Introduction
Certainly one of the more stunning tranportation posters ever printed. Side- and stern-wheelers are rostered along with passengers ships that were luxurious and state-of-the-art in the first decade of the twentieth century. The Empresses of China, India and Japan, built in the latter part of the nineteenth century, embody the transition from sail to steam with their schooner-like hulls, bowsprits and figureheads.
Jones, p.53: «With “Empresses” on both the Pacific and the Atlantic, the CPR was building a transportation empire that would span the world.»
The following excerpts described how the CPR's shipping services came to be:
Lotz and McKenzie, p.220: «…the Company chartered seven sailing ships to carry cargo from the Far East to its Pacific railhead. The first of these, the 800-ton wooden barque W B Flint, docked at Port Moody on 27 July 1886, with a million pounds of tea consigned to Hamilton, Toronto and New York. The connecting train sped across the country to deliver the tea to New York only 49 days after the ship left Yokohama. Between August 1886 and January 1887 the other chartered ships did the ‘tea run,’ providing 4000 tons of freight for the new railway.
The Company then acquired the Abyssinia, Batavia and Parthia, ex-Cunard steamers, under charter. The Abyssinia, out of Hong Kong and Yokohama, tied up at the new CPR wharf in Vancouver on 14 June 1887. It carried 22 first class passengers and 80 Chinese in steerage, three sacks of mail, 11 packages of newspapers and almost 3000 tons of cargo, most of it tea consigned to Chicago and New York. Later in the season, the chartered ships carried the British Minister to Japan and the brother of the King of Siam. From its beginning, the Company strove to attract distinguished travellers to its ships.
The first season resulted in a loss for the Company.
But it plunged on into the shipping business. In 1889 it placed orders for three 6000-ton vessels – the first ‘Empresses’ of India, China and Japan.»
McDougall, pp.157-158: «In 1884, [the CPR] had vessels operating upon the Great Lakes. In 1886 it began a service between Canada and Japan using chartered vessels. They were shortly followed by its own ships; for many years the "All Red" Canadian Pacific route across Canada and then Canadian Pacific ships was one of the preferred routes to the Far East, competing with the steamer route through the Suez Canal. The same ships fed high-value silk and tea shipments to the railway to be carried across the continent—the silk in special trains, complete with armed guards—on schedules faster than the fast passenger trains.
In the early nineties ships were put upon the B.C. Lakes in order to stretch the Company's reach for traffic. In 1901 it moved into the British Columbia coastal trade with the purchase of a fleet of fourteen vessels. The final move was the development of an Atlantic fleet so that it offered an unbroken service from the shores of Europe to Yokohama and Hong Kong.»
Legget, p.153: «[The Great Lakes] ships provided an alternative to rail travel for passengers who had time for the delightful journey between Port McNicol on Georgian Bay and the Lakehead. Similar but more limited services were provided on some of the lakes in the mountain valleys of British Columbia, giving connections with CPR rail services. …And on the Pacific coast another notable fleet of passenger vessels was built up to provide connections between Vancouver and points on Vancouver Island, Victoria notably, and also up the coast to Alaska.»
Cox, cover: «On British Columbia's inland lakes and rivers the vessel of choice was the steam powered, paddle wheel driven, "sternwheeler"»
Jones, p.53: «In 1903, the CPR plunged into the competitive waters of the North Atlantic steamship trade with the acquisition of fifteen steamships from the British Elder Dempster Line's Canadian arm, known as the Beaver Line. Three years later the railway launched its own fast Atlantic Empress steamships, Empress of Britain and Empress of Ireland. By 1909, when it seized financial control of the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company—more commonly known as the “Allen Line” after the famous family who founded it—the CPR was firmly established as the dominant force in Canadian shipping.»
Some of the seagoing ships carried the prefix RMS to their names instead of the usual SS. This prefix designated a Royal Mail Ship (sometimes Steam-ship or Steamer) because it carried mail under contract for the British Royal Mail on a regular sheduled basis.
Wikipedia: «The Canadian Pacific Railway's trans-Pacific Royal Mail contract required the building of the first three of a fleet of steamships: the RMS Empress of China, RMS Empress of India and RMS Empress of Japan which regularly sailed between Vancouver and Asia beginning in 1891.»
Lotz and McKenzie, p.221: «These new ships carried mail between Vancouver and China and Japan under a £60,000 contract secured by the Company in 1890. The contract carried a penalty clause that was never invoked in the first 15 years of operation.»
