The Canadian Pacific passenger liner Empress of Ireland was rammed by the Norwegian freighter Storstad in a dense fog in the St. Lawrence River near Rimouski, Quebec on May 29, 1914. She sank in 14 minutes with the loss of 1,014 lives. Clayton Burt, a Toronto businessman and one of the 465 survivors, wrote in his deposition to the official inquiry:"There were no boats in the water...I got over the rail and commenced to scramble down towards the water. I heard a rumbling noise like a small explosion inside the vessel then she began to settle very fast and I jumped into the water...but when I had got about eight feet from the side she suddenly disappeared. I was carried down by the suction... " RG 42, vol. 229, file 35532 |