Canada's Titanic

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the disaster by passengers aboard both ships *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "A blow, a ripping, the side taken out of a ship, darkness, the inrush of waters, a panic, and then in the hush the silent corpses drifting by. So with the Canadian liner. She has gone to her grave leaving a trail of sorrow behind her. Hundreds of human hearts and homes are in mourning for the loss of dear companions and friends." - Logan Marshall, The tragic story of the Empress of Ireland There is something romantic about traveling on a cruise ship, and even today, luxury cruises are considered by many to be the ultimate vacation, featuring days of fun activities in exotic locations and nights of dinner and dancing under the stars. Today even the cheapest cabins are quite luxurious, and people save for years to afford to travel by sea. However, it was not always that way, and there was a time when travelling on even the most luxurious liners could prove dangerous or even deadly. The loss of the Titanic in 1912 cast a pall over all future voyages, and in the wake of the most famous sinking in history, a number of crucial changes were made, including the requirement that there be enough lifeboats available for every passenger, a change that was codified by the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea in 1914. That same convention also made a change to the way distress signals were used, and the British subsequently ensured that the bulkheads be raised higher up the boat to truly ensure that the compartments were watertight. Gone were the days that safety would be compromised for the comforts of the First Class. And of course, a bunch of changes were made to the way ships navigated around icebergs. In the wake of the Titanic, people tried to assure each other that a similar disaster could never happen again, but it did just two years later on a chilly night in 1914. This time, it was not an iceberg that did the damage but another vessel that sent the Empress of Ireland to her watery grave. Likewise, her passengers did not perish in the frigid Atlantic but along the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Canada. As Logan Marshall lamented, "'Those who go down to the sea in ships' was once a synonym for those who gambled with death and put their lives upon the hazard. Today the mortality at sea is less than on common carriers on land. But the futility of absolute prevention of accident is emphasized again and again. The regulation of safety makes catastrophes like that of the Empress of Ireland all the more tragic and terrible." Though the tale of the ship's fate pales in comparison to that of the Titanic, the loss of life in 1914 was nearly as great as it was in 1912. Indeed, with the Titanic's massive shadow all but obscuring the Empress of Ireland, the 1914 disaster remains one of the great little-known tragedies of the 20th century, and to this day in Canada, Canadians refer to it as "Canada's Titanic." Canada's Titanic: The History and Legacy of the RMS Empress of Ireland examines one of the 20th century's largest maritime tragedies, and the worst in Canadian history. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the RMS Empress of Ireland like never before, in no time at all.