125 Years of Canadian History

Canadian Pacific had an interesting but complicated history in shipping during the 125 years from 1880 to 2005. In effect, it owned two separate fleets, the first being an extensive network of small Canadian ferries operating in British Columbia, the Great Lakes and in the Bay of Fundy, and a second fleet of deep-sea liners and cargo ships of all types and sizes. The two fleets were both managed from Montreal, but Canadian Pacific Steamships (CPS the deep-sea company) was owned by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR the rail road company).

Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)

The famous Canadian Pacific Railway linked the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, the contract for which was signed on 21st October 1880. Track laying began at Montreal on 2nd May 1881 and by 1884 the line had reached the north shore of Lake Superior. Three steamers, Algoma, Alberta and Athabasca, helped the construction by ferrying workers and construction material along the lake to the expanding railroad. The Transcontinental railroad was completed on 7th November 1885, when Lord Strathcona drove in the last sleeper spike at Craigallachie, midway between Calgary and Vancouver. The next day the first through train left Montreal for Port Moody on the Burrard Inlet near Vancouver. However, signalling and the full introduction of extra rolling stock took a further six months to complete in May 1886. By taking over the separately owned Canadian Pacific Navigation Company (CPN) in 1901, the Columbia & Kootenay Steam Navigation Company in 1897, and by cleverly extending the railroad eastwards from Montreal to St. John (New Brunswick) in 1889, the Canadian Pacific Railway became the owner of a large fleet of connecting passenger ferries operating in the Bay of Fundy, the Great Lakes and in British Columbia.

The CPR British Columbia ferry fleet were usually given ‘Princess’ names e.g. Princess Ena, Princess Royal, and Princess Sophia, and by 1930 a big fleet of seventeen ferries with ‘Princess’ names operated in British Columbia. A further twenty small passenger steamers were operated by CPR in 1930 in the Great Lakes and in the Bay of Fundy. The new British built post-war CPR ferries to operate in British Columbia were the twin funnelled sisters Princess Marguerite and Princess Patricia of 1949, and Princess of Vancouver in 1955. The last CPR ferries to operate in this area were the small Carrier Princess and Trailer Princess carrying both rail wagons and road vehicles with inlaid rails on their decks until the service finally ended in the late 1980s. The last CPR Bay of Fundy passenger ferry was completed in 1971 as Princess of Acadia with accommodation for 650 passengers and forty trailers on the St. John to Digby service. She was sold to the Government of Canada at the end of 1974, with CPR continuing to operate the vessel until September 1976.

The Pacific White Empresses

The dream of a Transpacific mail and passenger service from Hong Kong, Shanghai and Yokohama to Europe via the CPR rail road from Vancouver to Halifax (NS) came a step nearer on 12th October 1889 with the ordering of three white, clipper bowed ‘Empress’ passenger liners. The twin funnelled Empress of India, Empress of Japan and Empress of China were of 5,905 grt with accommodation for six hundred passengers in three classes and a service speed of 17.5 knots from two sets of triple expansion steam engines. They had green boot topping and were completed by a Barrow shipyard. However, the railroad across Canada had first to become profitable, the problem being that the rail trucks were returned empty eastwards from Vancouver. Cargoes of tea bound for Europe could be shipped instead across the Pacific to fill this empty space to Halifax (NS). Accordingly, nine sailing ships and five steamers were chartered from 1886/87 for tea cargoes for New York or the U.K., and the flow of Chinese workers to work in Canada and the U.S.A. also required a passenger service for which no suitable service existed.

Empress of India was completed at Barrow and sailed from Liverpool on 8th February 1891 for Hong Kong via the Suez Canal. She sailed from Yokohama on 16th April 1891 and took only ten and one half days to Vancouver, with the mail reaching Montreal in only 14 days 22 hours. The connecting boat train to New York allowed the mail and passengers to catch an Inman Line ship bound for Liverpool, with the Yokohama mail reaching London in exactly three weeks, arousing world comment and praise. The sisters Empress of Japan and Empress of China followed later in the year, and eleven years later in 1902 the Canadian Government asked CPR to begin Transatlantic passenger and cargo services of their own and offered a financial guarantee to acquire the necessary ships as well as half of the Canadian Transatlantic mail contract.

