I think one of the reasons the Titanic gained so much noteriety compared to much more brutal sinkings such as the Empress' is entirely down to how easy it is to romanticize her demise. With the Empress, you can't tell any stories of triumph or bravery or old loves deciding to die together. The band didn't play until the end. The women and children died, same as the men. There was no dramatic rescue ship steaming through a field of 'bergs to help the survivors. These people drowned like trapped rats in a metal coffin, in so little time that most barely had time to exit their cabins, nevermind make it onto the deck. You can't make movies or plays about a horror story like this without feeling the finality of Death creeping up your spine, and it feels like a desecration of a mass-grave to even try to make up fiction in the face of such a terrifying reality. This sinking makes me feel so very small and scared, and I'm simply watching a video about it on TH-cam. Had this been my loved ones' final moments, I might, too, want to prefer to speak of happier things, to preserve the memory of their lives rather than wonder how lost and scared they must've been at the end. I hope these poor souls found peace, or was given a happier life in their next go-around. With a death like this, they deserve as much.
And it wasn't boasted to be "indestructible" like the Titanic was. Titanic was made out to be this impossibly huge, luxurious ship that couldn't be destroyed, so when it hit the iceberg, it showed the hubris of man. With Lusitania, they didn't tout it as indestructible, and I'm assuming they didn't with the Empress. Still, they need to share the Empress' story more, because the way the crew handled things and got all those boats out, yeah it's depressing, but it's a remarkable feat of humanity.
The Titanic 's situation was very unique. There were not enough lifeboats but it was one of the rare insrances where lifeboats were actually useful for evecucuation. At that time, boarding a lifeboat was considered death
I looked this up and read that Captain Kendall was picked up by a nearby lifeboat after he was thrown overboard as the Empress tumbled into the sea, then rowed survivors back to the Storstad, which was floating in the near distance. After unloading the passengers, and before he headed back out to pick up more survivors, he stormed up to the bridge and yelled to Captain Anderson, "You have sunk my ship!" I can't imagine the fury on his face.
Anderson was lucky Kendall didn’t try to kill him, and however loyal Anderson’s crew was, under the circumstances, they probably would’ve only made a half-hearted effort to restrain Kendall…
@@Fred_the_1996 No, it was complete negligence of Kendall to stop. You´re not supposed to stop in the fog because you lose all maneuverability of the ship and cannot react to circumstances like in this case. If he followed the book, nothing would happen.
My mom told me about a man that had survived the sinking of the Titanic and then survived the sinking of the Empress of Ireland. I don’t think I would be willing to get on another ship after that.
I have to commend the crew for such quick action. Only 6 of the lifeboats were able to get away, but that’s still impressive considering the very small timetable the crew were given.
Lifeboats 1, 3, 9, and 13 were launched in quick succession. Lifeboat 5 was released and cleared the ship as it was rolling over. Lifeboat 15 at the stern was lowered but capsized and ended up floating away upside down. Lifeboat 11 was launched but it was unable to clear the ship and ended up getting crushed as the ship was rolling over. Lifeboat 7 was not swung out until late in the sinking and was dragged under as the crew were trying to launch it. None of the port boats made it due to the Empress quickly developing a severe list to starboard after the collision, rendering the davits on that side useless.
WW1 overshadowing the disaster is usually cited as the reason it was almost forgotten, but considering how many Titanic survivors stayed silent about such a protracted, gentler sinking, I wonder if the speed and violence of the Empress played more into the silence than typically assumed. Titanic had social etiquette preserved almost to the end, prioritizing the most vulnerable, while the Empress had it shattered almost instantly. -Titanic's children had a 50% chance of survival, the Empress' had a 3% chance. -75% of women survived Titanic, but that dropped to 13% on the Empress
@@Reticulating-Splines absolutely! A lot of women and children in Titanic's lifeboats didn't know they were widowed or fatherless until rescue, whereas there was no hiding that with the Empress. I don't know if I'd be able to recall the latter experience without breaking down, it was probably easier for survivors to avoid the topic entirely.
It's unsurprising if not many people wanted to talk about this after having been through it. I certainly wouldn't. By 1918 everyone in Canada and Britain was emotionally wounded anyway, and the WASP custom is to be quiet about your trauma. It would be interesting to read a social history of how people dealt with grief in the era between the wars.
I don't think there was even enough time for the social order to break down. The ship was plunged into darkness only after 6 minutes, listing heavily, sunk in a cold water, in a fog. Either you were lucky enough to be in a place where you could survive or you weren't. Most women and children were deep in ship's steerage, unless they reacted extremely quickly, they were doomed.
@@misarthim6538 I imagine women were far less likely to survive this fast sinking because A. They were probably less likely to be the one who would have gotten up to 'go see what was going on', especially if they had children, and especially given they were likely in nightclothes B. They had children and either would have been slowed by them, or refused to leave them (I'm sure some men were affected in the same way, but there were probably a lot fewer men traveling with children than women, especially given the contingent of Salvation Army men) C: If they had to climb steep angles on stairs or the side of ships they were probably less prepared to do so, not strong enough, or hampered by old fashioned clothing D: Given the dire situation and panic, self preservation likely won out in some cases and women were probably less likely to win a struggle to push through crowded spaces E: Perhaps hampered by heavier clothing in the water, or less stamina in the water All just theories, would be interested to know if there is any historical evidence or research
@@deu274 One of the Titanic survivors said years later that they couldn't stand being near a stadium because the screaming of that many people reminded him of that night.
The fact that they launched anything and save over 200 people is still pretty amazing when you account for a 14-minute sinking. It takes humans that much time just to analyze a situation and plan. To have launched boats and gotten anyone out of there is a miracle and speaks to the competency of at least some of the crew.
6:01 Considering that this took place just 2 years after the Titanic, I'm surprised any of the passengers thought leaving the deck and going back to their cabins was a good idea. It's crazy how fast this all happened.
The Titanic took 2.5 hours to sink, so maybe they thought they had time to go back and prepare, not knowing that both boilers were taken out and the lights were about to go out. I think in times of chaos and panic, people go through 'stages of grief' almost. A lot of these people were probably still confused, in shock, and in denial that this could even happen let alone the entire ship sink in 14 minutes. I don't know what I would do in that situation, if I was even lucky enough to be on the deck to where I even had a chance of survival.
They did go through the stages of grief. Originally those were defined for people experiencing their own mortality ( terminal illness, etc...) before be co-opted to a wider scope of grief. So yes those people were experiencing real denial, anger, bargaining stages.
all in 14 minutes, it take me a ten minutes to realized I was in accident and this happen in broad daylight. I imagine in darkness and among panic crowds, it's very confusing to figure out what happened. Also there's wasn't fb or social media back then, pretty sure nobody actually knew the details about how Titanic sank or somebody aware to make PSA on how to survive a sinking ship....
I imagine it takes a special type of person to have traveled by boat *at all* right after the Titanic; then again, it's not like they knew how dangerous it was back then compared to now.
It's one thing to hear she sank in 14 minutes, but totally another to actually see and feel how fast the sinking actually took place. I can't imagine how terrifying it was for so many to be sleeping peacefully one moment and having to fight for their lives the very next! May they rest in peace. Another job exceptionally well done!
And for the crew to launch 5 lifeboats in 14 minutes, this should be more discussed with shipwrecks. It took Titanic an hour to launch the first lifeboat despite knowing the ship was going to sink in an hour, 2 at most. The Empress Crew launched 5 in just 14 minutes while lurching to the side. That's incredible.
@@ko7577The crew of the Empress of Ireland knew she was going to sink the moment the SS Storsad (i think thats the name) created a giant gash in the mid section. The Titanic's crew saw the iceberg go past and maybe a very small amount might have seen the iceberg hit but again very few. It took a while to walk around the *BIGGEST SHIP IN THE WORLD AT THE TIME* and when they knew that Titanic was doomed they wasted no time in preparing and launching the lifeboats. I am one of those people who belive more lifeboats would've resulted in a bigger loss of life becuase they had 1hour & 50 minutes to launch 20 lifeboats. They launched 15 without incident. (Collapsible C/D was scrpaing along the hull the entire time it was being launched. Lifeboat 15 nearly crushed 13 and Collapsibles A & B had to be floated off) and couldn't launch the last two. Also considering the fact that nearly nobody wanted to leave the Titanic they were told, "It was just a lifeboat drill." Think for a moment that you were told to leave your house as a safety precaution whilst a blizzard was going on outside; you would be reluctant to leave the warmth of your house. I kind of waffled a bit but overall you can't Co pare the Titnaic to the Empress of Ireland.
@@ko7577 Yes five lifeboats is very fast. I wonder if the lusitania that sank in 20 minutes got as many away. A ship twice the size but not sure how many it got away.
Stands in stark contrast to another shipwreck that had over 10X the amount of time from collision to submerged and saved a SMALLER percentage of their passengers (looking at you Titanic)
@@brittn2410 Yeah, there was a major outrage over the lack of adequate lifeboats on the Titanic at the time, which prompted them to change regulations with the establishment of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in 1914, which still governs maritime safety to this day.
