&sq=&lang=&file=File:Empress_of_India_passing_through_First_Narrows_Vancouver_1891.jpg) Empress of India departing Vancouver.
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name |
|
| Owner |
|
| Port of registry |
|
| Builder | Naval Construction & Armaments Co, Barrow-in-Furness |
| Laid down | 1890 |
| Launched | 30 August 1890 by Lady Louisa Egerton |
| Maiden voyage | 8 February 1891 |
| Fate | Scrapped in 1923 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage | 5,905 tons |
| Length | 455.7 ft |
| Beam | 51.2 ft |
| Propulsion | Twin propellers |
| Speed | 16 knots |
| Capacity | As originally configured: 120 first class, 50 second class and 600 steerage |
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RMS Empress of India was an ocean liner built in 1890-1891[1] by Naval Construction & Armaments Co, Barrow-in-Furness, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships.[2] This ship would be the first of two CP vessels to be named Empress of India,[3] and on 28 April 1891, she was the first of many ships named Empress arriving at Vancouver harbor.[4]
Empress of India regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until she was sold to the Maharajah of Gwalior in 1914 and renamed in 1915.[5]
In 1891, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and the British government reached agreement on a contract for subsidized mail service between Britain and Hong Kong via Canada; and the route began to be serviced by three specially designed ocean liners. Each of these three vessels was given an Imperial name.[6]
Empress of India and her two running mates—RMS Empress of China and RMS Empress of Japan—created a flexible foundation for the CPR trans-Pacific fleet which would ply this route for the next half century.[5]
- ^ The disambiguation date used in this article's title is not the year in which the hull is launched, but rather the year of the vessel's sea trial or maiden voyage.
- ^ Simplon Postcards: Empress of India, 4 images
- ^ The second of two ships named SS Empress of India (1908) was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd Line (NDL), purchased by CP in 1921, then re-named.
- ^ Tate, E. Mowbray. (1986). Transpacific Steam: The Story of Steam Navigation from the Pacific Coast of North America to the Far East and the Antipodes, 1867-1941, p. 144.
- ^ a b Ship List: Description of Empress of India Archived 4 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Miller, William H. (1984). The First Great Ocean Liners in Photographs, p. 52.