North Atlantic Passenger Services

CPR purchased fifteen passenger and cargo vessels on 23rd February 1903 from the Beaver Line and Elder, Dempster & Co. Ltd. for £1.417 million, all employed on Transatlantic services. The funnel colours of Beaver Line, a subsidiary of Elder, Dempster, were black with two white bands and not the yellow of Elder, Dempster. The vessels purchased were Lake Manitoba, Lake Michigan, Lake Champlain, Lake Erie from Beaver Line, and Milwaukee, Montreal, Montcalm, Montfort, Monterey, Monteagle, Montrose, Monmouth, Montezuma, Mount Royal and Mount Temple from Elder, Dempster. They all could carry large amounts of cargo from Liverpool, London and Avonmouth, and some also loaded coal in the bottom of their holds at East Coast ports such as the Tyne. Passenger accommodation varied from 680 to 750 in three classes in the case of the Beaver Line ships, with steerage accommodation provided in the holds for 1,800 migrants and 70 passengers in Second Class ‘midships on the Elder, Dempster vessels.

Two new twin funnelled Transatlantic black hulled ‘Empresses’, Empress of Britain and Empress of Ireland, were completed in the summer of 1906 at the Fairfield yard on the Clyde for the CPR service between Liverpool and Quebec. They were twin screw and had accommodation for 1,460 passengers in three classes with a crew of 250, and a service speed of over eighteen knots from twin quadruple expansion steam engines by the builder. They both immediately set record times of five days twelve hours for the summer service to Quebec, and five days eight hours to Halifax (NS) for the winter service, and continued to improve on these times over the next eight years.

Tragically, Empress of Ireland was sunk in the early morning of 30th May 1914 after a collision in the St. Lawrence off Father Point with the loss of 1,024 passengers and crew. She encountered patchy fog after sailing from Quebec at 1630 hours, and was rammed ‘midships by the sharp bow of the Norwegian collier Storstad of A. F. Klaveness. Empress of Ireland was holed above and below the waterline, her engine room flooded so that the watertight doors could not be closed. She could not be beached and she went down only fifteen minutes later after Storstad had freed herself from the liner. She sank at 0155 hours with only four lifeboats managing to get quickly away to save 453 passengers and crew. The spot where she sank is still marked today by a red ‘wreck’ buoy.

Canadian Pacific Ocean Services Ltd. (CPOS)

On the outbreak of World War I, six Canadian Pacific Atlantic ships were requisitioned by the Admiralty for an assortment of duties. Fortunately, two new liners with accommodation for 520 passengers in Cabin Class and 1,100 passengers in Third Class were ready from the Barclay, Curle yard on the Clyde to fill the gaps left behind by their departure. The ‘M’ class nomenclature from Elder, Dempster was then continued with this pair, Missanabie and Metagama, and was still in use in the late 1930s alongside passenger liners with ‘Empress’ or ‘Duchess’ names. Canadian Pacific Ocean services Ltd. (CPOS) was formed on 1st October 1915 to merge the big Transatlantic fleets of Canadian Pacific and Allan Line of Glasgow. Sixteen Allan Line ships, Alsatian (later Empress of France), Calgarian, Corinthian, Corsican, Grampian, Ionian, Mongolian, Pomeranian, Pretorian, Sardinian, Scandinavian, Scotian, Sicilian, Tunisian, Victorian and Virginian, were integrated to give a big fleet of 39 ships of almost 400,000 grt (239,000 grt CPR and 155,000 grt Allan Line). Thirteen ships were lost to enemy action or maritime causes during the war :-

Hesperian – Torpedoed and sunk 85 miles SSW of the Fastnet on 4.9.1915 by U-20 while on a voyage from Liverpool to Montreal with general, 32 lost.

Carthaginian – Mined and sunk 2.5 miles from Inishtrahull Lighthouse on 14.6.1917 nine miles NE of Malin Head while on a voyage from the Clyde to Montreal with general.