@@mr.battle20 it wasn’t just the lack of lifeboats with titanic. It was also that the whole evacuation was disorganized and chaotic. The lifeboats were leaving without being at capacity and not all the life boats were even deployed. Had titanic possessed a life boat seat for every passenger aboard, it wouldn’t have saved even one life because of how inefficiently the evacuation was conducted so that even the resources that they did have were not exhausted.
@@brittn2410exactly. Also, since the Titanic was constantly marketed as being “unsinkable”, many people on board were not taking evacuation seriously. others thought the ship still had time until it went down completely, so waiting on the deck was preferable to waiting on the lifeboats for help to arrive
@@brittn2410 the rich people demanded that their lifeboats not be filled i bet they had nightmares for the rest of their lives ...whoever of them had souls that is
There was a Spanish ocean liner called Príncipe de Astúrias, the most luxurious Spanish ship at the time, that sank near Brazil. It was a foggy day around 4:00 in the morning, and the captain only realized way too late they were too close to the coast, and the sea was also rough on that day. She crashed against the reefs and opened a hole from stem to stern. The water reached directly the boilers, that exploded, and caused a failure in the electrical system, making it impossible for them to call for help. She sank in only 5 minutes. There was no time for even thinking on launching the lifeboats. From the nearly 600 people aboard, they rescued 143, I guess, but rumour has it that more than 1000 people died, as some speculate the ship was taking immigrants in secret, fleeding from the was (she sank in 1916). Sometimes I think I'd like to see an animation of her sinking, sometimes I don't, it was hard enough watching this one of the Empress, and I can only imagine the despair and fear the people who actually faced these situations could have felt in those moments. May the souls of all those who died on the sea rest in peace.
That does sound horrible. Crashing into a rocky shore is one of the worse fates. Like the SS Atlantic. To die so close from safety is somehow extra sad, to me anyway. And even if you get a boat off, it's likely to be smashed on the rocks and kill everyone, like the boats of the SS Atlantic.
You'd think there'd be more survivors it being on the shore, but no one can fight the sea when she's ferocious hey. 5 minutes of fear before dying is probably better than 14 minutes though.
What I’m learning from shipwreck videos is: always pay to be higher up. Always. Paying for first class on an airplane doesn’t make you safer in a crash, but paying for an upper deck on a ship GREATLY increases your chances in a sinking.
actually cruise ships now typically keep their lifeboats on lower levels - every cruise I’ve been on we have to walk DOWN several flights of stairs to get to the boats
@@paigeh.9208 that’s concerning. Wouldn’t they be concerned about the lifeboats sinking with the ship before you can load them if they’re so much closer to the waterline?
@@brittn2410 moder cruise ships now use their lifeboats as tenders/ferries for excursions and island visits. It's also important to remember how much taller modern cruise ships are when compared to ocean liners. From the top to the water line you're looking at about 15 stories, so it's safer and faster to have the boats at the bottom of the superstructure.
@@brittn2410 It helps with an issue 3rd class passangers on the Titanic faced: being too far from the lifeboats. It's better to have them closer to the center of the ship than the top simply because passangers can all reach them faster that way
The RMS Lusitania's sinking (which was the Olympic and Titanic's rival) is even more impressive, it sank in 18 minutes after getting torpedoed, for a ship that is nearly the size of the Titanic, it sank in under 20 minutes which is unbelievably quick
My great-grandfather's first family went down in this sinking. I read about it in his diary but being able to see it through this animation is surreal. Thank you for this.
I think the more horrifying story I read about this sinking is where a trapped family handed their two children out the porthole to people standing on the hull. The parents couldn't fit through the porthole and inevitably died as the ship sank
8:02 is terrifying. Many of the passengers below decks must have seen that as their last view, the lights flickering out and making escape all but impossible...
Imagine being asleep and waking up to a loud bang but in your barely awake state, you decide it was nothing and return to sleep. The last thing you would have experienced is being submerged in bitterly cold water in your pitch black cabin. Confused, terrified, helpless and doomed.
Being sleep one second then dying so randomly and suddenly has to suck just as much as I imagine it does. I guess overall they didn’t suffer, but I feel like I would want to wake up and then die.
I can't begin to imagine the horror of being stuck inside one of the hallways trying to make it to deck before it suddenly goes pitch black. It's filling me with dread.
Don't watch. I personally feel that God never intended man to take to the seas. The seas belong to the creatures that reside within them. Observe how the mighty Orcas are attacking the shop rudders now, and destroying the yachts of the rich. The sea belongs not to us. We were given the Land, and did, somehow, manage to mess that up. With our plastics and human waste we foul the sea.
I've never heard of this tragedy before. This is a magnificent animation of this tragic event. You deserve every one of the millions of views this will get.
I’ve known about this since I was a teenager but that’s because I am a ship (mainly ocean liner) fanatic. No one I’ve ever spoken to about the Empress of Ireland (other than ship enthusiasts) has known anything about this tragedy but everyone has known about “Titanic” of course which has received all the publicity.
For some context, the St. Lawrence is essentially an oceanic river (there are two different words in French for seaways like it and rivers) more akin to the English Channel than most inland rivers. You can’t just swim to shore easily, and with the fog and darkness, plus the fact that the passengers would have been unfamiliar with the area, you couldn’t know where the shore was. It is also very rocky and not conducive to swimming or getting out of the water. Women especially were weighted down by heavy clothes (not to mention would have been more likely to be asleep, less likely to know how to swim, and more likely to be caring for children). Children would not be able to swim it at all. People on the shore were asleep and couldn’t see either to help once they woke up. Absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking. All things considered, that 465 people survived is miraculous. It was a very unfortunate accident. Yes, one can try to assign blame, but that isn’t about to bring anyone back from the dead, nor is it likely to prevent a similar accident in the future. Obviously, coming up with better protocols is important, but one doesn’t need blame for that.
@@jonathanparle8429 Tbh even then, in that water temp, with how far they would have had to swim, I literally dont think even a professional swimmer could manage it.
@@connorbranscombe6819 Excellent point. The water was very cold and no one was prepared for it. The cold temp would have taken one's breath away at first contact. It would be difficult for even strong swimmers to have made it very far--a few hundred meters maybe?
@@Neal_Schier A professional and experienced cold water swimmer might be able to do more, but yeah I doubt they make it even 1 kilometre from tbe wreckage, feel like your best hope would be clinging to some piece of debris and praying for a boat.
I can't think of many other or more horrifying experiences than trying to escape a rapidly capsizing & sinking ship, and then the lights go out. The confusion, disorientation, terror, and panic are dreadful to imagine; helpless to escape death😰
It is honestly amazing that a third of the people survived this sinking given the small amount of time from impact to the point where getting out of the ship was impossible. If at 10 minutes it started to turn over, and at just 4-5 minutes it lost illumination... Well, I think that speaks for itself!
It's incredible! My Great Auntie went down on the Empress. It was so important for me to experience this and know what she went through. I am so grateful that I watched this and the video on the anniversary! It means a great deal to me! Thank you so much Mr.Brady! I love all of your videos!❤❤❤
@@LITTLE1994 Awww!😇You're so sweet! How lovely of you to take time out of your day to leave such a nice comment. Your kindness touched my heart! Our family thinks of my Great Aunt every day. Her remains are still inside of the Empress. My family fervently hope and pray that she passed as peacefully and as quickly as possible. But sadly, it seems as though no one who were trapped deep inside of the ship, sleeping or awake, were able to leave this world in peace. 😔In which case, we can only hope that it was very fast, and that the passangers who were not awoken by the Storstad piercing and gutting the precious Empress, weren't terribly alert when the ship was in her death throes. Obviously that is wishful thinking because the alternative is so unimaginable, so terrifying, and so hopelessely claustrophobic, and so desperate, that I would have taken a big deep breath to drown faster because of the complete unconscionable abject terror. If it were me, the fear and anguish would be insufferable. Personally, I wouldn't be able to stand it. But that's me!
Dang I am a survivor myself and I remembered her being trapped behind this gate and was wondering if I should have saved her, I felt like in that situation that I shouldn't have and left her. RIP cuz
It's insane how much of the ships have sank by starboard side. Titanic hit the iceberg on starboard side, Lusitania was torpedoed on starboard side, Britannic hit the explosion mine on starboard side, and this Empress of Ireland was rammed on starboard side as well. Very sad to all of the ship tragedies and all the lives lost. May they rest in peace. Such a great animation video, good job team.
Absolutely nightmarish stuff. Imagine the fear and confusion of hearing all around you screaming as you're all being swallowed by the abyss, in the dark, in the cold, knowing you'll be dead soon and so will your loved ones. Knowing you're just one among many, and none will be saved, in a way, you're completely alone. And if you're one of the last to go, you'll live enough to realize all the screams fading, the night becoming quieter, until only the sounds of the wind and the water can be heard... That night must have been absolute and utter hell. Also, amazing job by the people who put this video together, I should be sleeping rn, hope this doesn't give me a nightmare.
