SS Empress Queen

Construction and dimensions

Empress Queen was built by Fairfields at Govan in 1897 at a cost of £130,000 and launched on Thursday 4 March 1897. Her boilers and engines also came from her builder.

Empress Queen was the largest and fastest paddle-driven cross-channel steamer ever to be built. She displaced a tonnage of 2,140 GRT; length 360 ft 1 in; beam 42 ft 3 in, depth 17 ft. The engine design was very advanced for its day. She had a boiler steam pressure of 140 pounds per square inch (970 kPa), and her two diagonal three-crank compound-type engines developed 10,000 ihp. One high-pressure cylinder was 68 inches in diameter and was placed centrally, with the two low-pressure cylinders of 92-inch diameter on either side. The stroke was 84 inches and the usual running speed was 44 rpm. This produced to give Empress Queen a service speed of 21.5 knots (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph).

Her engines and paddle wheels were claimed to be the heaviest ever placed in a paddle steamer, with one paddle shaft wheel alone weighing 70 tons. Sixteen firemen worked at her 32 furnaces.

Service life

Empress Queen entered service with the Company's fleet in 1897. It was intended to call her the Douglas, but the name Empress Queen was adopted in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.

She was the first Steam Packet vessel to be fitted with wireless telegraphy, which was installed on 19 August 1903.

Empress Queen was the last paddle steamer ordered to be built for the line, and she was a record breaker for her day. On 13 September 1897 she made passage from the Rock Lighthouse, New Brighton, to Douglas Head (a distance of 68 nautical miles), in 2 hr. 57 min.; the fastest time then recorded. The whole voyage from the Princes Landing Stage to Douglas Harbour took three hours and five minutes, two minutes faster than the record held by the Prince of Wales.

She continued to give valued service to and from the Island until she was chartered by the Admiralty on 6 February 1915.

War service and loss

Empress Queen was ideally suited as a troop carrier. On leaving Douglas she steamed to Barrow and was fitted out for her wartime role in less than two weeks. Following her fitting out, she then made passage to Southampton and two days later was on the first of her duties, taking 1,900 men of a Scottish regiment to Le Havre.

Her end was unexpected. Empress Queen had been regarded by the authorities as an exceptionally reliable paddle steamer; she had never stopped for weather or engine trouble. Then, on 1 February 1916, she was returning to Southampton from Le Havre with 1,300 men on board. The weather was foul, the visibility was but a few yards, when she ran ashore at 05:00hrs on the Ring Rocks off Bembridge, Isle of Wight. She ran well up on to them on a rising tide, the wind was light, and the sea was calm.

Destroyers took off the troops, the crew remained on board as efforts were made to pull the vessel off. It was not expected to be a difficult task, but it proved impossible. The weather changed in a matter of hours and a gale blew up. The Queen Victoria was launched from the Bembridge Lifeboat Station to undertake rescue operations. Bembridge coxswain John Holbrook injured his hand while fastening a line to the stricken vessel, but nevertheless made four trips between the ship and the shore, rescuing 110 people. And additional nine people were rescued by another vessel. Holbrook was awarded an RNLI silver medal for his actions.

The Empress Queen, regarded as the fastest paddle steamer of her day when Fairfield's built her in 1897, and certainly the finest of her type to see service with the Steam Packet Company, was broken up by the wind and tide as the seasons passed.

She became a familiar landmark to Southampton and Portsmouth shipping. Her two funnels were still to be seen above the water on Armistice Day. During the following summer, after a long and heavy gale, they finally disappeared.

The position of the wreck of Empress Queen is given as 50°40′0″N 1°05′0″W.