Miniota – Torpedoed and sunk on 31.8.1917 thirty miles from Start Point by U-19 while on a voyage from Montreal to Portland with general, 3 lost.

Ionian – Mined and sunk on 20.10.1917 in St. George’s Channel two miles west of St. Govan’s Head while on a voyage from Milford Haven to Plymouth in ballast, 7 lost.

Montreal – Rammed and sunk by Cedric of White Star Line on 29.1.1918 while in convoy off Morecambe Bay, she sank the following day, 2 dead.

Calgarian – Torpedoed and sunk on 1.3.1918 in the North Channel off Rathlin Island by U-19 whilst employed as an Armed Merchant Cruiser (AMC).

Pomeranian – Torpedoed and sunk on 15.4.1918 nine miles from Portland Bill by UC-77 while on a voyage from London to St. John (NB), 55 lost including the Master.

Lake Michigan – Torpedoed and sunk on 16.4.1918 93 miles NW of Eagle Island, Ireland by U-100 while on a voyage from the Clyde to St. John (NB) with general, Master lost.

Medora – Torpedoed and sunk on 2.5.1918 eleven miles WSW of the Mull of Kintyre by U-86 while on a voyage from Liverpool to Montreal with general, 2 taken prisoner.

Milwaukee – Torpedoed and sunk on 31.8.1918 260 miles SW of the Fastnet by U-105 while on a voyage from London to Montreal with general, 1 lost.

Missanabie – Torpedoed and sunk on 9.9.1918 52 miles from Daunts Rock by UB-87 while on a voyage from Liverpool to New York in ballast, 45 lost.

Montfort – Torpedoed and sunk on 1.10.1918 170 miles from the Bishop Rock by U-55 while on a voyage from London to Montreal with general, 5 lost.

Corinthian – Wrecked on Brier Island in the Bay of Fundy on 14.12.1918, efforts to salvage her lasted one month.

Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. (CPS)

War grey remained the colour of Canadian Pacific ships until 1921, when hulls were painted black, upperworks white and funnels buff. The title of the CP operating company for both Atlantic and Pacific services became Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd. (CPS) on 8th September 1921. A white band was added to the black hulls in 1921. Three splendid German liners were added to the fleet in Empress of Asia (2) ex-Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm, the classically beautiful Empress of Australia ex-Tirpitz for the Pacific service, and Empress of Scotland ex Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, the latter built in 1905 was the largest liner in the world until the Tyne-built Mauretania took the title in 1907.

The CPS fleet in 1921 comprised 32 liners and cargo-liners, with five ‘Empresses’ on Atlantic and Pacific services, the liners Corsican, Grampian, Metagama, Melita, Minnedosa, Montreal, Monteagle, Scandinavian, Scotian, Sicilian, Tunisian and Victorian, and cargo-liners Batsford, Bolingbroke, Bosworth, Bothwell, Dunbridge, Holbrook, Mattawa, Methven, Montezuma, Mottisfont, and Pretorian, with four new liners building. These were completed as the three funnelled Empress of Canada of 21,517 grt from the Fairfield yard on the Clyde for Pacific service with accommodation for 882 passengers in three classes and a further 926 in steerage, and the twin funnelled Montclam, Montrose and Montclare of 16,400 grt from yards on the Clyde with accommodation for 542 in Cabin Class and 1,286 passengers in Third Class.

In 1922, the white ‘Empresses’ transferred their base from Liverpool to Southampton, and Metagama joined Tunisian, Corsican and Scotian on the joint CPS-Anchor Line service from Glasgow to Canada. During the winter of 1922/23, Empress of Scotland made her first postwar Mediterranean cruise with American passengers from New York, and Empress of France followed a few weeks later. In 1926/27, the Clyde to Canada service was reduced to two liners, but five new six hold turbine powered cargo-liners of 10,500 dwt were introduced to the Canadian service as Beaverburn, Beaverford, Beaverdale, Beaverhill and Beaverbrae, their names commemorating the defunct Beaver Line. Now that Southampton was the home port of the ‘Empresses’, the traditional Liverpool berth, which always drew support from a large part of Northern England and the Midlands, had to be strengthened. Four new ‘Duchess’ liners entered service in 1928/29 with black hulls as Duchess of Atholl, Duchess of Bedford, Duchess of Richmond and Duchess of York. This quartet again catered for Cabin Class passengers which, by now, had become the mainstay of the Liverpool passenger market.