In this article, the gallery section catalogues the photos we have come across at major Canadian archives for the illustrated ships. The menu below, in accordance with the poster's legend, summarizes our findings. (Note in passing its mispelling "Kush[sic:k]anook".) Photographs do not appear to be available for all ships. The documentary evidence is also uneven with some vessels like the Empresses having captured the attention of many photographers. The menu links lead to entry points into the body of the article where selected images show off these ships in the best way possible. Build and disposal details regarding every CP ship can be obtained from TheShipsList.
Ships Menu
Empress of Britain (RMS ⚓ 1905 Built ⚓ 1919 Returned to owners ⚓ 1930 Scrapped)
Empress of Ireland (RMS ⚓ 1906 Built ⚓ 1914 Sunk after collision with another ship)
Wikipedia: «RMS Empress of Ireland was an ocean liner that sank near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River following a collision in thick fog with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad in the early hours of 29 May 1914. ...Of the 1,477 people on board, 1,012 died, making it the worst peacetime maritime disaster in Canadian history.»
Lake Manitoba (1901 Built ⚓ 1903 Taken over with Beaver Line ⚓ 1918 Sold)
Lake Erie (1899 Built ⚓ 1903 Taken over with Beaver Line ⚓ 1916 Sold)
Lake Champlain (1900 Built ⚓ 1903 Taken over with Beaver Line ⚓ 1949 Scrapped)
Montreal
Cruizer Registration Record, 3/1914
Empress of India (RMS ⚓ 1890 Built ⚓ 1914 Sold ⚓ 1949 Scrapped)
Not surprisingly, her sister ship, the Empress of Japan, had identical balusters:
Empress of Japan (RMS ⚓ 1890 Built ⚓ 1926 Scrapped)Registration Record, 20/1917
We note in passing that the ship was involved in a collision with the Abbie Palmer:
and that the ship participated in WWI as an armoured cruiser:
Empress of China (RMS ⚓ 1891 Built ⚓ 1911 Wrecked ⚓ 1912 Scrapped)
Monteagle (1899 Built ⚓ 1903 Taken over with Beaver Line ⚓ 1926 Scrapped)
Keewatin (1907 Clyde-built ⚓ 1966 Sold ⚓ Preserved at Port McNicoll)
Jones, p.116: «At 330 feet in length, [Keewatin and Assiniboia] could each take on board about 280 passengers and 86 crew members. Both ships featured a main lounge, two decks high, with staterooms on both levels, Stained glass skylights and a profusion of potted plants on rafters above the public rooms added to the charm and popularity of the ships.»
Jones, p.117: «Amidships, the dining rooms were capable of seating more than one hundred. The Assiniboia and Keewatin offered solid fare, as a rule quite palatable. Various cuts of meat and fillets of local lake fish were supplemented by a variety of seasonal vegetables and desserts. In keeping with tradition, cups of bouillon were served on deck in mid-morning, and four o’clock tea was de rigueur.»
Jones, p.109: «All three of the CPR's original Great Lakes steamers that had been built in Scotland [Algoma, Alberta and Athabasca], as well as the other two Clyde-built vessels that later joined the service [Keewatin and Assiniboia], had to be cut in half to pass through the Beauharnois and Cornwall canals on the Quebec and Ontario sections of the man-made St. Lawrence navigation system. … [All] were reunited at Buffalo, and their fittings were installed at Port Colbourne.»
Assiniboia (1907 Clyde-built ⚓ 1968 Sold)Registration Record, 32/1907
Manitoba (1889 Built by Polson Iron Works in Owen Sound ⚓ 1951 Scrapped)Registration Record, 14/1889-09-30
Jones, p.113: «Slightly bigger than the Alberta and Athabasca, at about three hundred feet in length, the Manitoba came to be regarded, for a time, as the finest passenger ship on the Great Lakes, entering service as the flagship of the CPR's Great Lakes Fleet.»
Her engines had been salvaged from the CPR's Algoma which had run aground and broken in half off Greenstone Island, near Isle Royale, on 7 November 1885—the same day the CPR's last spike was being driven at Craigellachie.:p.114
Athabasca (1883 Clyde-built ⚓ 1946 Sold to a Florida fruit carrier)
It is interesting to note in passing the resurgence of wind-assisted propulsion.
Alberta (1883 Clyde-built ⚓ 1946 Sold to a Florida fruit carrier)Registration Record, 25/1883
Princess Charlotte (1908 Built ⚓ 1949 Sold)Registration Record, 1/1909
The round table was likely the captain's table.
