&sq=Facebook&lang=en&file=File:Empress_CVA_SGN_917.jpg) Empress of Japan
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Canada | |
| Name | Empress of Japan |
| Owner | &sq=Facebook&lang=en&file=File:Canadian_Pacific_house_flag.svg){kind=small} Canadian Pacific Steamship Company |
| Port of registry | Canada |
| Builder | Naval Construction & Armaments Co, Barrow-in-Furness |
| Launched | 13 December 1890 by Lady Alice Stanley |
| Out of service | 1922 |
| Fate | Scrapped in 1926 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage | 5,905 tons |
| Length | 456 ft (139 m) |
| Beam | 51 ft (16 m) |
| Propulsion | twin propellers |
| Speed | 16 knots |
| Capacity |
|
RMS Empress of Japan, also known as the "Queen of the Pacific", was an ocean liner built in 1890–1891[1] by Naval Construction & Armaments Co, Barrow-in-Furness, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP).[2] This ship – the first of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan[3] – regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1922.[4] During the First World War she served as armed merchant cruiser, becoming HMS Empress of Japan for the period that she was a commissioned ship of the Royal Navy.
Over the course of her career, Empress of Japan traversed 4 million kilometres (2.5 million miles).[5] She made 315 Pacific crossings.[4]
In 1891, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and the British government reached agreement on a contract for subsidized mail service between Britain and Hong Kong via Canada; and the route began to be serviced by three specially designed ocean liners. Each of these three vessels was given an Imperial name.[6]
Empress of Japan and her two running mates – RMS Empress of China and the RMS Empress of India – created a flexible foundation for the CPR trans-Pacific fleet which would ply this route for the next half century.[4]
- ^ The disambiguation date used in this article's title is not the year in which the hull is launched, but rather the year of the vessel's sea trial or maiden voyage.
- ^ Simplon Postcards: Empress of Japan, 2 images
- ^ The second of two ships named SS Empress of Japan (1930) was built for CP to sail the trans-Pacific route.
- ^ a b c Ship List: Description of Empress of Japan Archived 4 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Davis, C. RMS Empress of Japan, History of Metropolitan Vancouver website.
- ^ Miller, William H. (1984). The First Great Ocean Liners in Photographs, p. 52.