The ‘Empress’ liners became ‘White Empresses’ again in 1928 with white hulls and a yellow band. Metagama was transferred in 1929 to the Antwerp to Quebec and Montreal service with a call at Southampton and Cherbourg. A new ‘Queen of the Pacific’ entered service in August 1930 as the three funnelled Empress of Japan of 26,032 grt from the Fairfield yard with accommodation for 664 passengers in three classes, with a further 510 passengers in steerage. She was the largest, most luxurious and finest CPS liner on the route, and at once took the Blue Riband of the Pacific. Normally a balancing pair of new liners would have been built for the Pacific route but the world Depression was affecting trade. Empress of Australia came home from the Pacific route for a refit and was then transferred to the Atlantic passenger service. The Depression bit hard in CPS services, with some cargo ships laid up for short periods, while the passenger liners were employed on short cruises costing one pound per day. In 1932, only 6,882 migrants were landed in Canada compared to 133,141 in 1929.

On a brighter note, the magnificent three funnelled new Empress of Britain of 42,348 grt made her maiden voyage on the Atlantic on 27th May 1931 from Southampton and Cherbourg to Quebec. She had been built by the famous John Brown yard at Clydebank and was the largest liner ever built for CPS, with accommodation for 465 passengers in First Class, 260 in second Class, and 470 in Third Class. She was quadruple screw and powered by twelve huge Curtis-Brown steam turbines of 62,500 shp to give her a service speed of 25 knots. She had been launched on 11th June 1930 by Edward, Prince of Wales, to great acclaim, and her enormous and cavernous three funnels were then lifted onboard by the hammerhead crane at the fitting out berth. She berthed at Quebec beneath the cliffs of the magnificent Frontenac Hotel, built in the late 19th century by William Van Horne, General Manager of CPR for Canadian Pacific travellers, and at Cherbourg from 1933 at the big two berth Quai de France with thousands of passengers boarding or disembarking each day.

Canadian Australasian Line Ltd.

This joint Pacific service with the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand came into effect in the Autumn of 1931. It was begun to combat three luxury liners that Matson Line had introduced to the Pacific in Lurline, Mariposa and Monterey. This trio were 75% financed by the U.S. Government on a twenty year loan plus the mail contract annual subsidy. A half share was taken in the Union liners Niagara and Aorangi, and they continued on the joint service under Union management. One aspect of the competition was that no cabotage existed between Australia and New Zealand, this enabled Matson to carry passengers across the Tasman whereas Union could not lift passengers between Honolulu and San Francisco and vice-versa. This was a serious financial problem which contributed much to the demise of the route. The Pacific trades were also badly hit by the Depression, although the Tasman and Pacific islands copra trades of the Union company were relatively unaffected.

The CPS deep-sea fleet in 1933 numbered 24 ships, with seven ‘Empress’ liners, four ‘Duchess’ liners and six liners with names beginning ‘M’, and seven cargo-liners including the five new ‘Beaver’ ships. In August 1934, the Empress of Britain made her fastest crossing from Father Point on the St. Lawrence to Cherbourg in only four days, six hours and 59 minutes. Two liners were scrapped in 1934, Metagama and sadly Empress of France, the former elegant Allan liner Alsatian. Melita and Minnedosa were chartered in 1935 to Lloyd Triestino for the Italian war of conquest in Abyssinia. Empress of Australia carried King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on their official visit to Canada in 1939, with the homeward passage on the faster Empress of Britain, which the King graciously described as ‘the most magnificent ship he had ever seen’.

