Parkside's Intimate Connection to the 'Empress of Ireland'

In 1914 on Thursday, May 28th the ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) departed Quebec City for Liverpool, England at 4:30 pm on her ninety-sixth voyage with 1,477 passengers and crew on board.

RMS Empress of Ireland, ca. 1906-1914. Photograph courtesy of the
Library and Archives Canada/PA-116389.

Nine and a half hours later in the early morning hours of Friday, May 29th at 2:00 am near Sainte-Luce-Sur-Mer she collided with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad and sank into history as the worst peacetime maritime accident to occur in Canada.

"Empress of Ireland Is Reported Sunk,"

30 May 1914, Shellbrook Chronicle, Shellbrook, SK.

Empress of Ireland
Is Reported Sunk
--------
Was in Collision During Fog with
Coal Barge - Had 1200 Aboard
850 Land at Rimouski.
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The Steamer “Empress of Ireland,” which left Quebec
on Thursday, May 28th, at 4.30 pm, encountered a dense
fog shortly after leaving. While anchored 39 miles from
Quebec was struck by Collier “Storstadt.” The “Empress
of Ireland” is reported as sinking fifteen minutes after-
wards. The collision occurred at 3 am Friday morning,
when most of the passengers were asleep in their berths.
The ship had 1200 passengers on board.

Only meagre reports are now at hand, but from all
accounts death list will run between 870 and 1050 drowned.

It is reported that 350 were saved at Rimouski, leav-
ing 870 still to account for. The vessel was in charge of
Lient. Kendall when it left Quebec.

Mr. J. P. Lenquist and his sister, Moroto, of Parkside,
had booked Berths No. 612 and left here Saturday last to
catch the boat at Quebec on their way home to Gothenburg.

The Empress of Ireland sank within fourteen minutes and of the 1,477 persons on board the ship, 1,012 died and 465 lived. Of the 1,012 lost, 840 were passengers and 172 were crew. Of the 465 saved, 217 were passengers and 248 were crew.

The Parkside residents were listed on the “Passenger & Crew List of the Empress of Ireland” published by CPR in 1914 as Jonas and Martha Lindquist.

They were were among the 465 saved.

Thirteen days later on Thursday, June 11th the Linquists boarded their ill fated ship's sister ship, the Empress of Britain, and sailed onto their destination of Gothenburg, Sweden.