Which passenger ship sank in the Saint Lawrence River after colliding with Storstad in 1914?

RMS Empress of Ireland sank in the Saint Lawrence River after colliding with Storstad in 1914.

The Canadian Pacific liner was traveling from Quebec City toward Liverpool on 29 May 1914 when it collided with the Norwegian collier Storstad near Pointe-au-Père, Quebec. The collision opened a large breach in Empress of Ireland’s hull, and the ship sank very quickly.

More than 1,000 people died, making the disaster one of the worst maritime tragedies in Canadian history. The rapid sinking left many passengers and crew with little time to reach lifeboats, while the ship’s list made evacuation especially difficult.

Empress of Ireland is sometimes grouped with Titanic and Lusitania because all three were major early twentieth-century passenger-ship disasters. Their circumstances were different: Empress of Ireland sank after a collision in a river estuary, rather than after striking an iceberg or being torpedoed.