put the pride and fire within me. I loved being who I was. Even my sister, Empress of Britain, enjoyed being who she was. I got along fine with her and was never had a problem with her. We had been commissioned by Canadian Pacific for the northern trans-Atlantic route between Quebec and England. The transcontinental CPR and its fleet of ocean liners were part of the company's self-proclaimed World's Greatest Transportation System.

May 28th 1914. I had been serving as a passenger ship for 8 years and was hoping for to serve for another 10 more years before retiring. I was totally unaware that this would be my last voyage. At 16:30 local time, I left Quebec City, bound for Liverpool, England with 1,477 passengers and crew. My captain had just been promoted at the beginning of the month and it was his first trip down the St. Lawrence River in command of me.

I was proceeding down the channel in heavy fog early in the next morning on May 29th 1914. I was not happy and wanted to get out this dreadful weather. Suddenly before I had time to react, at 02:00 local time, the Norwegian collier SS Storstad crashed into my side. I screamed in pain as she tore into me. To this day the painful collision still burns within me. Storstad told me that she rammed me by accident. I forgave her and began to face the inedible. It's what all ships fear. Storstad did not sink, but I listed rapidly, taking on water due to the damage to my starboard side. Many of my passengers and crew in the upper deck cabins where awakened by the collision. They made it out onto the boat deck and into some of my lifeboats which were being loaded immediately thanks to the quick thinking of my captain. Sadly, most of my passengers and crew in the lower decks were drowned quickly when water poured into my wound. I listed so far on my starboard side that it became impossible to launch any more of my lifeboats. Only four of them had already been launched during the evacuation. Ten or eleven minutes after me and Storstad collided, I lurched violently onto my starboard side, half under water. Many as 700 passengers and crew crawled out of the portholes and decks onto my side. This was their only way to escape. I laid on my side, holding on as long I as could. It seemed to the passengers and crew that I had run aground. I was thinking the same thing... but boy, I was wrong. My boilers burst, killing me. My spirit was set free from my body. I couldn't believe it. My stern rose briefly out of the water, and my body sank intact, out of sight, throwing the hundreds of people still inside my port side into the near-freezing water, 14 minutes after the Storstad and I collided.

I can't describe how sad and ashamed I was after my death occurred. But I can tell that I was dead and that I took many with me, destroying my pride and disguising the fire that gave me my strength. In 1917, I decided to wonder the Atlantic ocean and visit the spirits of ships that had met their end. They had heard about my demise and comfort me. Then without knowing, I saw the Spirit of the Titanic, the most famous ship who sank in 1912. She too had heard about my death. I couldn't believe that I was meeting her. Like many spirits, they were lost for words or in a state of shock when crossing her path on their first time. Titanic told me about her death and it made me feel bad. But then again my demise was a tragedy too. But it seemed that mine or any other maritime disasters would never be a match for Titanic's. I took Titanic to my wreck. She was surprised. She told me that she had broken in half during her sinking which made me feel as cold as ice. I began to fill with sadness when she told me how many people died with her. After a few hours Titanic left and returned to her wreck. It was a huge honer for me to meet her and hoped to see her again in the future.

As the years went by, my wreck was visited by many divers. Unlike Titanic, which was only accessible with a submersible or remotely operated vehicle, I rested in a mere 130 feet of water and could be accessed by highly skilled scuba divers. But much to my sadness, numerous recreational divers have since died on my wreck, mostly through accidents related to entering my body. This made me feel so bad and wanted future dives to stop. I mean come on, what's the point? Many divers will die when visiting me. It's best if memorials were served on my resting place and leave me to rest in peace with my dead people.

Nowadays, I stay at my ruined body or wonder about at the birthing place of where I was built. I sometimes go out to visited some shipwrecks. I always look back on my life, remembering my days of when I was in my prime.

Thank you so much for reading about me, dear reader. Always remember me and the people who died with me. If any of you know about me and care about me, god bless you. With your deep respects, I will live on in your memories and hearts forever. I am the Spirit of the Empress of Ireland.