Empress of Britain

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The Sinking of Empress of Britain

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"To the many thousands Of passengers who had travelled on the Empress of Britain across the Atlantic or on Cruises round the world, her loss was felt as that of a personal friend rather than as an inanimate vessel, magnificent though that vessel was."

The news of her sinking came to Montreal, in a large sense her home town, as a bolt out of the blue. It is true that Montreal, like all Canada, is at war and that sort of thing was to have been expected. Nevertheless it came as a shock. We knew the ship and we knew the men who manned her and it was fitting that her passing should be appropriately marked. So, on the afternoon of Sunday, November 10, a memorial service for the ship and her men was held in the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul. The church was filled with Montreal's prominent citizens and hundreds of others who had known the ship as passengers or as officers of the Company she represented.

In the course of his address Rev. Dr. Geo. H. Donald spoke the words that are quoted above, and he added : "There is something intimate and personal about all ships, but she was one of the greatest that sailed the Atlantic and the further seas. The whole world was proud of her, and mourns today as for one who died before her time." The story of her last hours is another of those countless tales of heroism and devotion to duty which are without end in the annals of the British Mercantile Marine, and it was with no astonishment that we learned that the loss of the great flagship of the Canadian Pacific fleet had been attended by examples of courage and devotion to duty worthy of the undying traditions of the Merchant Navy.

An official report of the action of the morning of Saturday, October 26, 1940, has not been made available, but from newspaper reports of official communiqués, it was learned that the 42,348-ton liner, which had been in the service of the British Government since November 24, 1939, was attacked by enemy aircraft while 150 miles from the Irish coast. On Monday, October 28, newspapers reported a British Government communiqué as saying that the Empress of Britain had been bombed and had sunk following an explosion while the vessel was being towed to port. On November 5th, a further communiqué implied that the final blow had been struck by a submarine, which torpedoed the ship as she was being towed from the scene of the aerial attack.

Though the decks and bridge of the Canadian Pacific's great flagship were raked fore and aft by withering machine-gun fire, her anti-aircraft guns silenced by bombs, her decks split by explosives and her great hull set afire when an incendiary bomb penetrated deeply amidships, Captain Sapsworth, set the example for the others, remaining on his bridge until it crumbled beneath his feet, directing the saving of the passengers, encouraging the defenders at their guns and manoeuvering the ship to minimize the danger of the flames. Forced to leave the bridge, he continued to direct the defence and the eventual evacuation of the ship from the forward deck.

His devotion to duty was equalled by that of his officers and men, from the chief officer, who was wounded by machine-gun fire and shrapnel, and the chief engineer, who was among the missing, to the humblest laundry-boys, two of whom were among the six crew members who lost their lives. The work of defence and rescue was carried out under the most difficult conditions, due not only to the repeated attacks of the aircraft but also because, following the penetration of the incendiary bomb, the interior of the ship became a choking inferno of acrid smoke.

Particularly appalling were conditions in the engine rooms, where, nevertheless, men kept machinery going as long as was humanly possible. In the words of one of the crew as reported by the "Toronto Daily Star".. "In no time at all the ship was a mass of thick choking smoke we couldn't see. We tried to beat out the flames which were steadily gaining. We all stood by our posts until the order to leave ship was sounded. I and two other fellows tried to get at the boat deck but the dense smoke drove us back. We were forced to put on our gas masks. Only for them we would never have been able to get to the boats and get them away. By this time many of them were afire. "After the bomber had dropped his missiles he circled the ship and machine-gunned the passengers and crew.

The chief officer was wounded in the leg by machine-gun bullets and also a piece of shrapnel in the back, yet he carried on in the work of rescue. "Twenty-two officers and men tried to get away in a motor launch which had been afire. We came alongside and took off an injured man. A short time later the launch capsized when it filled with water-it had been peppered with machine-gun bullets. Eight of them were saved. "After leaving the ship we went around and picked up survivors who had jumped overboard or who were hanging on ladders. 1 fell into a lifeboat when the ladder 1 was climbing down burned away. We drifted around from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. when two destroyers came to our rescue. Some of those who jumped over the side died of exposure right away. Those in the boats kept their spirits high singing. "It was my first ship, and to see her go down was like losing your best friend."

THE CASUALTIES WERE:-

KNOWN DEAD :- S. MILLER, storekeeper ; A. TILL, waiter; J. WATTS, wash-house man; J. A.LLEN, assistant storekeeper; A. POWELL, laundry boy; J. WILKIN, laundry boy

MISSING :- E. REDMOND, chief engineer; A. ATKINSON, barber; J. McPHERSON, assistant butcher; S. BRADLEY, junior fourth engineer; N. READING, lounge steward; J. ROBERTS, ordinary seaman; C. LYONS, junior tenth engineer; J. ALLEN, waiter; M. MACKRELL, boiler attendant; J. ENGLAND, engineer's writer; J. AINSWORTH, waiter; A. JEAMES, boiler attendant; W. WESTON, second barkeeper; D. BRITTON, fourth baker; A. KNIGHT, greaser; C. MORETON, third barkeeper; A. RUSSELL, greaser

WOUNDED :- H. H. DAVIES, chief officer; H. ARNOLD, second storekeeper; P. BECK, laundry foreman; S. KEAY, first officer; L. CASSWILL, waiter; K. FIELDER, laundry boy; G. POTTS, second radio officer; E. MEYER, waiter; J. DELANEY, laundry boy

(from original CP publicity material)

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