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EMPRESS OF
BRITAIN
OF 1956
Built by the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd., Govan.
Yard No. 731
Official Number: 187376
Signal Letters: G
V C N
Gross Tonnage: 25,516;
Nett: 13,681.
Length:
640ft Breadth:
85·2ft.
Owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway Co. (Canadian Pacific Steamships
– Managers)
6 steam turbines, double reduction gearing to twin screws
After the Second World War, replacements were urgently
needed for Canadian Pacific’s ageing passenger fleet, and the
situation became more serious in 1953 following the loss by fire
of the Empress of Canada.
In 1951 the Cunard Line, Canadian Pacific’s great rival on the
Liverpool to
Montreal
service, had announced its intention to build a new class of
passenger liner for the Canadian service. Canadian Pacific was
faced with the very real need to meet the Cunard challenge in
order to maintain a viable presence on the route.
Canadian Pacific waited until the first of the new
Cunarders, the Saxonia, had entered service before placing an order for a new ship
which would become the Empress
of Britain. There is no doubt that Canadian Pacific paid
very close attention to the new Cunard liner before placing an
order with the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company
at Govan for the new Empress which was launched by the Queen on 22nd June
1955. The Empress of
Britain had the distinction of being the first Canadian
Pacific liner, and the first Fairfield-built vessel, to be named
by a reigning monarch.
Queen
Elizabeth II launching the Empress
of Britain on 22nd June, 1955
photo:
Shipbuilding and Shipping Record
The Queen and the Duke Edinburgh were entertained to
lunch in the shipyard boardroom, and following the loyal toast,
Vice-Admiral E.W.Longley-Cook, the managing director of the
Fairfield Company, pointed out that the new Empress
of Britain would be the twenty-first ship built by his
Company for Canadian Pacific, a total which included six ‘Empresses’
and eight ‘Princesses’.
The association between the two companies went back fifty years
to when the first Empress of Britain was built at the Govan yard.
On 28th October 1955, just four months after
the launching of the Empress
of Britain, Canadian Pacific Airlines ordered three Bristol Britannia
300LR airscrew-turbine air liners, with an option for a further
five. The age of the trans-ocean airliner was dawning!
The new Empress
left the Clyde on 1st March 1956 and entered the
Gladstone Graving Dock at Liverpool the following day, before
returning to the
Clyde
on 8th March to carry out her speed trials. These
were run over the Arran Mile on the next two days, following
which the Empress of
Britain was berthed in
Glasgow
’s King George V Dock for almost three weeks. At noon on 29th
March 1956 the new ship underwent further trials on the Firth of
Clyde before being handed over to Canadian Pacific Steamships at
a ceremony held that evening whilst the vessel was at anchor at
the Tail of the Bank.
The
Empress of
Britain
on trials on the
Arran
Mile in March, 1956
photo:
Shipbuilding and Shipping Record
The Empress of
Britain sailed to Southampton on a ‘shake-down’ cruise,
leaving
Liverpool
on 9th April with 400 guests of the Company on board.
On her way down the Mersey she passed the new Reina
del
Mar, arriving from her sea trials. After arriving at the
southern port on 10th April, the Empress
disembarked her passengers and took on another 400 guests for
the return passage to Liverpool, arriving back in the Mersey on
12th April to prepare for her maiden voyage which
left
Liverpool
on 20th April.
One shipping journalist who had been on board for the
cruise described the Empress
of Britain as ‘
Britain
’s most interesting ship
of the decade’. She was in fact the first completely
air-conditioned passenger liner to have been built in
Britain
. ‘Lloyd’s List’ enthused: “For
comfort and real quality in ship decoration and furnishing –
indeed, luxury in many respects – Canadian Pacific’s new
flagship sets the highest possible standard in North Atlantic
travel. This applies particularly to tourist class and the Empress
of Britain is primarily a tourist class ship. The
distinction between the two classes is virtually negligible, and
the generous tourist class public rooms, to say nothing of most
of the cabins, are in literal truth of first-class standard.”
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