“Euston to Liverpool by boat – train to Empress of Scotland & settled in an upper berth in the same cabin as a Doctor of Divinity & a man who drugged himself with medicine & sleeping-tablets.” {May 9 1950}
“Arrived Quebec 9 p.m. 12 hrs. ahead of time after a calm & uneventful crossing. Weather lately very cold with snow on the Quebec hills. Queued most of day for emigration & train-tickets.” {May 15 1950}
“Quebec-Montreal-Toronto. Met by Murray Adaskin & staying with him & Frances.” {May 16 1950}
A regal and imposing Lady makes her entrance. Yes she is game to suffer the peculiarities of Doctors of Divinity, men who drug themselves to endure the crossing, wayward musicians homeward bound after touring the UK for five months; but none of these will compromise her dignity – for she is the Empress of Scotland, a ship that had in previous years held the reputation as the largest and fastest ship on the Pacific, and is destined in the future to have the proud honour of carrying a princess across the Atlantic.
She had come into being as a passenger liner, built in the shipbuilding yard at Govan, Scotland in 1930, owned from the beginning by Canadian Pacific as a member of their steamship fleet, and known in her first decade as the Empress of Japan. “A truly magnificent ship, beautifully proportioned, graceful, and yet with a look of tremendous power” (a quote taken from the website referred to below), she was for eight years extremely popular as a passenger ship. Before the end of 1939 she had completed 58 round trips between Hong Kong and Vancouver.
World War II changed her purpose, her appearance and her name. She was requisitioned as a troopship, refitted and pressed into service transporting troops and civilians all over the globe. She came under heavy air attack more than once, but thanks to her brave and devoted crew she survived it all.
And now in May 1950, as the Empress of Scotland, she proudly resumes the life for which she was originally intended, as a passenger and mail ship.
The voyage beginning May 9 1950 which George embarked on and mentioned in his diary, from Liverpool to Quebec, was her first post-war commercial voyage; a crossing of six days.
George surely knew the significance of his words when he made that diary entry on May 9 1950, but I did not – until I looked up the history of this storied vessel. The following website amply tells her story and is well worth a look:
www.liverpoolships.org/ empress_of_scotland_canadian_pacific.html
With all the documentation and – my goodness! – all the impressive photos, it gives some sense of what it must be like to be carried across the vast waters by a ship like that. Truly an exhilarating experience!
The Empress of Scotland makes another appearance in George’s diary in November 1951, which notes her dutiful task of carrying Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh home to the UK from Newfoundland to Liverpool, at the end of their Canadian tour.
And she will appear yet again in August 1956, when George resumes his acquaintance with his old seafaring friend (soon to be sold to the Hamburg-Atlantic Line) at the port of Montreal, bound for Liverpool once more.
“Prince & Princess leave St. John’s for England on Empress of Scotland.” {November 12 1951}
“Arr. Montreal, special bus to the Empress of Scotland, breakfast there & finally departed, in a sweltering heat at mid-day. Quebec at 9 p.m. …” {August 7 1956}
“Chilly, cloudy & fog patches & remaining so, with practically no sun until the last day, but exceptionally calm.” {August 9 1956}
“Strong winds delayed boat one hour – arr. Liverpool 2:30 p.m.” {August 13 1956}
In ten years she would be irreparably damaged by fire and sold for scrap – a tragic end, to a most amazing life.