World War II

The entire CPS fleet of eighteen deep-sea vessels, thirteen liners and five cargo ships, was immediately made available to the British Government on 3rd September 1939. The most grievous loss was that of the magnificent Empress of Britain on 26th October 1940 when she was set on fire by a bomb dropped from a long range Focke Wulf FW200 ‘Condor’ aircraft off the west coast of Ireland and crippled. Despite being taken in tow she was sunk by two torpedoes from U-32, and this was the saddest day in the history of CPS. All five ‘Beaver’ cargo ships were sunk, Beaverford being sunk by the guns of the German ‘pocket battleship’ Admiral Scheer in convoy HX84 in mid-Atlantic. The convoy was guarded by the Armed Merchant Cruiser Jervis Bay under Capt. E. S. Fogarty Fegen, who selflessly sacrificed himself and all onboard to engage the pocket battleship. Beaverford under Capt. E. Pettigrew was overhauled by Admiral Scheer and Capt. Pettigrew, knowing that his ship was doomed, courageously turned his ship round and steered straight for her assailant before being sunk with the loss of all 77 persons onboard. The courageous actions of Jervis Bay and Beaverford enabled most of the remainder of the convoy to escape, with only five more ships lost out of the convoy strength of 38 ships.

Montrose was torpedoed and sunk on 1st December 1940 by U-99 when five hundred miles off the coast of Ireland. The ship sank the following day with the loss of Capt. N.A.C. Hardy, 36 officers and 136 ratings with only 18 survivors. Empress of Canada had made a total of two hundred Transpacific voyages in the inter-war years, and did three and one half years on troopship duties before she sailed from Durban in March, 1943 with 1,800 troops on board including two hundred Poles released by Russia when that country entered the war, four hundred Italian prisoners of war, and several hundred naval personnel. She was ordered to Takoradi to pick up three hundred more Italian prisoners of war. Just before midnight on 13th March, she was torpedoed one thousand miles off the African coast by the Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci. She stayed afloat for another twelve hours while most people were evacuated, but another torpedo struck home, sinking her quickly. Some 392 lives were lost including half of the Italians, the survivors reaching Freetown where they boarded Mauretania for the voyage home.

Empress of Asia was sunk by Japanese aircraft on the fall of Singapore on 5th February 1942. A number of her crew escaped in lifeboats to Java, where later most of the survivors were captured. She had made a magnificent 307 Transpacific voyages for CPS until she arrived at Vancouver on 1st January 1941 and was requisitioned for troopship duties. Duchess of York was lost in July 1943 after being set on fire by long range German bombers off the coast of Morocco with the loss of eleven lives, Duchess of Atholl having already been lost on 10th October 1942 when torpedoed by U-178 two hundred miles north of Ascension Island with the loss of four lives. After VE Day on 8th May 1945 and VJ Day on 2nd September 1945 when the Japanese surrender was signed on the American battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Empress of Russia became the final casualty of war a few days later, this time being burnt out at the Barrow yard that would have refitted her for post-war duties. CPS managed ten ‘Empire’ ships during the war, and 22 of the 176 standard ‘Park’ type ships built in Canada but only for the single loaded delivery voyage to Europe. The latter were crewed from pool and not by CPS and none of the 22 vessels were later purchased by CPS.

Post-World War II Years

The two sisters of the sunken Montrose, Montcalm and Montclare, did not return to CPS service as they remained with the Admiralty until the end of their careers. Duchess of Richmond and Duchess of Bedford returned to Transatlantic duties in 1947/48 after refits at the Fairfield yard on the Clyde, but as Empress of Canada and Empress of France respectively. The CPS red and white chequerboard houseflag was now proudly on their funnels, and on the four replacement ‘Beaver’ cargo-liners of 10,900 dwt, Beaverdell, Beaverglen, Beaverlake and Beavercove, as well as three purchased ‘Empire’ fast cargo-liners that were also given ‘Beaver’ names of Beaverburn, Beaverford, and Beaverlodge.

The purpose built ‘Beaver’ quartet had six holds served by a good array of derricks on six sets of goalpost masts, and had turbo-electric propulsion to give a service speed of sixteen knots. Beaverdell and Beavercove were renamed Mapledell and Maplecove for a Pacific service in 1952 from Vancouver to Japan, China and Manila. Loading doors were cut into the sides of their hulls so that rolls of silk could be loaded undamaged, but after four years of Pacific service, this pair were transferred back to the Atlantic and regained their ‘Beaver’ names.