This reminds me a little of that Titanic real time sinking animation. It's terrifying to think that this ship sank so quickly and so suddenly. Rest in peace to all the victims of this disaster
This was breathtaking. Although there have been RT sinkings made for RMS Empress of Ireland in the past years, only this one made it really close as it could have looked like. I watched it in a true terror. It was so quick, I can't imagine how horrifying disaster it must have been. Great that such a video was made, it was really needed and this tragedy really deserves more attention. Not only Titanic have sunk. I'll tell it once again - this is what I love YT for.
Absolutely horrifying, I could not imagine the sheer terror everyone was feeling. May those poor souls Rest In Peace. Shoutout to the crew for doing all they could in such a short time
Sometimes I think about how fun it would be to go on a cruise to an island or Alaska or something but then I watch videos like this and think to myself “you sure you want to do that?”. That’s beyond terrifying.
Mike, you did an outstanding job on this animation. The sounds, the graphics, the lighting, everything about this is just so perfect. You really outdid yourself here, Mike! Hope to see more real time animations, like a Britannic one, I don’t think there are that many of those around. Anyway, just wanted to congratulate you and the team for all the hard work you put into this, and believe me, it certainly paid off! - Wesley
Another disaster within the US you might find interesting is the capsizing of the Eastland in Chicago on July 24, 1915 - killing ~900 people right there at the dock. The cause of the capsizing? A large number of passengers apparently rushed to the river side of the Eastland to watch ships go by. (edit) The ship was ruled unstable in a hearing. So you had an unstable ship, and a sudden shift of a majority of passengers over to the river side. The two things together caused her to roll. The Eastland was bought by the Navy and converted into a military training ship and renamed USS Wilmette. She served without further incident until her scrapping after World War II.
@@Yu-hx5jo for whatever reason I was a bit too brief on the original post - have since edited. The ship was ruled unstable in the follow-up investigation. So it was a combination of unstable ship and a rush of passengers to the river side.
Very frightening. This was the ship that brought my G-Grandmother and Grandfather to Canada, from the U.K., in the October of 1906, four months after her maiden voyage. Thank you for posting.
Its actually a testament to the discipline and skill of her crew that they manged to get anyone off the boat at all. The conditions were clearly, shall we say. . . Less than ideal. That said, very well done on the recreation. I feel like I'm really there, its horrifying.
I watched the Documentary that you made on this, and it shook me. Many of these deaths are terribly painful and difficult to think about. That was an awful night for those passengers and crew on that ship.
If I were one of those survivors, I would have been greatly terrified just hearing how it rapidly transitioned from deafening screams of help to absolute silence as the passengers just helplessly sink in the cold and deep.
The fog's timing couldn't have been worse. When it came, the Empress was in the middle of a maneuver where she had to take a long turn to starboard, before turning back to port to straighten out. The Storstad saw the Empress turning across its bow just as the fog came in, making the crew think the Empress was going to make a conventional port-to-port passing, and so it turned to its own starboard to make this happen, not knowing the Empress was turning back to port at the same moment, putting them on a collision course. If the fog had come just a few minutes earlier, the Storstad wouldn't have seen the long starboard turn of the Empress, and had it come a few minutes later, the full maneuver would've been completed, and the Storstad would've kept its regular course.
Just imagine being the crew on the storstad, you thought that you would be able to pass right by but then your ship rams the empress and you can’t do anything but watch as it fades in the fog and listen to the screams of the victims
I was wondering the why of this bit, cheers, was thinking it's obs not an international law of the sea for everyone to stop in fog, so they thought she was turning to pass then. Long time before radar too huh.
this reminds me of the two airplanes crashing at the airport because one of the pilots had a huge ego and thought he could still fly even though it was extremely foggy
@@mywifesboyfriend5558 Alas, I fear you’re right. Maybe some were fortunate enough to suffer a blow to the head that rendered them unconscious but they would have been few.
Great video, Mike! Best Empress of Ireland sinking animation I have ever seen. Unfortunately, I just don’t believe the Empress was stationary during the collision. The river currents doesn’t seem strong enough to dislodge the Storstad from the Empress so soon after it plunged 25 feet into the Empress’ hull and then drift so far away. Some documentaries I have seen suggest that the Empress was slowing down at the time of the collision - had momentum - which is consistent with the testimony of the Stordstad’s crew that the Empress was moving when the collision occurred. This would explain why the Storstad quickly dislodged herself from the Empress and why she drifted so far away after the collision as if the river currents were responsible for the dislodge and the drift, she probably would have only drifted to just aft of her stern or at a distance where her lights could still be seen in the fog.
It's not controversial that her engines had been restarted and she was making some amount of headway. The issue is if she was stopped when the Storstad appeared out of the fog. If she was moving already there may have been a chance to maneuver but stopped there wasn't. Besides her telegraph has been recovered and shows Full Ahead as do the telegraphs in the engine room. She was making some speed and the engines where near full power, which doesn't take long, provided you have a full head of steam. They handle a bit different than diesels, simce the power comes from the boilers. You open the valve and full power hits the engine and it rapidly climbs to full rpm. While a diesel starts out with more torque from a standstill a steam engine rapidly gains torque as rpm increases, so once it gets going (easy on a ship, less so on a locomotive) it has full power in some amount of seconds. Call it 10 seconds or so. A diesel has to both make the energy and convert it. A steam engine converts readily available heat energy into kinetic energy.
The fact that not a lot of people know about this is sad. Had this happened maybe a year or so prior, it would've been more well known instead of being overshadowed by WW1
Very reminiscent of what happened to SS Admiral Nakhimov…only that sinking took even less time. Such an unimaginable horrible situation. Thank you for your great work, Mr. Brady.
i dont think people quite understand just how horrific this event was, and thats very understandable given the 100+ year timespan. But i still think its important to remember all those people that died on this ship. they deserve to be remembered for the real people they where. RIP and thank goodness for radar , AIS and radios.
I started to watch this video and decided to make a cup of tea. I had finished and delivered a cup to my wife as the ship went under the water. That is so fast that you needed to know where your cabin is, where you needed to be and how to get there in the dark. Most didn't! I watched the full video on Sunday and this was another chance to see the animation. Considering that this hasn't been produced by a large professional digital vfx team, the renderings are very good. Mike et al have done really well and probably done it in a fraction of the time.
I stumbled on your channel by shear luck, not long ago. I’ve been a fan ever since. As a closet ship/sailing fan, I find your vids absolutely fantastic. I’ve not seen a single one that wasn’t top notch. You sir, do a fantastic job…in a very simple, easy manner. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for how you do it. Subscribed? Lol. Absolutely! Keep it up! Please.
My mom was the Salvation Army of Canada’s official historian and an amateur historian of Canadian Salvation Army history before that. She knew everything about this and regularly gave lectures on it. She was very concerned about divers who wanted to explore the bring up artifacts from the wreck and regularly had to advocate for leaving the site alone since it is the gravesite for a lot of people. The Canadian Salvation Army lost a lot of people in this wreck , including a lot of the Canadian SA leaders. It was travelling to England and was the only way for Canadian SA people to reach the International Congress at the time. I think she even insisted that the divers return the ship’s wheel to the ship. Not sure what they did. I really disagree with taking artifacts from shipwrecks. Unless the family of the person who is involved specifically requests it. Otherwise, it is desecrating a graveyard.
Mike, you continue to impress! The way the lights of Storstad slowly pierce the fog is just haunting. Beautifully annimated. Must have been a nightmare.
You wake up in the middle of a chaotic scene of people running and screaming in the hallways, jump out of bed and make your way out onto the deck where you have only 5 minutes to make a choice between fighting for lifeboat space, jumping in the icy cold water, and staying onboard for however long the ship remains afloat. Frightening moment, only heightened by the Empress' industrial moan as she staggers to stay upright. Good work on this rendering and may those who perished find peace.
I know this sounds harsh, but the people on the Titanic didn't know how lucky they were that their ship managed to stay afloat for over 2.5 hours after collision.
The echoed howling of the ship sounds so haunting, like the ship herself is crying in pain before drowning. I can't even imagine the stress of being a passenger startled out of my sleep, realizing the ship is sinking, and rushing for my life to get onto a lifeboat only to be thrown into the water anyway. 💔
In 1973, my next door neighbour in Aylmer, Quebec told my family and me that he swam for his life and survived. He said he remembered the coal dust between his toes when he got on the deck of the coal ship the EoI had struck.
3:25 At first I thought that was a rescue ship (I’m not too familiar with this incident) and was horrified when it plowed RIGHT THROUGH the Empress! That was shocking
Wow, this video and the last one about the Empress of Ireland are really excellent. I had read about the disaster before but wasn't able to visualize the terror of it until now. The videos really encapsulate the horrifying events of that night. This one in particular as there's no voice-over narration, so the eerie silence and then the sound of the screaming just gives you goosebumps. Nonetheless, we can only begin to imagine how truly terrifying it must have been. Thank you for this brilliant and moving content ❤
Well done Mike to you and the team that put this together! I've been on 14 cruises and couldn't begin to imagine if this happened to me! Even though we have more stringent safety measures today, I think back to the most recent sinking of a cruise ship, the "Costa Concordia". Thanks for doing this Mike....Cheers from across the pond!
