Latest news with #EmpressofIreland
17-06-2025
- General
Search for century-old artifact from Canadian shipwreck solved with a call from the U.S.
David Saint-Pierre says he had little information to go on in his effort to hunt down the keeper of a 111-year-old artifact from the shipwrecked Empress of Ireland. He had a photo of a man in a diving suit, an address from 1975 and a name: Ronald Stopani. Saint-Pierre — a maritime historian who has studied artifacts recovered from the site of the 1914 shipwreck off the coast of Rimouski, Que. — treated it like a modern-day scavenger hunt. He was looking for the Marconi wireless apparatus, the communication system used to receive and send wireless telegraphs on the ship before it sank, claiming the lives of more than 1,000 people. The system included a tuner, work table and keys to send messages. Saint-Pierre and staff at the Empress of Ireland Museum in Rimouski discovered it was found and recovered during an expedition to the site 51 years ago by a diving crew from Rochester, N.Y. With Saint-Pierre's help, the museum found Stopani — a member of the diving crew who first pulled it up from the water in the 70s — and in the spring, the apparatus was sent back to Quebec. 'I didn't even know if that man was still alive' The process of finding Stopani involved dozens of emails, Facebook messages, a handful of phone calls and physical letters, says Saint-Pierre. I didn't even know if that man was still alive, said Saint-Pierre. It was a shot in the dark. The Empress of Ireland is shown in an undated photo. The Canadian Pacific steamship collided with a Norwegian freighter near Quebec on May 29, 1914, sinking in 14 minutes and killing 1,012 people. (Site historique maritime de la Pointe-au-Père) Photo: (Site historique maritime de la Pointe-au-Père) He says he wrote to probably anyone with the last name Stopani on Facebook for a few weeks. If your name is Stopani, you probably have one of my messages in your junk box, joked Saint-Pierre. One day in January, he got a call back. In an interview with CBC News, Stopani said he still had the apparatus stored in a clear storage box in his home in Las Vegas — and he was eager to donate it. As soon as I opened up the letter, it even had a picture of me in there so I knew exactly what it was, said Stopani, reached in Las Vegas. I wanted to donate them for a while, but I had no way of contacting anybody. The 81-year-old, who splits his time between his homes in Florida and Nevada, says he half expected to be contacted. Years earlier, the family of his best friend, Fred Zeller — who had led diving expeditions to the shipwreck and who recently passed away — told Stopani that they travelled to the Rimouski museum to donate artifacts Zeller found and documents from over the years. Included in the donation was the photo of Stopani with the Marconi and correspondence between him and Zeller from the mid-1970s — when the pair met up to dive the shipwreck together. It was that photo and letter which first inspired Saint-Pierre and museum staff to find Stopani — and the pictured artifacts. Five decades later, Stopani still remembers the day he pulled the items up from the floor of the St. Lawrence River — decades before it was prohibited to recover artifacts. Believe me, it was cold, he said, adding that during the dive in July, he could see small pieces of ice floating in the river. He recalled inflating his dry suit to float up to the surface with a bag that he says weighed about 30 kilograms. For the next 51 years, the artifact was well-travelled as he brought it with him on his moves from Rochester to Brampton, Ont., to Florida and finally Las Vegas. Having shipped the Marconi out a few months ago, he says sending it back to Quebec made him feel elated. Artifact to be sent for restoration work Roxane Julien-Friolet, a museologist, says the Marconi arrived at the museum in mid-March and in great condition. We're just amazed and really honoured to have this really important object part of our collection now, said Julien-Friolet. She says it will be sent for restoration work and then displayed. Operated by telegraphist Ronald Ferguson, this device was a very useful tool, she says, and part of the reason some were saved from the wreck in 1914 after an SOS message was sent. Saint-Pierre says laying eyes on the device gives historians even more information as to what happened on board. In a photo, Saint-Pierre's friend noticed the switch on the tuner was turned off. It means that … [Ferguson] had to abandon his post [but] he took the time to turn the machine off, said Saint-Pierre. Which was standard protocol. So really a professional man. Ferguson was one of the 465 survivors of the wreck and lived until the 1980s, he says. Saint-Pierre has since connected with Ferguson's son, who lives in the U.K., and informed him that his father's instrument was finally found. That was also a great moment for me to be able to tell [him], said Saint-Pierre. Knowing that it was still in existence and that it would be in the museum was really emotional for him. Rachel Watts (new window) · CBC News
Boston Globe
29-05-2025
- Boston Globe
Today in History: May 29, Hillary and Norgay first to summit Mount Everest
In 1914, the Canadian ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sank in the St. Lawrence River in eastern Quebec after colliding with the Norwegian cargo ship SS Storstad; of the 1,477 people on board the Empress of Ireland, 1,012 died. In 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Advertisement In 1977, Janet Guthrie became the first woman to race in the Indianapolis 500, finishing in 29th place (A.J. Foyt won the race for his record fourth Indy 500 victory). In 1985, 39 people were killed at the European Cup Final in Brussels, Belgium, when rioting broke out and a wall separating British and Italian soccer fans collapsed. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev began their fourth summit meeting in Moscow. Advertisement In 2004, the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated by President George W. Bush. In 2009, a judge in Los Angeles sentenced music producer Phil Spector to 19 years to life in prison for the murder of actor Lana Clarkson. (Spector remained in prison until his death in January 2021.) In 2020, fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. (Chauvin was convicted in April 2021 on those charges, as well as unintentional second-degree murder.)