The houseflag used by Canadian Pacific Steamships (CPS) had an interesting history to its chequerboard pattern. During the construction of the railroad, land on either side of the tracks was allocated in alternate blocks to the railroad and the Canadian Government. On maps, these sections of land were represented by squares of red and white. When the CPR went into business as a shipowner and formed CPS, they adopted this pattern as their houseflag. The early CPS liners had a buff funnel with a black top, later becoming all buff, and after World War II this very interesting chequerboard pattern was added to the funnels. However, all of this Canadian history was swept away in 1968 when a completely new houseflag and funnel of two tone green and white was adopted.

In 1948, the German war reparations liner Huascaran, formerly with Hapag and renamed Beaverbrae, entered service from Germany with seven hundred austerity berths for people fleeing war-torn Europe for New York. Empress of Scotland, the renamed Empress of Japan built in 1929, brought Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh home from Newfoundland in November 1951. Trooping finally ended for Empress of Australia, the former German liner Tirpitz launched in 1913, after thirteen years of continuous trooping duties from September 1939 until May 1952, and she was sold for scrapping. Empress of Canada, the former Duchess of Richmond, caught fire in Gladstone Dock in Liverpool in January 1953 and collapsed inwards, jammed up against the quayside with her funnels knocked at crazy angles. It took two months to right her and she left the Mersey in August 1953 for scrapping in Italy.

The liner De Grasse was purchased from French Line as a replacement and renamed Empress of Australia (2). She was sold after two years of service and replaced by two magnificent modern liners in Empress of Britain (3) and Empress of England in 1956/57. The first was completed by the Fairfield yard on the Clyde, named Empress of Britain by the Queen on 22nd June 1955, and entering Transatlantic service on 20th April 1956 to Quebec. The second was launched as Empress of England on 9th May 1956 at the Walker Naval Yard on the Tyne and entered Canadian service on 18th April 1957. They had accommodation for 160 passengers in First Class and 894 in Tourist Class, and a service speed of 21 knots from six double reduction Parsons steam turbines.

The Pacific service of CPS was to have been resumed by Empress of Scotland in 1949 after a refit at the Fairfield yard of her builders, but events in the Far East dictated otherwise. She made her first post-war sailing on the Atlantic instead, sailing from Liverpool and Greenock to Quebec, and in the winter she cruised the West Indies from New York until sold in 1958. In the summer of 1959, Empress of England, Empress of Britain and Empress of France, made a total of 34 sailings into the ice-free St. Lawrence from Liverpool. The CPR ferry fleet at this time comprised eight ferries with ‘Princess’ names on British Columbian services, two small ferries on Lake Okanagan lake and river service in British Columbia, two ferries on Great Lakes service between Port McNicoll, Owen Sound, Sault Sainte Marie, Port Arthur and Fort William, and one ferry on Bay of Fundy service between St. John (NB) and Digby.

Empress of Canada, the last CPS ‘Empress’ liner, was completed at the Walker Naval Yard on the Tyne in March 1961 after being launched on 10th May 1960 by Mrs. Diefenbaker, wife of the Canadian Prime Minister. All of the yard employees and their families were allowed to tour the ship on completion, and I was lucky enough to obtain a ticket and thoroughly enjoyed a long visit to her Public Rooms and cabins. She had excellent accommodation for 192 passengers in First Class, 856 in Tourist Class with a crew of 470. She was twin screw and had a service speed of 21 knots from six Parsons double reduction steam turbines of 30,000 shp. She made only thirteen summer Transatlantic crossings to the St. Lawrence per annum, and for the rest of the year she went cruising. The yellow band on the white ‘Empresses’ hulls became dark green in 1961.