I've just stumbled on your channel on the last day or so and i gotta tell ya... I'm REALLY enjoying the heck out of these. Very cool content and very informative. Keep em coming!
I am deeply saddened. And may the victims and relatives have found peace! But many thanks and respect for the dignified simulation of an almost forgotten catastrophe!
The real-time animation really portrays how terrifyingly rapid the ships sinking was. The fact that even six boats managed to be prepared, loaded and launched is actually an impressive feat from the crew. To do that while their ship rolls out from under them so fast shows a high degree of skill and discipline. A less well-drilled crew might not have coped and seen even more lives lost.
@@emerybonner7973 So why the pedantry then? I was paying tribute to the crew that saved a lot of lives in such a short space of time. Meanwhile you're making tone-deaf comments arguing over whether 5 launches and a capsize does equal six or not. And even then, they still managed to prep, load, and ATTEMPT to launch six boats in extremely quick time.
Why did the Storstad not stop? Why did they keep moving despite the fog? Why did they not hear the whistles? Wouldn’t they have seen the Empress as they got closer, or could fog have really been so thick that they could avoid hitting the center of the ship? Were they held accountable? I have so many questions.
I've been on cruise, and 14 minutes seems alot of time, but it's amazing how many levels there are on a ship below decks, and how many people a ship can hold that need to get to the deck before getting off. Crazy the other ship didn't wait out the fog on a busy waterway like the St. Lawrence.
Two mentalities appear in such moments, the more prevalent being that of resistance to accepting the situation for what it is, failing to recognize nor even contemplate the possibility of impending danger. The far more important but rarer quality is that of responding correctly with both experience and instinct, acting immediately in a coordinated fashion to effect a directed response. It's these types of people that truly are the unsung heroes in such times.
Gentlemen, this portrayal was beyond extraordinary! Give yourselves much deserved high-fives for leaving this viewer feeling as though I was fully in that moment! Well done!
The Empress of Ireland was NOT stationary when the collision occurred. According to a 2005 Canadian television film, The Last Voyage of the Empress, "water tank replication of the incident indicated that Empress of Ireland could not have been stationary at the point of the collision, investigating the sinking with historical reference, model re-enactment, and underwater investigation. The program's opinion was that the cause of the incident appeared to be the fog, exacerbated by the actions of Captain Kendall. Both captains were in their own way telling the truth, but with Kendall omitting the expediency of commanding Empress of Ireland in such a way as to keep his company's advertised speed of Atlantic crossing. In order to pass Storstad (off Empress's starboard bow) to quickly expedite this maintenance of speed, Kendall, in the fog, turned to starboard (towards Storstad) as part of a manoeuvre to spin back to his previous heading to pass the other ship as originally intended on his starboard side, thereby avoiding what he saw as a time-wasting diversion from his preferred and fast route through the channel. When Captain Anderson of Storstad saw Empress of Ireland through the fog he thought, by seeing both Empress of Ireland's port and starboard lights during its manoeuvre, that Empress of Ireland was attempting to pass on the opposite side of Storstad than previously apparent and turned his ship to starboard to avoid a collision. However, Empress of Ireland turned to port to continue on its original time-saving heading; thus the bow to side collision. The conclusion of the programme was that both captains failed to abide by the condition that, on encountering fog, ships should maintain their heading, although the captain of Storstad deviated only after seeing the deviation of Empress of Ireland. It also indicated-through underwater observations of the ship's Engine order telegraph in the engine room-that Kendall's assertion that he gave the order to close watertight doors was probably not true."
![HIWWHEE | OHM [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OJJLtTLqLag/mqdefault.jpg)
I think one of the reasons the Titanic gained so much noteriety compared to much more brutal sinkings such as the Empress' is entirely down to how easy it is to romanticize her demise. With the Empress, you can't tell any stories of triumph or bravery or old loves deciding to die together. The band didn't play until the end. The women and children died, same as the men. There was no dramatic rescue ship steaming through a field of 'bergs to help the survivors. These people drowned like trapped rats in a metal coffin, in so little time that most barely had time to exit their cabins, nevermind make it onto the deck. You can't make movies or plays about a horror story like this without feeling the finality of Death creeping up your spine, and it feels like a desecration of a mass-grave to even try to make up fiction in the face of such a terrifying reality. This sinking makes me feel so very small and scared, and I'm simply watching a video about it on TH-cam. Had this been my loved ones' final moments, I might, too, want to prefer to speak of happier things, to preserve the memory of their lives rather than wonder how lost and scared they must've been at the end.
I hope these poor souls found peace, or was given a happier life in their next go-around. With a death like this, they deserve as much.
And it didn't sink on its maiden voyage which was the most incredible thing that happened to TITANIC..
Beautifully said..
And it wasn't boasted to be "indestructible" like the Titanic was. Titanic was made out to be this impossibly huge, luxurious ship that couldn't be destroyed, so when it hit the iceberg, it showed the hubris of man. With Lusitania, they didn't tout it as indestructible, and I'm assuming they didn't with the Empress.
Still, they need to share the Empress' story more, because the way the crew handled things and got all those boats out, yeah it's depressing, but it's a remarkable feat of humanity.
The Titanic 's situation was very unique. There were not enough lifeboats but it was one of the rare insrances where lifeboats were actually useful for evecucuation. At that time, boarding a lifeboat was considered death
Titanic the musicians didn't play to end
I looked this up and read that Captain Kendall was picked up by a nearby lifeboat after he was thrown overboard as the Empress tumbled into the sea, then rowed survivors back to the Storstad, which was floating in the near distance. After unloading the passengers, and before he headed back out to pick up more survivors, he stormed up to the bridge and yelled to Captain Anderson, "You have sunk my ship!" I can't imagine the fury on his face.
Yes, it was complete negligence not to stop
Hope he knocked his teeth out
Anderson was lucky Kendall didn’t try to kill him, and however loyal Anderson’s crew was, under the circumstances, they probably would’ve only made a half-hearted effort to restrain Kendall…
😊j
@@Fred_the_1996 No, it was complete negligence of Kendall to stop. You´re not supposed to stop in the fog because you lose all maneuverability of the ship and cannot react to circumstances like in this case. If he followed the book, nothing would happen.
I cannot imagine how terrifying it must have been, it sank in 14 minutes with no time to prepare. I hope all the souls rest in peace.
Admiral Nakhimov sank in only eight minutes after suffering a similar collision.
He only makes it even worse when your loved ones are on board.
It only makes it even worse knowing that your loved ones are still on board.
It's all sounds terrifying, to all souls lost at sea, I hope they all rest in peace
My mom told me about a man that had survived the sinking of the Titanic and then survived the sinking of the Empress of Ireland. I don’t think I would be willing to get on another ship after that.
I have to commend the crew for such quick action. Only 6 of the lifeboats were able to get away, but that’s still impressive considering the very small timetable the crew were given.
I thought lifeboat 7 was crushed by the first funnel but it turns out that it was one of the 6 to get away safely from the ship
Enough lifeboats but not enough time.
A third of the people onboard survived, which is a miracle in and of itself.
Lifeboats 1, 3, 9, and 13 were launched in quick succession. Lifeboat 5 was released and cleared the ship as it was rolling over. Lifeboat 15 at the stern was lowered but capsized and ended up floating away upside down. Lifeboat 11 was launched but it was unable to clear the ship and ended up getting crushed as the ship was rolling over. Lifeboat 7 was not swung out until late in the sinking and was dragged under as the crew were trying to launch it. None of the port boats made it due to the Empress quickly developing a severe list to starboard after the collision, rendering the davits on that side useless.
@@mariolee64 So lifeboat 15 is the other lifeboat that got away from the ship
WW1 overshadowing the disaster is usually cited as the reason it was almost forgotten, but considering how many Titanic survivors stayed silent about such a protracted, gentler sinking, I wonder if the speed and violence of the Empress played more into the silence than typically assumed. Titanic had social etiquette preserved almost to the end, prioritizing the most vulnerable, while the Empress had it shattered almost instantly.
-Titanic's children had a 50% chance of survival, the Empress' had a 3% chance.
-75% of women survived Titanic, but that dropped to 13% on the Empress
I'm sure many of the survivors had to watch family members and strangers die right in front of them as well.
@@Reticulating-Splines absolutely! A lot of women and children in Titanic's lifeboats didn't know they were widowed or fatherless until rescue, whereas there was no hiding that with the Empress. I don't know if I'd be able to recall the latter experience without breaking down, it was probably easier for survivors to avoid the topic entirely.
