![]() Empress of Japan
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History | |
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Name | Empress of Japan |
Owner | ![]() |
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 |
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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]