Princess Victoria (1902 Built ⚓ 1952 Sold)
Francis Mawson Rattenbury, at the time CPR's Western Division Architect, designed the interior.
Princess Mary (1910 Built ⚓ 1952 Sold)Registration Record, 2/1911
Princess Royal (1907 Built ⚓ 1931 Sold)Registration Record, 14/1907
Joan (1892 Built ⚓ 1905 Taken over from Esquimalt & Nanaimo ⚓ 1914 Sold)Registration Record, 33/1892
Charmer (1887 Built ⚓ 1901 Taken over with Canadian Pacific Navigation Co. ⚓ 1912 Sold)Registration Record, 11/1893
Princess Beatrice (Sept 1903 Built ⚓ 1928 Scrapped)
Princess May (1888 Built ⚓ 1905 Purchased from Marty & D'Abbadie ⚓ 1919 Sold)Registration Record, 35/1901
On August 5, 1910, she had run aground on Sentinel Island Reef in Alaska:
Amur (1890 Built ⚓ 1901 Taken over with Canadian Pacific Navigation Co. ⚓ 1911 Sold)Registration Record, 2/1900
Princess Adelaide (1910 Built ⚓ 1949 Sold)Registration Record, 23/1910
Tees (1893 Built ⚓ 1901 Taken over with Canadian Pacific Navigation Co. ⚓ 1923 Sold)
Czar Registration Record, 10/1897
The unidentified ship is readily recognised as one of the Pacific Empresses.
Nanoose (1908 Built ⚓ ⚓ 1946 Sold)Registration Record, 12/1908
Transfer Barge No1
Princess Ena (1907 Built ⚓ ⚓ 1931 Sold)Registration Record, 1/1908
Otter (1900 Built ⚓ 1901 Taken over with Canadian Pacific Navigation Co. ⚓ 1931 Sold)Registration Record, 1/1901
Queen City (1894 Built ⚓ 1901 Taken over with Canadian Pacific Navigation Co. ⚓ 1916 Burnt out)Registration Record, 27/1898
City Of Nanaimo (1891 Built ⚓ 1901 Taken over from Esquimalt & Nanaimo ⚓ 1912 Sold)Registration Record, 12/1896
Beaver (1898 Built ⚓ 1901 Taken over with Canadian Pacific Navigation Co. ⚓ 1919 Sold)Registration Record, 13/1898
Hosmer (Rebuilt in 1925 after a fire)
Minto (November 19, 1898 Built ⚓ 1954 Presented to Nakusp Chamber of Commerce)Registration Record, 32/1898
Sandon Registration Record, 30/1898
Moyie (October 22 1898 Built ⚓ 1956 Retired; restored & preserved at Kaslo)Registration Record, 33/1898
Ymir Registration Record, 50/1914
Kokanee (1896 Built ⚓ 1897 Purchased from Columbia & Kootenay Steam Navigation ⚓ 1923 Scrapped)Registration Record, 3/1896
Kuskanook (May 1906 Built ⚓ 1931 Retired ⚓ 1934 Sold)Registration Record, 46/1906
Cox, p. 19: «The KUSKANOOK was the fastest steamer on Kootenay Lake...»
Okanagan (April 16 1907 Built ⚓ 1934 Laid up ⚓ 1938 Hulked)Registration Record, 40/1907
Kootenay (April 1897 Built ⚓ 1920 Sold)Registration Record, 1/1897
Rossland (1897 Built ⚓ 1916 Sank under weight of snow)Registration Record, 9/1897
Aberdeen (May 22, 1893 Built ⚓ 1916 Withdrawn from service ⚓ 1919 Scrapped)Registration Record, 4/1893
Cox, p. 13: «The S.S. ABERDEEN was the first C.P.R. stern wheel steamer on the Okanagan Lake. It was built at Okanagan Landing and launched there in May, 1893. The ABERDEEN burned wood until 1902 and then was converted to a coal burner. The ABERDEEN was named in honour of Lord and Lady Aberdeen, who had a ranch in the Guisachan District of Kelowna. It was 148 feet long; the beam was 30 feet; and the gross tonnage was 554. The sternwheeler provided employment for a number of people who cut cords of four foot wood to heat the vessels[sic] steam boiler, until her conversion to coal.»