It's unsurprising if not many people wanted to talk about this after having been through it. I certainly wouldn't. By 1918 everyone in Canada and Britain was emotionally wounded anyway, and the WASP custom is to be quiet about your trauma. It would be interesting to read a social history of how people dealt with grief in the era between the wars.
I don't think there was even enough time for the social order to break down. The ship was plunged into darkness only after 6 minutes, listing heavily, sunk in a cold water, in a fog. Either you were lucky enough to be in a place where you could survive or you weren't. Most women and children were deep in ship's steerage, unless they reacted extremely quickly, they were doomed.
@@misarthim6538 I imagine women were far less likely to survive this fast sinking because
A. They were probably less likely to be the one who would have gotten up to 'go see what was going on', especially if they had children, and especially given they were likely in nightclothes
B. They had children and either would have been slowed by them, or refused to leave them (I'm sure some men were affected in the same way, but there were probably a lot fewer men traveling with children than women, especially given the contingent of Salvation Army men)
C: If they had to climb steep angles on stairs or the side of ships they were probably less prepared to do so, not strong enough, or hampered by old fashioned clothing
D: Given the dire situation and panic, self preservation likely won out in some cases and women were probably less likely to win a struggle to push through crowded spaces
E: Perhaps hampered by heavier clothing in the water, or less stamina in the water
All just theories, would be interested to know if there is any historical evidence or research
The groans of the hull and the screams of the helpless sent some serious chills down my spine. It must have been so horrifying.
@@deu274 One of the Titanic survivors said years later that they couldn't stand being near a stadium because the screaming of that many people reminded him of that night.
The fact that they launched anything and save over 200 people is still pretty amazing when you account for a 14-minute sinking. It takes humans that much time just to analyze a situation and plan. To have launched boats and gotten anyone out of there is a miracle and speaks to the competency of at least some of the crew.
400
Most of the people who survived were crew members
@@erwina4738 lol
@@erwina4738makes since considering how fast it sunk and that passengers had been asleep
Bada bing bada boom as James Cameron would say 😂
6:01 Considering that this took place just 2 years after the Titanic, I'm surprised any of the passengers thought leaving the deck and going back to their cabins was a good idea. It's crazy how fast this all happened.
The Titanic took 2.5 hours to sink, so maybe they thought they had time to go back and prepare, not knowing that both boilers were taken out and the lights were about to go out. I think in times of chaos and panic, people go through 'stages of grief' almost. A lot of these people were probably still confused, in shock, and in denial that this could even happen let alone the entire ship sink in 14 minutes. I don't know what I would do in that situation, if I was even lucky enough to be on the deck to where I even had a chance of survival.
Well if you travel with others it would make sense for one person to go up and check and then go back to the cabin, only there was no more time then.
They did go through the stages of grief. Originally those were defined for people experiencing their own mortality ( terminal illness, etc...) before be co-opted to a wider scope of grief. So yes those people were experiencing real denial, anger, bargaining stages.
all in 14 minutes, it take me a ten minutes to realized I was in accident and this happen in broad daylight. I imagine in darkness and among panic crowds, it's very confusing to figure out what happened. Also there's wasn't fb or social media back then, pretty sure nobody actually knew the details about how Titanic sank or somebody aware to make PSA on how to survive a sinking ship....
I imagine it takes a special type of person to have traveled by boat *at all* right after the Titanic; then again, it's not like they knew how dangerous it was back then compared to now.
It's one thing to hear she sank in 14 minutes, but totally another to actually see and feel how fast the sinking actually took place. I can't imagine how terrifying it was for so many to be sleeping peacefully one moment and having to fight for their lives the very next! May they rest in peace.
Another job exceptionally well done!
And for the crew to launch 5 lifeboats in 14 minutes, this should be more discussed with shipwrecks. It took Titanic an hour to launch the first lifeboat despite knowing the ship was going to sink in an hour, 2 at most. The Empress Crew launched 5 in just 14 minutes while lurching to the side. That's incredible.
Yes, this video is superbly done - and really frightening to watch.
Dude they already rested like for a while now, i think they are ready for another go.
@@ko7577The crew of the Empress of Ireland knew she was going to sink the moment the SS Storsad (i think thats the name) created a giant gash in the mid section. The Titanic's crew saw the iceberg go past and maybe a very small amount might have seen the iceberg hit but again very few. It took a while to walk around the *BIGGEST SHIP IN THE WORLD AT THE TIME* and when they knew that Titanic was doomed they wasted no time in preparing and launching the lifeboats.
I am one of those people who belive more lifeboats would've resulted in a bigger loss of life becuase they had 1hour & 50 minutes to launch 20 lifeboats. They launched 15 without incident. (Collapsible C/D was scrpaing along the hull the entire time it was being launched. Lifeboat 15 nearly crushed 13 and Collapsibles A & B had to be floated off) and couldn't launch the last two.
Also considering the fact that nearly nobody wanted to leave the Titanic they were told, "It was just a lifeboat drill." Think for a moment that you were told to leave your house as a safety precaution whilst a blizzard was going on outside; you would be reluctant to leave the warmth of your house.
I kind of waffled a bit but overall you can't Co pare the Titnaic to the Empress of Ireland.
@@ko7577 Yes five lifeboats is very fast. I wonder if the lusitania that sank in 20 minutes got as many away. A ship twice the size but not sure how many it got away.
They saved that many people in 14 minutes in the dark. That's impressive
Stands in stark contrast to another shipwreck that had over 10X the amount of time from collision to submerged and saved a SMALLER percentage of their passengers (looking at you Titanic)
@@brittn2410 Yeah, there was a major outrage over the lack of adequate lifeboats on the Titanic at the time, which prompted them to change regulations with the establishment of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in 1914, which still governs maritime safety to this day.
@@mr.battle20 it wasn’t just the lack of lifeboats with titanic. It was also that the whole evacuation was disorganized and chaotic. The lifeboats were leaving without being at capacity and not all the life boats were even deployed. Had titanic possessed a life boat seat for every passenger aboard, it wouldn’t have saved even one life because of how inefficiently the evacuation was conducted so that even the resources that they did have were not exhausted.
@@brittn2410exactly. Also, since the Titanic was constantly marketed as being “unsinkable”, many people on board were not taking evacuation seriously. others thought the ship still had time until it went down completely, so waiting on the deck was preferable to waiting on the lifeboats for help to arrive
@@brittn2410 the rich people demanded that their lifeboats not be filled i bet they had nightmares for the rest of their lives ...whoever of them had souls that is
There was a Spanish ocean liner called Príncipe de Astúrias, the most luxurious Spanish ship at the time, that sank near Brazil. It was a foggy day around 4:00 in the morning, and the captain only realized way too late they were too close to the coast, and the sea was also rough on that day. She crashed against the reefs and opened a hole from stem to stern. The water reached directly the boilers, that exploded, and caused a failure in the electrical system, making it impossible for them to call for help. She sank in only 5 minutes. There was no time for even thinking on launching the lifeboats. From the nearly 600 people aboard, they rescued 143, I guess, but rumour has it that more than 1000 people died, as some speculate the ship was taking immigrants in secret, fleeding from the was (she sank in 1916). Sometimes I think I'd like to see an animation of her sinking, sometimes I don't, it was hard enough watching this one of the Empress, and I can only imagine the despair and fear the people who actually faced these situations could have felt in those moments. May the souls of all those who died on the sea rest in peace.
That does sound horrible. Crashing into a rocky shore is one of the worse fates. Like the SS Atlantic. To die so close from safety is somehow extra sad, to me anyway. And even if you get a boat off, it's likely to be smashed on the rocks and kill everyone, like the boats of the SS Atlantic.
Screw resting in peace. These souls deserve a reroll
Y u lying
You'd think there'd be more survivors it being on the shore, but no one can fight the sea when she's ferocious hey. 5 minutes of fear before dying is probably better than 14 minutes though.
@@John-wu3pbLying? You know this is a real story right?
What I’m learning from shipwreck videos is: always pay to be higher up. Always. Paying for first class on an airplane doesn’t make you safer in a crash, but paying for an upper deck on a ship GREATLY increases your chances in a sinking.
actually cruise ships now typically keep their lifeboats on lower levels - every cruise I’ve been on we have to walk DOWN several flights of stairs to get to the boats
@@paigeh.9208 that’s concerning. Wouldn’t they be concerned about the lifeboats sinking with the ship before you can load them if they’re so much closer to the waterline?
@@brittn2410 moder cruise ships now use their lifeboats as tenders/ferries for excursions and island visits.
It's also important to remember how much taller modern cruise ships are when compared to ocean liners. From the top to the water line you're looking at about 15 stories, so it's safer and faster to have the boats at the bottom of the superstructure.
@@k.o.h3599and plus they got spot icebergs and ships from a distance right ?
@@brittn2410 It helps with an issue 3rd class passangers on the Titanic faced: being too far from the lifeboats.
It's better to have them closer to the center of the ship than the top simply because passangers can all reach them faster that way
The fact that 465 people (around 31%) managed to survive is impressive given the very short timeframe. Shoutout to the crew for being very effective.
shoutout? Yo bros, shoutout for being real homies as yo ship sank!
