LOST IN THE WAR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21933, 30 January 1946, Page 3

LOST IN THE WAR

FAMED C.P.R. SHIPS 11 SUNK BY THE ENEMY During World War II the entire fleet of Canadian Pacific Steamships, which included 13 ships of over 1(1,000 tons each, was taken over by the British Government lor service duty. Eleven ships, including the huge 42,000-ton Empress of Britain, were sunk by enemy action. The Niagara of the Canadian Australasian Line, in which the Canadian Pacific lias a half-interest, was lost as a resuit of enemy action on the New Zealand coast in 1940. The company lost three masters, and several senior officers. Of total ships’ personnel. 272 arc known to have been killed, and 155 were registered as missing and prisoners of war. Seventy-one steamship employees were decorated for conspicuous service. The Canadian Pacific two-ocean fleet, which suffered the greatest loss of any individual company in World War 11. will be re-established when construction costs justify ordering new tonnage, said Mr. D. C. Coleman, chairman and president of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, in Montreal, recently. Tlie Empress of Britain was the largest merchant ship lost in World War 11. On October 24, 19-10, she was attacked by enemy aircraft when 150 miles from the Irish coast. She was badly damaged and set on fire. Two days later, while being towed to port, she was again bombed and finally sunk, as the result of an explosion. . It was reported that the final blow was struck by a submarine. Her master at that time was Captain C. li. Sapsworth, C.V.0., who was also in command when the ship visited Wellington in 1940.

Attacked by Dive-Bombers

The Empress of Asia, commanded by Captain J. Bisset-Smith, 0.8. E., was abandoned near Singapore in 1942. after a vicious hour and a half attack by dive-bombers. One member of the crew was lost, and of 2300 troops s aid to be on board, 19 were lost, and 271 others injured by enemy action. In 1943 the Duchess of York put up a stubborn fight against air attack oil' the Spanish coast, but finally sank. She was then under the command of Captain W. G. Busk-Wood, 0.8. E., R.D., R.N.R., who commanded the Empress of Britain when she visited Wellington on a world cruise in 1938.

The Duchess of Atholl, commanded by Captain M. W. Moore, 0.8. E., was sunk by a U-boat when participating in the Madagascar Expedition in 1042. The Empress of Canada was sunk in .the South Atlantic in 1943 by Italian underwater craft, and as a result, 356 Italian prisoners of war and 42 members of the Canada’s crew were lost. The Montrose went to her death as H.M.S. Forfar in 1941. The Princess Marguerite, well known in the Vancouver-Victoria-Sealtle run, met her fate near Port Said in 1942, when commanded by Captain R. A. Leicester, 0.8. E.