After ten years service, Empress of Canada arrived at Liverpool for the last time on 23rd November 1971 and the CPS North Atlantic service ceased after 68 years. She was sold to the fledgling Carnival Cruise Line of Ted Arison and renamed Mardi Gras for cruising from Miami. Empress of Britain had been sold to Greek Line in November 1964 and renamed Queen Anna Maria, and Empress of England was sold in April 1970 to Shaw, Savill & Albion Co. Ltd. and renamed Ocean Monarch.

Canadian Pacific (Bermuda) Ltd.

On 11th November 1964, this Hamilton subsidiary in Bermuda was formed to operate a diversified fleet of bulkers and tankers. Five small general cargo ships had been acquired during 1961/65 for CPS ownership for a Great Lakes service from London and Continental ports via the newly opened St. Lawrence Seaway. Beaverfir, Beaverpine, Beaverelm, Beaverash and Beaveroak of up to 9,000 dwt. On 10th April 1967, Beaveroak carried the A4 streamlined ‘Pacific’ class locomotive ‘Dominion of Canada’ to the Canadian Railroad Museum in Montreal as a centenary gift. After Beaveroak was completed at the Walker Naval Yard on the Tyne in September 1965, CPS began to name ships after persons prominent in the history of the company, although not all had worked for the company. The first was R.B. Angus, named after R. Bruce Angus, who came from the Bank of Montreal when CPR was formed and was a director of CPR for 41 years. This first vessel under CP Bermuda ownership was of engines aft, bridge ‘midships design of 14,500 dwt, and was placed on a Pacific paper pulp charter to MacMillan Bloedal of Canada from Vancouver to Japan. Unfortunately, on 17th December 1967 she developed leaks in numbers three and four holds while on a voyage from Chemainus to Japan with pulp. She sank 620 miles northeast of Japan, and her 39 crew were picked up by a Japanese fishing vessel and reached safety in Yokohama.

The next pair of ships under CP Bermuda registration were two tankers of 72,900 dwt for charter to Shell and BP, and completed by Mitsui Heavy Industries at Nagasaki in 1966/67 as Lord Mount Stephen and Lord Strathcona. The former was named after the founding President of CPR, and the latter gentleman was a director of CPR for over thirty years until his death in 1914. A trio of forestry products carriers of 28,900 dwt was then completed in Japan for charter to MacMillan Bloedal as H.R. MacMillan, J.V. Clyne and N.R. Crump, and equipped with three 18 tonne Munck self unloading gantry cranes. N.R. Crump was the first vessel to carry the new two tone green funnel colours of CP Ships, and ‘CP SHIPS’ was painted on their hulls.

CP Ships

In 1969, a ten year charter to carry logs across the Pacific for the Japanese paper making firm of C. Itoh was obtained, and an engines aft bulker of 15,925 dwt was completed at Osaka as Pacific Logger for the contract. Two sister bulkers of 57,138 dwt were completed for long term charter as T. Akasaka and W.C. van Horne, and three VLCCs of 250,000 dwt were completed to supply the new Point Tupper refinery in Nova Scotia with crude oil as Port Hawkesbury, T.G. Shaughnessy and I.D. Sinclair. A further thirty bulkers, product tankers, and chemical tankers of between 22,500 dwt and 65,000 dwt were newly built during the ten year period between 1973 and 1983 for long term charters. All were given the names of prominent men in CP history, or had ‘Fort’ or ‘Port’ prefixes to their names. The exceptions were three ore/oil carriers of 125,000 dwt completed in Japan in 1973/74 with nine holds to operate in either the coal trade from Hampton Roads to Europe, or the crude oil trade from the U.S. Gulf to Europort, and were named E.W. Beatty, D.C. Coleman and W.M. Neal after prominent men in CP history, E.W. Beatty being a former Chairman of CPS.