It was actually around 31% who survived (465/(465+1012)). Still pretty good, considering.
Shout to a bunch of dead people yo ! 🤘💯💯💯
@@sarahrobertson4629 the empress had 1057 passengers. Where did the 1012+465 come from???
@@jorelldye4346 Number who died (1012) plus number who lived (465). Passengers + crew, I assume.
My great great grandfather was a survivor of this tragedy. If he hadn’t survived, much of my family wouldn’t be here today.
Good for you he was fortunate.
What was his name ?
@@theogeffrelot983didn't happen
Same bro my great great grandfather was on this ship
Cheers 🍻
Can you prove that ?
It took only 14 minutes for a ship that size to sink. That’s absolutely terrifying.
Tbf it was a huge hole that was punched into the side of it by another ship
It's because the captain didn't close the watertight doors.
The RMS Lusitania's sinking (which was the Olympic and Titanic's rival) is even more impressive, it sank in 18 minutes after getting torpedoed, for a ship that is nearly the size of the Titanic, it sank in under 20 minutes which is unbelievably quick
Yup, big hole and steel is v heavy.
Bada bing bada boom as James Cameron would say 😂
My great-grandfather's first family went down in this sinking. I read about it in his diary but being able to see it through this animation is surreal. Thank you for this.
Couldn’t imagine how much pain your great-grandfather endured😢
Sorry to hear that
May him and his family rest in peace. Fly high 🙏
Scary that people read your diary after you die??
I think the more horrifying story I read about this sinking is where a trapped family handed their two children out the porthole to people standing on the hull. The parents couldn't fit through the porthole and inevitably died as the ship sank
Oh that’s terrible. I hope the thought of their children surviving eased the horror of their final minutes.
12:51 FELL
8:02 is terrifying. Many of the passengers below decks must have seen that as their last view, the lights flickering out and making escape all but impossible...
Imagine being asleep and waking up to a loud bang but in your barely awake state, you decide it was nothing and return to sleep. The last thing you would have experienced is being submerged in bitterly cold water in your pitch black cabin. Confused, terrified, helpless and doomed.
@@radscorpion8 it’s called awe. You can be completely enraptured and fascinated by something while still being upset about it.
@@radscorpion8
Considering your other comments on this video, you're just talking for yourself.
@@radscorpion8 Let's be honest, you are mentally Ill
@@radscorpion8it's a video not real life but based on real life
The ones that immediately died upon the first impact were indeed the lucky ones.
True
Being sleep one second then dying so randomly and suddenly has to suck just as much as I imagine it does. I guess overall they didn’t suffer, but I feel like I would want to wake up and then die.
Apart from the ones who survived
Someone was getting sloppy toppy. Then blam dead
@@Oinkiepiggy🙄🙄🙄🙄
I can't begin to imagine the horror of being stuck inside one of the hallways trying to make it to deck before it suddenly goes pitch black. It's filling me with dread.
Don't watch. I personally feel that God never intended man to take to the seas. The seas belong to the creatures that reside within them.
Observe how the mighty Orcas are attacking the shop rudders now, and destroying the yachts of the rich.
The sea belongs not to us. We were given the Land, and did, somehow, manage to mess that up.
With our plastics and human waste we foul the sea.
I've never heard of this tragedy before. This is a magnificent animation of this tragic event. You deserve every one of the millions of views this will get.
I’ve known about this since I was a teenager but that’s because I am a ship (mainly ocean liner) fanatic. No one I’ve ever spoken to about the Empress of Ireland (other than ship enthusiasts) has known anything about this tragedy but everyone has known about “Titanic” of course which has received all the publicity.
For some context, the St. Lawrence is essentially an oceanic river (there are two different words in French for seaways like it and rivers) more akin to the English Channel than most inland rivers. You can’t just swim to shore easily, and with the fog and darkness, plus the fact that the passengers would have been unfamiliar with the area, you couldn’t know where the shore was. It is also very rocky and not conducive to swimming or getting out of the water. Women especially were weighted down by heavy clothes (not to mention would have been more likely to be asleep, less likely to know how to swim, and more likely to be caring for children). Children would not be able to swim it at all. People on the shore were asleep and couldn’t see either to help once they woke up. Absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking.
All things considered, that 465 people survived is miraculous.
It was a very unfortunate accident. Yes, one can try to assign blame, but that isn’t about to bring anyone back from the dead, nor is it likely to prevent a similar accident in the future. Obviously, coming up with better protocols is important, but one doesn’t need blame for that.
in fact Calais to Dover is narrower than the Rimouski section where the Empress of Ireland sank
"Fleuve" isn't it?
@@jonathanparle8429 Tbh even then, in that water temp, with how far they would have had to swim, I literally dont think even a professional swimmer could manage it.
@@connorbranscombe6819 Excellent point. The water was very cold and no one was prepared for it. The cold temp would have taken one's breath away at first contact. It would be difficult for even strong swimmers to have made it very far--a few hundred meters maybe?
@@Neal_Schier A professional and experienced cold water swimmer might be able to do more, but yeah I doubt they make it even 1 kilometre from tbe wreckage, feel like your best hope would be clinging to some piece of debris and praying for a boat.
I can't think of many other or more horrifying experiences than trying to escape a rapidly capsizing & sinking ship, and then the lights go out. The confusion, disorientation, terror, and panic are dreadful to imagine; helpless to escape death😰
Thank you for your commitment to keeping history relevant. Even if there are sad parts to the history
Relevant?! History is always relevant!
What horrible irony....The Titanic had hours to evacuate, but not enough boats....the Empress had plenty of boats, but not nearly enough time...
Actually the titanic wouldn’t have had time to launch all its boats if it had enough anyways
It launched its last boat moments before going under
It is honestly amazing that a third of the people survived this sinking given the small amount of time from impact to the point where getting out of the ship was impossible. If at 10 minutes it started to turn over, and at just 4-5 minutes it lost illumination... Well, I think that speaks for itself!
It's incredible! My Great Auntie went down on the Empress. It was so important for me to experience this and know what she went through. I am so grateful that I watched this and the video on the anniversary! It means a great deal to me! Thank you so much Mr.Brady! I love all of your videos!❤❤❤
Im sorry for your family's loss. Bless your heart!
Sorry for your loss
@@khernandez46 I think a good number of years have passed since it happened. I doubt they are all miserable about it now 😂
@@LITTLE1994 Awww!😇You're so sweet! How lovely of you to take time out of your day to leave such a nice comment. Your kindness touched my heart! Our family thinks of my Great Aunt every day. Her remains are still inside of the Empress. My family fervently hope and pray that she passed as peacefully and as quickly as possible. But sadly, it seems as though no one who were trapped deep inside of the ship, sleeping or awake, were able to leave this world in peace. 😔In which case, we can only hope that it was very fast, and that the passangers who were not awoken by the Storstad piercing and gutting the precious Empress, weren't terribly alert when the ship was in her death throes. Obviously that is wishful thinking because the alternative is so unimaginable, so terrifying, and so hopelessely claustrophobic, and so desperate, that I would have taken a big deep breath to drown faster because of the complete unconscionable abject terror. If it were me, the fear and anguish would be insufferable. Personally, I wouldn't be able to stand it. But that's me!
Dang I am a survivor myself and I remembered her being trapped behind this gate and was wondering if I should have saved her, I felt like in that situation that I shouldn't have and left her. RIP cuz
It's insane how much of the ships have sank by starboard side. Titanic hit the iceberg on starboard side, Lusitania was torpedoed on starboard side, Britannic hit the explosion mine on starboard side, and this Empress of Ireland was rammed on starboard side as well.
Very sad to all of the ship tragedies and all the lives lost. May they rest in peace. Such a great animation video, good job team.
Olympic was rammed on her starboard side too, luckily she didn't sink
@@everythinghistory6770 I thought that was her port side?
@@girlytomboyx photos show the damage on her starboard. its easy to get mistaken though, don't worry haha
@GirlyTomboyX No it was starboard side in the stern section
It is because almost 90% of the world is right handed...
Absolutely nightmarish stuff.
Imagine the fear and confusion of hearing all around you screaming as you're all being swallowed by the abyss, in the dark, in the cold, knowing you'll be dead soon and so will your loved ones.
Knowing you're just one among many, and none will be saved, in a way, you're completely alone.
And if you're one of the last to go, you'll live enough to realize all the screams fading, the night becoming quieter, until only the sounds of the wind and the water can be heard...
That night must have been absolute and utter hell.
Also, amazing job by the people who put this video together, I should be sleeping rn, hope this doesn't give me a nightmare.
Such a beautiful ship. So many lives lost. May they rest in peace. Thank you, Mike, for the tribute.
This reminds me a little of that Titanic real time sinking animation. It's terrifying to think that this ship sank so quickly and so suddenly. Rest in peace to all the victims of this disaster
For some reason the moments of the ships floating alone and quiet in the dark at the start are among the most creepy/moving.
