Empress of Australia

[shipstamps]

EMPRESS OF AUSTRALIA 21,850t.
A handsome and luxurious liner launched in 1913 as Tirpitz, the largest of a trio ordered by the Hamburg–American Line for a new River Plate service. They were designed as miniature Vaterlands and the two effective funnels similarly split at main-deck level. Tirpitz, however, had novel machinery—turbines with hydraulic transformers conveying the power to the propeller-shafts. An oft repeated story that the German
Emperor ordered completion in 1916 to serve as his yacht is fictitious, the truth being that work was temporarily resumed with a view to fitting out as a naval hospital ship. She was surrendered to Great Britain and bought by the Canadian Pacific, July 1921, for transpacific employment. The new owners named her Empress of Australia and altered the coal-fired furnaces to burn oil. Weight of the superstructure made the carriage of 1000 tons of permanent ballast necessary.
In the Pacific the unusual main machinery proved most unsatisfactory. The designed service-speed of 17 knots could not be maintained and fuel consumption was excessive. The liner was therefore brought home and sent to the Fairfield yard for re-engining with single-reduction geared turbines and fitting new boilers. These alterations raised speed to about 181 knots and cut oil expenditure from 205 tons a day to 150. Empress of Australia was re-allocated to the Southampton–Cherbourg–Quebec route with a first voyage, May 1927. Re-engining had been accompanied by conversion of propellers to inward-turning, a change which saved a little fuel but made her a very difficult ship to manoeuvre. By 1933 accommodation had been modified and regraded to give a passenger complement of 387 First Class, 394 Tourist and 358 Third.
Empress of Britain of 1931 became her partner on the Canadian mail service and from that date Empress of Australia operated on the tightest of schedules in order to fit in as best she could with the 24-knot newcomer. This left her without any reserve speed. In May 1939 she took the Royal Family to Canada and a much delayed arrival at Quebec became inevitable when she ran into heavy fog. Four months later Empress of Australia, last survivor of the ex-German liners under the British flag, was converted to a troop-transport and she continued in this capacity until sold to shipbreakers in 1952.
Western Ocean Passenger Liners Cmdr C R Vernon Gibbs RN
Tristan da Cunha SG554