Built as a passenger vessel under yard No. 181 by Naval Construction & Armament Co., Barrow, U.K. for the Canadian Pacific Railway Co., London.
25 March 1891 launched under the name EMPRESS OF CHINA, Lady Stafford Northcote, the wife of the Governor of the Hudson Bay Company, christened her. Two sisters the EMPRESS OF INDIA and the EMPRESS OF JAPAN.
The building cost of the three vessels was 3.5 million dollar.
Tonnage 5.905 gross, 3.003 net, dim. 455.7 x 51.2 x 33.1ft. (draught)
Two 6-cyl triple expansion steamengines, 1.167 nhp., speed 16 knots, twin screws.
Passenger accommodation for 120 first class, 50 second class and 600 till 700 steerage passengers in the tweendecks.. Crew 125 men.
Carried a figurehead of a gilt dragon.
06 June 1891 she made her trials.
15 July 1891 she sailed for her maiden voyage under command of Capt. Tillett, with only a handful of passengers for the round the world voyage via Gibraltar, Naples, Suez, Colombo, Singapore and Hong Kong to Vancouver were she arrived on 23 September 1891 after a stormy passage across the Pacific.
In Oktober 1907 during loading operations in Vancouver, water entered the engine room via an open valve. She got a list and to keep her for rolling over the coal hulk ROBERT KERR was lashed alongside her until she was pumped dry.
27 July 1911 during fog she grounded on Mera Rif, Tokyo Bay, without loss of live.
December 1911 refloated, but she was so badly damaged that the underwriters sold her to Sasso Shojiro for scrapping at Yokohama.
Solomon Island 1988 $2 sg 639
Source: Canadian Pacific by George Musk. Some World Ship Society booklets on the Canadian Pacific.