@@luckyspurs agreed
This was breathtaking. Although there have been RT sinkings made for RMS Empress of Ireland in the past years, only this one made it really close as it could have looked like. I watched it in a true terror. It was so quick, I can't imagine how horrifying disaster it must have been. Great that such a video was made, it was really needed and this tragedy really deserves more attention. Not only Titanic have sunk. I'll tell it once again - this is what I love YT for.
Absolutely horrifying, I could not imagine the sheer terror everyone was feeling. May those poor souls Rest In Peace. Shoutout to the crew for doing all they could in such a short time
This was absolutely haunting. It really gave a sense of the chaos and horror the passengers and crew must have felt.
Sometimes I think about how fun it would be to go on a cruise to an island or Alaska or something but then I watch videos like this and think to myself “you sure you want to do that?”. That’s beyond terrifying.
Just bring your own inflatable lifeboat.
To get 6 boats swung out, loaded and away in 10 minutes before the ship rolled over, was incredible, it showed wonderful crew ability.
Actually, only 5 made it away from the ship. The 6th lifeboat capsized on the way down
Mike, you did an outstanding job on this animation. The sounds, the graphics, the lighting, everything about this is just so perfect. You really outdid yourself here, Mike! Hope to see more real time animations, like a Britannic one, I don’t think there are that many of those around. Anyway, just wanted to congratulate you and the team for all the hard work you put into this, and believe me, it certainly paid off!
- Wesley
Honor and Glory’s is amazing though
without any sound it made the atmoapher a little spookey which added to the tension.
It certainly did
@@barbarahannon6033 The muffled screaming added to it.
Agreed. This is one of the best tragedies ever 👍
Bloody hell! 14 minutes?! Even faster than Lusitania, I really feel for those people that died that night, in fact all of them 😢
Another disaster within the US you might find interesting is the capsizing of the Eastland in Chicago on July 24, 1915 - killing ~900 people right there at the dock.
The cause of the capsizing? A large number of passengers apparently rushed to the river side of the Eastland to watch ships go by.
(edit) The ship was ruled unstable in a hearing. So you had an unstable ship, and a sudden shift of a majority of passengers over to the river side. The two things together caused her to roll.
The Eastland was bought by the Navy and converted into a military training ship and renamed USS Wilmette. She served without further incident until her scrapping after World War II.
cause of the capsizing seems a bit a goofy, maybe a lot of things about the actual cause might have been hidden
aswell, the lifeboats and safety measures ironically played a huge part in the capsizing
@@Yu-hx5jo for whatever reason I was a bit too brief on the original post - have since edited. The ship was ruled unstable in the follow-up investigation. So it was a combination of unstable ship and a rush of passengers to the river side.
Yeah I‘be seen videos on the Eastland.
Highly recommend ask a morticians view on the subject.
Ok, the sound of the passengers was not something I was expecting, and added another layer to the video. Very well done
@VelvetYeti: I agree! It is very good. And the screaming from the passengers, also makes it all more horrifying than it already is.
@@TheExtremelyFluffyYeti It's rare to meet another like minded Yeti. Good day to you good sir/mam.
@@VelvetYeti I agree. 😊
Nice to meet you, VelvetYeti! I love your name. And thank you, I hope you will have a good day too, good sir/mam. 🤗
It's horrifying how quickly it went from quiet to total chaos.
Very frightening. This was the ship that brought my G-Grandmother and Grandfather to Canada, from the U.K., in the October of 1906, four months after her maiden voyage. Thank you for posting.
Its actually a testament to the discipline and skill of her crew that they manged to get anyone off the boat at all. The conditions were clearly, shall we say. . . Less than ideal. That said, very well done on the recreation. I feel like I'm really there, its horrifying.
I watched the Documentary that you made on this, and it shook me. Many of these deaths are terribly painful and difficult to think about. That was an awful night for those passengers and crew on that ship.
If I were one of those survivors, I would have been greatly terrified just hearing how it rapidly transitioned from deafening screams of help to absolute silence as the passengers just helplessly sink in the cold and deep.
The fog's timing couldn't have been worse. When it came, the Empress was in the middle of a maneuver where she had to take a long turn to starboard, before turning back to port to straighten out. The Storstad saw the Empress turning across its bow just as the fog came in, making the crew think the Empress was going to make a conventional port-to-port passing, and so it turned to its own starboard to make this happen, not knowing the Empress was turning back to port at the same moment, putting them on a collision course.
If the fog had come just a few minutes earlier, the Storstad wouldn't have seen the long starboard turn of the Empress, and had it come a few minutes later, the full maneuver would've been completed, and the Storstad would've kept its regular course.
Just imagine being the crew on the storstad, you thought that you would be able to pass right by but then your ship rams the empress and you can’t do anything but watch as it fades in the fog and listen to the screams of the victims
I was wondering the why of this bit, cheers, was thinking it's obs not an international law of the sea for everyone to stop in fog, so they thought she was turning to pass then. Long time before radar too huh.
this reminds me of the two airplanes crashing at the airport because one of the pilots had a huge ego and thought he could still fly even though it was extremely foggy
@@ngndnd,,, you are talking about Pan Am and KLM at Tenerife in 1977. That was horrific as well!
Very emotionally-moving animation. Well done. I had never heard of this tragic event. Can’t imagine what that would have been like to live through
Agreed. This was captivating.
That scene at 13:35 is absolutely haunting and no doubt occurred throughout the ship. I sincerely hope the end was quick for those people.
It wasn't. Drowning is slow and very painful.
@@mywifesboyfriend5558 Alas, I fear you’re right. Maybe some were fortunate enough to suffer a blow to the head that rendered them unconscious but they would have been few.
Great video, Mike! Best Empress of Ireland sinking animation I have ever seen.
Unfortunately, I just don’t believe the Empress was stationary during the collision. The river currents doesn’t seem strong enough to dislodge the Storstad from the Empress so soon after it plunged 25 feet into the Empress’ hull and then drift so far away.
Some documentaries I have seen suggest that the Empress was slowing down at the time of the collision - had momentum - which is consistent with the testimony of the Stordstad’s crew that the Empress was moving when the collision occurred.
This would explain why the Storstad quickly dislodged herself from the Empress and why she drifted so far away after the collision as if the river currents were responsible for the dislodge and the drift, she probably would have only drifted to just aft of her stern or at a distance where her lights could still be seen in the fog.
It's an interesting thing to think about, it would explain a lot.
It's not controversial that her engines had been restarted and she was making some amount of headway. The issue is if she was stopped when the Storstad appeared out of the fog. If she was moving already there may have been a chance to maneuver but stopped there wasn't. Besides her telegraph has been recovered and shows Full Ahead as do the telegraphs in the engine room. She was making some speed and the engines where near full power, which doesn't take long, provided you have a full head of steam. They handle a bit different than diesels, simce the power comes from the boilers. You open the valve and full power hits the engine and it rapidly climbs to full rpm. While a diesel starts out with more torque from a standstill a steam engine rapidly gains torque as rpm increases, so once it gets going (easy on a ship, less so on a locomotive) it has full power in some amount of seconds. Call it 10 seconds or so. A diesel has to both make the energy and convert it. A steam engine converts readily available heat energy into kinetic energy.
The fact that not a lot of people know about this is sad. Had this happened maybe a year or so prior, it would've been more well known instead of being overshadowed by WW1
Very reminiscent of what happened to SS Admiral Nakhimov…only that sinking took even less time. Such an unimaginable horrible situation.
Thank you for your great work, Mr. Brady.
i dont think people quite understand just how horrific this event was, and thats very understandable given the 100+ year timespan. But i still think its important to remember all those people that died on this ship. they deserve to be remembered for the real people they where. RIP and thank goodness for radar , AIS and radios.
What a tragedy, those poor souls, what a horrible way to go. Stunning animation, thank you for the tribute!
yes, stunning and entertaining to watch, am I right? :D
I started to watch this video and decided to make a cup of tea. I had finished and delivered a cup to my wife as the ship went under the water. That is so fast that you needed to know where your cabin is, where you needed to be and how to get there in the dark. Most didn't!
I watched the full video on Sunday and this was another chance to see the animation. Considering that this hasn't been produced by a large professional digital vfx team, the renderings are very good. Mike et al have done really well and probably done it in a fraction of the time.
This is genuinely horrifying and a lot more people should see it
I stumbled on your channel by shear luck, not long ago.
I’ve been a fan ever since.
As a closet ship/sailing fan, I find your vids absolutely fantastic. I’ve not seen a single one that wasn’t top notch.
You sir, do a fantastic job…in a very simple, easy manner.
Thank you for what you do.
Thank you for how you do it.
Subscribed? Lol. Absolutely!
Keep it up!
Please.
I intend to watch this every year on the day she sank, at the time she sank in memory of those who perished. Great job!
