shipstamps.co.uk

Built as a passenger- cargo ship under yard No 179 by Naval Construction & Armament Co. Barrow-in-Furness, for Canadian Pacific.
December 1889 keel laid down.
30 August 1890 launched as the EMPRESS OF INDIA christened by Lady Louise Egerton.
Tonnage 5,905 gross, 3,032 net, dim. 456.7 x 52.1 x 33ft.
Powered by a triple expansion steam engines, ?hp, twin screws, speed 16 knots.
Passenger accommodation for 50 first, 150 second and up to 400 steerage.
January 1891 completed.

08 February 1891 sailed from Liverpool under command of Captain O.P.Marshall with on board over 100 passengers bound for Hong Kong. The passage took her 33 days and 7 hours.
07 April 1891 from Hong Kong she sailed via Shanghai, Nagasaki, Kobe and Yokohama to Victoria and Vancouver, it was the beginning of a 10 year mail contract in a regular Trans-Pacific service, which ended by the outbreak of World War I.
On 17 August 1903 the EMPRESS OF INDIA became involved in a near political incident, when under her passengers from Shanghai some political refugees were. The Chinese tried to stop the EMPRESS OF INDIA by the gunboat HUANG-TAI who crossed during the night her bow, the EMPRESS OF INDIA received only a minor blow from the gunboat, but the starboard propeller of the EMPRESS OF INDIA tore a hole in the hull of the gunboat, causing her to sink. The crew was rescued but some officers did not want to leave the ship and went down with her.
22 August 1914 she left for the last time Vancouver her 238th crossing.
From Hong Kong she sailed under Admiralty orders to Bombay (Mumbai) where she was bought by the Maharajah of Gwalior, who on his own expensive refitted her in a hospital ship for Indian troops. She was renamed LOYALTY in 1915.
After the war in 1919 was she bought by the Scindia Steam Navigation Company of Bombay, not renamed.
She made a few voyages between India and Italy.
March 1921 laid up in Bombay.
February 1923 sold for scrap to Maneckchand Jiyray & Co., Bombay where she was scrapped.

India 1977 25p sg844, scott754 (The sailship till so far not identified)

Source: Log Book. Canadian Pacific by George Musk.

The name on the ship's bow on the stamp is Loyalty. The vessel was bought by the Maharajab of Gwalior and Indian princes on December 7, 1914, converted into a hospital ship for Indian troops, and given the name H.M.H.S. Loyalty.After the war she came under the control of commercial interests in India, the 1919 Lloyd's Register giving her owner's name as L. Samaldas, Bombay, She kept the name Loyalty until broken up in 1923.
Originally she was the EMPRESS OF INDIA, first of the three sister ships laid down at the Naval Construction and Armament Works, Barrow, between 1889-90 the others being the Empress of China and Empress of Japan, They were built to open a new C.P.R. service between Vancouver and Hong Kong and were an immediate success when it came into operation in 1891. Ships' details were: gross tonnage 5,934; net 3,032 tons. Length 455 ft. 6 in.; breadth 51 ft. 2 in.; depth 33 ft. 1 in.; draft 29 ft. Twin screws; two sets of triple-expansion engines took steam from four double-ended boilers. Each ship was fitted to carry 180 first-class, 32 second-class and 600 third-class passengers. Cost of each vessel about £200,000.
When they came into service, the Canadian Pacific extended its terminus 6,200 miles "westward to the Far East" from Vancouver to Hong Kong. The Empress of India proved herself slightly the fastest of the trio with 19.75 knots on the measured mile and averaged over 17 knots on the Pacific voyage, on a coal consumption of about 110 tons per day. The service started off in notable fashion, the three "Empresses" all going out from England to Hong Kong via the Suez Canal filled with passengers booked up for a cruise right round the globe.