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EMPRESS
OF
FRANCE
(ex DUCHESS OF
BEDFORD
)
Built by John Brown & Co.Ltd. at
Clydebank
in 1928. Yard No. 518.
Official Number: 160482
Signal Letters: G N T V
Gross Tonnage: 20,448; Nett:
11,335. Length:
581·9ft, Breadth: 75·2ft.
Owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway Co. (Canadian Pacific Steamships
– Managers)
6 steam turbines, single reduction geared to twin-screws. Speed: 17½
knots.
The
Empress of France
as she appeared after her 1948 refit
photo: Shipbuilding and Shipping Record
The
Duchess of Bedford
took the concept of the ‘cabin-class’ ship to its highest
point. She was one of four sisters, the others being the
Duchesses of Atholl,
Richmond
and
York
. The Duchess of Atholl
was intended to be the first in service, but an accident
involving one of her turbines when she was fitting out meant
that this honour fell to the Duchess of Bedford, whose completion was speeded up so that she
could take the first sailing on the advertised date of 1st
June 1928.
The Duchess of
Bedford was launched on 24th January 1928 by Mrs
Stanley Baldwin, wife of the then prime minister. The new liner
had a deadweight capacity of 8,750 tons, which included 2,725
tons of fuel oil, and she could very easily exceed her designed
service speed of 17½ knots. Her original passenger
accommodation was for 580 in cabin class, 480 in tourist class
and 510 in third class. A crew of 510 was carried.
On her second westbound voyage the Duchess
established a new record for the passage between Liverpool and
Montreal
of 6 days, 9½ hours, saving nearly a full day on the previous
best. Although she was only intended to make 17½ knots, she
could average 18 without the least difficulty, and could steam
at almost 20 knots for considerable periods.
At the beginning of 1933 the Duchess
of Bedford was on charter to Furness, Withy & Company
and sailed on the
New York
–
Bermuda
service whilst the Queen
of Bermuda was
being completed. On 8th May 1933 the Duchess
was the subject of an absolutely unfounded rumour that she had
foundered after striking an iceberg off the
Newfoundland
coast with passengers and about £500,000 of gold bullion on
board. The distress that this must have caused to the relatives
of those on board was not alleviated until 2.am the following
day when the liner radioed from mid ocean that all was well with
her.
Two months later, on 13th July 1933, the Duchess of Bedford actually did strike an iceberg in the Belle Isle
Strait between Newfoundland and Labrador, but fortunately was
undamaged and six years later, in June 1939, she brought to
Liverpool 32 French seamen whose barquentine had sunk after
striking a berg off Newfoundland.
On the outbreak of the Second World War the Duchess
of Bedford was requisitioned for service as a troopship for
which she was admirably suited by her original design. Just
before the fall of
Singapore
in January 1942 she arrived there with 4,000 Indian troops and
40 Indian nurses. Packed with refugees, including 875 women and
children, she got away five days before the surrender. Later in
1942 the Duchess of Bedford
arrived at Liverpool with the first
U.S.
troops: 673 officers and 6,507 men. She was given the credit for
sinking a submarine by gunfire about this time, and the Duchess finished a very eventful year by stranding during the French
North African operations, when the
Irish Sea
packets Ulster Monarch
and Royal Ulsterman
towed her off.
After
North Africa
came the Sicilian and Italian operations. In 1943 the Duchess
of Bedford was the first transport in at the
Salerno
landings. In the Spring of 1945 she carried to
Odessa
a large number of Russian prisoners who had been liberated by
the Allied advance in
Europe
, and returned with Allied prisoners whom the Russians had
rescued. Considering the extent and variety of her war work,
covering some 350,000 miles and carrying 231,000 troops, it was
remarkable that the Duchess of Bedford escaped any damage, although she had very many
narrow escapes.
After the war the Duchess
of Bedford was employed in repatriating troops, service
wives and children to
Canada
, and arrived at the
Fairfield
yard at Govan to be reconditioned in 1947. She was renamed Empress
of France (although the original intention had been to
change her name to Empress
of India), and her accommodation was rebuilt to carry a
total of 400 passengers in first class and 300 in tourist class.
The machinery was thoroughly overhauled, new propellers
were fitted, and she was painted in Canadian Pacific’s new
Atlantic colours of white hull with green riband and
boot-topping, with buff funnels having the company’s houseflag
painted on either side. She returned to the Liverpool to
Montreal
service on 1st September 1948.
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