My mom was the Salvation Army of Canada’s official historian and an amateur historian of Canadian Salvation Army history before that. She knew everything about this and regularly gave lectures on it. She was very concerned about divers who wanted to explore the bring up artifacts from the wreck and regularly had to advocate for leaving the site alone since it is the gravesite for a lot of people. The Canadian Salvation Army lost a lot of people in this wreck , including a lot of the Canadian SA leaders. It was travelling to England and was the only way for Canadian SA people to reach the International Congress at the time. I think she even insisted that the divers return the ship’s wheel to the ship. Not sure what they did. I really disagree with taking artifacts from shipwrecks. Unless the family of the person who is involved specifically requests it. Otherwise, it is desecrating a graveyard.
This is a big concern with many disastrous wrecks of this kind, I absolutely agree that it is disrespectful to raise "artifacts" from them.
Reading this after the titanic submarine thing
All Stockton Rush did was add more people to the graveyard that already exists down there at the location of the Titanic graveyard.
Mike, you continue to impress! The way the lights of Storstad slowly pierce the fog is just haunting. Beautifully annimated. Must have been a nightmare.
Yeah, when it held the camera on that spot, I was looking ominously trying to see when a shadow or light was going to emerge.
Seeing this in real time really puts into perspective how insanely fast this sinking was
You wake up in the middle of a chaotic scene of people running and screaming in the hallways, jump out of bed and make your way out onto the deck where you have only 5 minutes to make a choice between fighting for lifeboat space, jumping in the icy cold water, and staying onboard for however long the ship remains afloat. Frightening moment, only heightened by the Empress' industrial moan as she staggers to stay upright.
Good work on this rendering and may those who perished find peace.
Once again I'm deeply impressed by the levels of detail and immersing atmosphere, of such a tragic event.
I was more impressed with that grilled cheese cooked on the radiator.
Wow! That was very well presented. I'd never heard of this incident. Thanks for doing this.
Was there for the premier; still astonished at the quality of this animation this in on parr with Titanic: Honor and Glory. Outstanding work, Mike!
I know this sounds harsh, but the people on the Titanic didn't know how lucky they were that their ship managed to stay afloat for over 2.5 hours after collision.
This was more horrifying to watch than any horror movie I've seen. It was actually, literally, gut wrenching.
I’ve got to commend the crew for their quick work and discipline. It’s amazing so many survived given how little time they had.
that shot when it goes still at 2:40 and you know what’s about to happen is so eerie
The screams in the background during the sinking gave me chills, what these people went through was absolutely horrific 😢
The echoed howling of the ship sounds so haunting, like the ship herself is crying in pain before drowning. I can't even imagine the stress of being a passenger startled out of my sleep, realizing the ship is sinking, and rushing for my life to get onto a lifeboat only to be thrown into the water anyway. 💔
I don't know what would be more terrifying: watching a massive ocean liner snap in half or turn over on its side while sinking in front of you.
All while floating in freezing water!
My God, they never stood a chance.
Famtastic production.
Very solemn and unnerving. Well done, this is an excellent teacher of the dangers of sea travel
Great job. This is one of the FEW videos I have seen that tells a story without narration.
Both horrifying and amazing to watch! Wonderful job, Mike!
In 1973, my next door neighbour in Aylmer, Quebec told my family and me that he swam for his life and survived. He said he remembered the coal dust between his toes when he got on the deck of the coal ship the EoI had struck.
Heyyyyy.
I'm from Aylmer too! 😃
Only 465 survived. It's a miracle that many survived.
Wow this is incredible, the detail and skill shows in all your works.
3:25 At first I thought that was a rescue ship (I’m not too familiar with this incident) and was horrified when it plowed RIGHT THROUGH the Empress! That was shocking
This is one of the most compelling things I've ever seen on TH-cam. It's an absolutely stunning piece of work. Thank you Mike.
Wow, this video and the last one about the Empress of Ireland are really excellent. I had read about the disaster before but wasn't able to visualize the terror of it until now. The videos really encapsulate the horrifying events of that night. This one in particular as there's no voice-over narration, so the eerie silence and then the sound of the screaming just gives you goosebumps. Nonetheless, we can only begin to imagine how truly terrifying it must have been. Thank you for this brilliant and moving content ❤
Well done Mike to you and the team that put this together! I've been on 14 cruises and couldn't begin to imagine if this happened to me! Even though we have more stringent safety measures today, I think back to the most recent sinking of a cruise ship, the "Costa Concordia". Thanks for doing this Mike....Cheers from across the pond!
This is honor and glory level animations. It really captured the story well. Amazing work.
Amazing video. The sound effects especially are nightmare fuel.
The Titanic was still fresh on their minds and then this happens. Wow!
The 3D artistry has been exceptional lately, consider yourself (and the artist) complimented.
I've just stumbled on your channel on the last day or so and i gotta tell ya... I'm REALLY enjoying the heck out of these. Very cool content and very informative. Keep em coming!
My God! The previous Real Time sinking of Empress of Ireland was no where near as horrible as this. Mike, excellent work!
I am deeply saddened. And may the victims and relatives have found peace! But many thanks and respect for the dignified simulation of an almost forgotten catastrophe!
The 4 children that survived were:
Josephine O’Hara, 10
Florence Barbour, 8
Gracie Hanagan, 7
Arvo Markkula, 14
could you imagine experiencing this at such a young age? absolutely insane, it must've been so traumatic
@@somegermanguy7 Gracie can tell you that. th-cam.com/video/6DnxiEiMal0/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared
Empress was hit in the worst possible place, right in the boiler rooms and engine room.
The real-time animation really portrays how terrifyingly rapid the ships sinking was. The fact that even six boats managed to be prepared, loaded and launched is actually an impressive feat from the crew. To do that while their ship rolls out from under them so fast shows a high degree of skill and discipline. A less well-drilled crew might not have coped and seen even more lives lost.
@@emerybonner7973 You obviously missed the point I was making.
@@emerybonner7973 So why the pedantry then? I was paying tribute to the crew that saved a lot of lives in such a short space of time. Meanwhile you're making tone-deaf comments arguing over whether 5 launches and a capsize does equal six or not.
And even then, they still managed to prep, load, and ATTEMPT to launch six boats in extremely quick time.
Why did the Storstad not stop? Why did they keep moving despite the fog? Why did they not hear the whistles? Wouldn’t they have seen the Empress as they got closer, or could fog have really been so thick that they could avoid hitting the center of the ship? Were they held accountable? I have so many questions.
Because the protocol was to keep moving so you can react better to a possible collision.
All the info is out there.
There was an inquiry, and its results are public.
I've been on cruise, and 14 minutes seems alot of time, but it's amazing how many levels there are on a ship below decks, and how many people a ship can hold that need to get to the deck before getting off. Crazy the other ship didn't wait out the fog on a busy waterway like the St. Lawrence.
Amazingly high quality as always! Really loving the way the channel is going
Two mentalities appear in such moments, the more prevalent being that of resistance to accepting the situation for what it is, failing to recognize nor even contemplate the possibility of impending danger. The far more important but rarer quality is that of responding correctly with both experience and instinct, acting immediately in a coordinated fashion to effect a directed response. It's these types of people that truly are the unsung heroes in such times.
I found out about Mike Brady and Oceanliner Designs from Sam Pence at Historic Travels.
Gentlemen, this portrayal was beyond extraordinary! Give yourselves much deserved high-fives for leaving this viewer feeling as though I was fully in that moment! Well done!
Probably one of the most horrific sinkings in history
The Empress of Ireland was NOT stationary when the collision occurred. According to a 2005 Canadian television film, The Last Voyage of the Empress, "water tank replication of the incident indicated that Empress of Ireland could not have been stationary at the point of the collision, investigating the sinking with historical reference, model re-enactment, and underwater investigation. The program's opinion was that the cause of the incident appeared to be the fog, exacerbated by the actions of Captain Kendall. Both captains were in their own way telling the truth, but with Kendall omitting the expediency of commanding Empress of Ireland in such a way as to keep his company's advertised speed of Atlantic crossing. In order to pass Storstad (off Empress's starboard bow) to quickly expedite this maintenance of speed, Kendall, in the fog, turned to starboard (towards Storstad) as part of a manoeuvre to spin back to his previous heading to pass the other ship as originally intended on his starboard side, thereby avoiding what he saw as a time-wasting diversion from his preferred and fast route through the channel. When Captain Anderson of Storstad saw Empress of Ireland through the fog he thought, by seeing both Empress of Ireland's port and starboard lights during its manoeuvre, that Empress of Ireland was attempting to pass on the opposite side of Storstad than previously apparent and turned his ship to starboard to avoid a collision. However, Empress of Ireland turned to port to continue on its original time-saving heading; thus the bow to side collision. The conclusion of the programme was that both captains failed to abide by the condition that, on encountering fog, ships should maintain their heading, although the captain of Storstad deviated only after seeing the deviation of Empress of Ireland. It also indicated-through underwater observations of the ship's Engine order telegraph in the engine room-that Kendall's assertion that he gave the order to close watertight doors was probably not true."