Canada Maritime Ltd. (CANMAR)

Canadian Pacific entered the Transatlantic container trade in 1971 with three ships of 707 TEU capacity in C P Voyageur, C P Trader and C P Discoverer, and with two converted Great Lakes general cargo ships in C P Ambassador (ex Beaveroak) and C P Explorer (ex Beaverpine). In 1981, CP Ships acquired a one third share of the Dart Container Line Ltd., which had been set up in 1970 by Bristol City Line, Bibby Brothers, Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB), and Clarke Traffic Services of Montreal in which CP held a substantial equity. Three container ships of 1,535 TEU capacity were initially completed as Dart Atlantic, Dart America and Dart Europe on the Tyne and in Belgium for the service between Hamburg and Southampton and New York and Hampton Roads. C.Y. Tung of Hong Kong built a fourth Dart container ship in 1978 as Dart Canada of 1,737 TEU capacity. Changes in the ownership of Dart Container Line then took place, with a reorganisation in 1981 as the Combined Container services (CCS) consortium. Dart America was renamed as Manchester Challenge (the Furness, Withy ship), Dart Atlantic was renamed as C P. Ambassador and demise chartered to Canadian Pacific, and Dart Canada was renamed as Canadian Explorer (the C.Y. Tung of Hong Kong ship).

In 1984, Canada Maritime Ltd (Canmar) was formed as a joint venture by CP Ships and CMB of Belgium. Their two container ships, Canmar Ambassador ex- Dart Atlantic and Canmar Europe ex Dart Europe, operated in a four vessel service alongside Manchester Challenge, the Manchester Liners (Furness, Withy) vessel, and Canadian Explorer, the C.Y. Tung vessel. Later, Tung operated his own OOCL ships across the Atlantic in competition with Canmar. Canmar funnel colours were white with ‘Canmar’ in black above a red flag. Canadian Pacific had an extensive fleet of bulkers and tankers at this time, however their profits were beginning to slump in line with freight rates. CP was chiefly seen as a railway company, and a shedding process was begun in 1984 and concluded in 1990, when it owned no ships.

The original ‘CP’ trio of smaller container ships with ‘CP’ names dating from 1971 were now owned by financial investing groups and managed by BCP Ship Management Ltd. (Barber Canadian Pacific). In 1992, Canmar Maritime was operating a fleet of five container ships on services from a range of European ports that included Hamburg, Lisbon and Mediterranean ports, carrying 200,000 TEU per annum. A year later, Canadian Pacific gained full control of Canmar by purchasing the shares held by CMB, and it introduced another Transatlantic service this time to Le Havre via Liverpool. In 1994, Canmar was operating a larger fleet of ten container ships on the North Atlantic. A year later, an aggressive expansion policy was implemented by Canadian Pacific which saw nine further shipping companies with container services throughout the world taken over during the next seven years.

These nine were :-

CAST (1983) LTD. in 1985

LYKES LINES in 1997

CONTSHIP LINE in 1997

IVARAN LINE in 1998

ANZDL in December 1998

AMERICANA LINE in 1999

TMM of MEXICO in 2000

CCAL of Norway in 2000

ITALIA LINE in 2002

Canadian Pacific Finale

The total owned fleet of CP Ships in 2002 was sixty container ships, with another twenty ships on charter. However, none were registered under CP Ships, instead they were registered under the nine subsidiaries listed above. CP Ships handled a big total of almost two million TEU of containers during 2004, and was ranked as the eleventh largest container group in the world. Canadian Pacific also owned extensive railway, hotel and petroleum interests at this time as well as the Montreal Container Terminal. The strategy of CP Ships was to maintain separate identities for its many shipping lines, a strategy that was partly rectified when a new ‘CP’ nomenclature was adopted in 2005 for the eighty owned and chartered ships. Fifty two ships had been renamed with ‘CP’ names by November 2005 when Hapag of Germany took over CP Ships to make it the fifth largest container line in the world. Nearly all of these ships adopted Hapag names ending in ‘Express’ and removed all reference to CP Ships. Thus, after 125 years of operation of a very large fleet of deep sea ships and Canadian coastal ferries, Canadian Pacific ceased to own or operate ships.

Some 45 container ships of the last fleet operated in 2005 with ‘CP’ prefixes to their names are still trading today for other owners, together with a dozen container ships that used the prefix ‘Canmar’ to their names. CPR are still very much in evidence in the railroad, hotel, and travel businesses. However, their distinctive red and white chequerboard houseflag, as well as that of the Beaver Line featuring the iconic Canadian beaver, have long been consigned to maritime history.