UPI
29-05-2025
- Politics
- UPI
On This Day, May 29: Charles II restored to English throne
1 of 5 | On May 29, 1660, Charles II was restored to the English throne. Image courtesy of Britain's National Portrait Gallery On this date in history: In 1660, Charles II was restored to the English throne. It was also the monarch's 30th birthday. In 1790, Rhode Island became the last of the original 13 states to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In 1914, the Canadian Pacific Transatlantic liner Empress of Ireland sank in the early-morning hours following a collision with the liner Storstadt, a much smaller vessel, in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence. More than 1,000 people died in what is the largest maritime accident in Canadian peacetime history. In 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first humans to reach the top of Mount Everest. In 1977, Janet Guthrie became the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500. She completed 27 laps before her car became disabled. On the same day in 2005, Danica Patrick became the first woman to lead during the same race. In 1985, British soccer fans attacked Italian fans preceding the European Cup final in Brussels. The resulting stadium stampede killed 38 people and injured 400. In 1990, renegade Communist Boris Yeltsin was elected president of Russia. File Photo by Martin Jeong/UPI In 1996, in Israel's first selection of a prime minister by direct vote, Benjamin Netanyahu defeated Shimon Peres. The margin of victory was less than 1 percent. In 1997, Zaire rebel leader Laurent Kabila was sworn in as president of what was again being called the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was assassinated in 2001. In 2004, the National World War II memorial was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington. Thousands of veterans of the war, which ended nearly 59 years earlier, attended the ceremony. File Photo by Greg Whitesell/UPI In 2009, U.S. music producer Phil Spector was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison for the 2003 slaying of actress Lana Carlson. In 2010, two mosques of a religious minority in Pakistan were attacked by intruders firing weapons and throwing grenades. Officials put the death toll at 98. In 2018, a Harvard study determined at least 4,645 people in Puerto Rico died as a result of Hurricane Maria, a sharp contrast to the official government death toll of 64. In 2019, special counsel Robert Mueller released his first public statement, saying that while there's no evidence President Donald Trump colluded with Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, there were several "episodes" in which he obstructed justice. In 2024, South Africa's African National Congress failed to win a parliamentary majority in the general election for the first time since apartheid. President Cyril Ramaphosa was still able to form a coalition government. File Photo by Stringer/EPA-EFE
CBC
04-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Vancouver writer uncovers truths of survivors of Empress of Ireland shipwreck
When fog blanketed the St. Lawrence River on May 29, 1914, a ship carrying hundreds of passengers and crew was rammed by a passing coal ship. The passenger vessel, known as the Empress of Ireland, sank in just 14 minutes, killing most of the people onboard. The story of the shipwreck and those who survived it are featured in a new book by Vancouver author, journalist and historian Eve Lazarus, one she spent years researching to find out the truth about what happened. It all started when she was hired by a lawyer who owns a summer home near Rimouski, Que., where the Empress went down. Having swum in the St. Lawrence most summers, he came across the story of a survivor of the wreck, a UBC history professor by the name of Gordon Davidson and one of 75 B.C. passengers, who had allegedly survived by swimming 6.5 kilometres to shore. "He talked to diving instructors and ice polar swimmers and biologists, anyone he could find that could verify that that was possible," Lazarus told CBC's North by Northwest host Margaret Gallagher. "Everyone said no, no, it just wasn't possible, not in that cold temperature at that time of year. So he hired me to see if I could find the origin story." The ship, which was travelling from Quebec City to Liverpool, England, had 40 lifeboats on board, but only four were deployed when the ship sank so quickly. About one in five passengers survived, but a higher proportion of the 400-some crew made it out. Lazarus said the crew was criticized for not prioritizing the safety of passengers, but her research tells her there was nothing selfish about how things worked out. "Fifty per cent of the crew would have been on duty that night in the middle of the night, and a lot of them worked in the engine rooms where it was really dangerous and really hot. They had escape routes to the top deck … so a lot of them were able to get to the top deck very quickly and help with lifeboats and get that going." Because this happened in the middle of the night, a lot of passengers stopped to dress before fleeing the ship, which would be their fatal flaw. Lazarus went out on the river in a Zodiac in 2019 and sat atop the site of the wreck. "You could see it on radar, and knowing there are still 800-and-something remains of people, it really is an underwater graveyard still down there," she said. "It was very difficult for me to come to terms with that. It was very powerful." Lazarus said a lot of the reporting that came out of the sinking of the Empress of Ireland occurred just a few hours after it happened. Reporters descended on Rimouski, she said, and started interviewing people who were dealing with traumatic injuries, were recovering from the cold or who had lost their entire families. They were in shock. Reporters, in those days, would have been using shorthand to write stories and phoning them into their respective newsrooms, Lazarus pointed out, creating another opportunity for error. "It's not surprising that a lot of it was wrong." Davidson did not swim ashore following the Empress of Ireland's demise, Lazarus learned. Instead, he was rescued in a boat. She believes the lore around his harrowing swim started with a story in Vancouver's The Province newspaper, where a reporter speculated that, because Davidson was a good swimmer, he must have swum. "It was still an incredible survival story, but I couldn't understand how that story could get so wrong," Lazarus said. "[The story] became real, and that was the story that went to all these newspapers and books."