The following image illustrates the labour that was required in refueling with wood when not at dockside. Such stops were made possible by the shallow draft of these sternwheelers:
Slocan (May 1897 Built ⚓ 1928 Sold)Registration Record, 35/1905
Nelson (1891 Built ⚓ 1897 Purchased from Columbia & Kootenay Steam Navigation ⚓ 1913 Withdrawn from service ⚓ 1914 Burnt by CP)Registration Record, 12/1891
York Registration Record, 1/1902
S.S. York barged for 11 years on Skaha Lake, from 1920 to August 1931. :p.73
Whatshan
Valhalla Registration Record, 2/1901
Ontario Registration Record, 6/1890
Postscript
Cruise and Griffiths, p. 268n: «The Empresses of India, Japan and China were launched in 1891 with the advertising slogan, “Round the World in 80 days — $600.”» This is over CA$2,000 relative to the current dollar value.
Cruise and Griffiths, p.270: «The first company ship to sail the Atlantic was the SS Montrose on April 21, 1903...»
Cruise and Griffiths, p.267n: «Then in 1914 the Montrose also sank in a gale.»
Cruise and Griffiths, p. 268n: «Van Horne designed the red and white checkered flag that flew from their decks so that it would be recognizable even when it was hanging loose.»
Cox, p. 86: «[The house flag] colors were the C.P.R. colors of red and white. The red represented C.P.R. lands. If one takes a look at a Western Canada map in 1895 to 1900 you notice every second township is marked red, these are C.P.R. lands. So if you take a look at early Canadian maps they resemble a red checkerboard, so that is why the C.P.R. made their house flag look that way.»
Cruise and Griffiths, p.314n: «During the war [WW I] 52 CPR ships had been used as
armed merchant cruisers, troop transports and freighters by the British Admiralty. Of that 52, 12 were sunk by
mines, torpedoes and shelling, and 2 others were lost through marine accident. Five were converted into mock
battleships in one of the most amusing stories of the war, Winston Churchill, Britain's First Lord of the
Admiralty, dreamed up the idea of disguising merchant ships as battleships and having them accompany convoys to
confuse the Germans and give them a false notion of British strength.
The five ships were meticulously converted. All cargo hoists and derricks were removed and replaced by an imposing
wood and canvas superstructure, complete with threatening-looking wooden twelve-inch guns. There were nice
touches, such as six huge anchors replacing the two original smaller ones and twin rows of portholes along the
side where none had previously existed.
The special squadron was completed for duty in May, 1915. Unfortunately, the dummy battleships, which had a top
speed of only eight knots, couldn't keep up with real battleships, which routinely steamed in the twenty-knot
range. What's more, the plywood superstructure had a tendency to buckle and cave in the wind. The squadron was
esentially useless, and by September, 1915, had been cast aside.»
Gallery
- Archives of Ontario
- British Columbia Archives
- British Columbia Regional Digitized History
- City of Vancouver Archives
- Cape Breton University, Beaton Institute
- Ex Glenbow Archives
- Library and Archives Canada
- McCord Museum
- Simon Fraser University Digitized Collections
- Toronto Public Library
- University of British Columbia Library
- Vancouver Public Library
References
- Cox, D. (1995), S.S. Sicamous Queen of Okanagan Lake, Webco Press, Penticton, B.C., ISBN 0-919773-10-9.
- Cruise, D. and Griffiths, A. (1988), Lords of the line, Penguin Books Canada Limited, ISBN 0-14-025473-0.
- Jones, D.L. (2006), Famous name trains: travelling in style with the CPR, Fifth House Ltd., Calgary, Alberta, ISBN-10: 1-894856-52-X.
- Legget, R.F. (1973), Railways of Canada, Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver, B.C..
- Lotz, J. and McKenzie, K. (1994), Railways of Canada, W H Smith Publishers, Canada, ISBN 0-88665-479-3.
- McDougall, J.L. (1968), Canadian Pacific, A Brief History, McGill University Press, Montreal, Canada.
- Wikipedia (2018), RMS Empress of Ireland. Page last edited on 2 December 2018, at 21:25 (UTC).
- Wikipedia (2018), Royal Mail Ship. Page last edited on 12 December 2018, at 01:56 (UTC).
- Wikipedia (2018), Wind-assisted propulsion. Page last edited on 14 November 2018, at 19:08 (UTC).
- Wikipedia (2023), Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom. Page last edited on 8 June 2023, at 06:14 (UTC).
Last Updated October 25 2025, at 08:48:07 MDT ⚫ Visitor #