Writer uncovers truths of survivors of Empress of Ireland shipwreck in St. Lawrence River

Courtney Dickson · CBC News

· Posted: May 04, 2025 10:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

When fog blanketed the St. Lawrence River connected May 29, 1914, a vessel carrying hundreds of passengers and unit was rammed by a passing ember ship. The rider vessel, known arsenic the Empress of Ireland, sank successful conscionable 14 minutes, sidesplitting astir of the radical onboard. 

The communicative of the shipwreck and those who survived it are featured successful a caller publication by Vancouver author, writer and historiographer Eve Lazarus, 1 she spent years researching to find retired the information astir what happened. 

It each started erstwhile she was hired by a lawyer who owns a summertime location adjacent Rimouski, Que., where the Empress went down. Having swum successful the St. Lawrence astir summers, helium came crossed the communicative of a subsister of the wreck, a UBC past prof by the sanction of Gordon Davidson and 1 of 75 B.C. passengers, who had allegedly survived by swimming 6.5 kilometres to shore. 

"He talked to diving instructors and crystal polar swimmers and biologists, anyone helium could find that could verify that that was possible," Lazarus told CBC's North by Northwest big Margaret Gallagher.  "Everyone said no, no, it conscionable wasn't possible, not successful that acold somesthesia astatine that clip of year. So helium hired maine to spot if I could find the root story."

The ship, which was travelling from Quebec City to Liverpool, England, had 40 lifeboats connected board, but lone 4 were deployed erstwhile the vessel sank truthful quickly. About 1 successful 5 passengers survived, but a higher proportionality of the 400-some unit made it out. 

Lazarus said the unit was criticized for not prioritizing the information of passengers, but her probe tells her determination was thing selfish astir however things worked out. 

"Fifty per cent of the unit would person been connected work that nighttime successful the mediate of the night, and a batch of them worked successful the motor rooms wherever it was truly unsafe and truly hot. They had flight routes to the apical platform … truthful a batch of them were capable to get to the apical platform precise rapidly and assistance with lifeboats and get that going."

Because this happened successful the mediate of the night, a batch of passengers stopped to formal earlier fleeing the ship, which would beryllium their fatal flaw.  

Lazarus went retired connected the stream successful a Zodiac successful 2019 and sat atop the tract of the wreck. 

"You could spot it connected radar, and knowing determination are inactive 800-and-something remains of people, it truly is an underwater graveyard inactive down there," she said. "It was precise hard for maine to travel to presumption with that. It was precise powerful." 

Lazarus said a batch of the reporting that came retired of the sinking of the Empress of Ireland occurred conscionable a fewer hours aft it happened. Reporters descended connected Rimouski, she said, and started interviewing radical who were dealing with traumatic injuries, were recovering from the acold oregon who had mislaid their full families. They were successful shock. 

Reporters, successful those days, would person been using shorthand to constitute stories and phoning them into their respective newsrooms, Lazarus pointed out, creating different accidental for error.

"It's not astonishing that a batch of it was wrong."

Davidson did not aquatics ashore pursuing the Empress of Ireland's demise, Lazarus learned. Instead, helium was rescued successful a boat. 

She believes the lore astir his harrowing aquatics started with a communicative successful Vancouver's The Province newspaper, wherever a newsman speculated that, due to the fact that Davidson was a bully swimmer, helium indispensable person swum. 

"It was inactive an unthinkable endurance story, but I couldn't recognize however that communicative could get truthful wrong," Lazarus said. "[The story] became real, and that was the communicative that went to each these newspapers and books."