RMS Empress of Canada (1928)

SS Duchess of Richmond was an ocean liner built in 1928 for Canadian Pacific Steamships by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. In 1947 she was renamed SS Empress of Canada.

Duchess
The Duchess of Richmond was one of the several "sturdy Canadian Pacific liners which were known as "Drunken Duchesses" for their lively performance in heavy seas." She was built as a sister ship to SS Duchess of York, SS Duchess of Bedford and SS Duchess of Atholl.

In March 1929 the 20,022-ton ocean liner began transatlantic summer service from Montreal Canada to Liverpool in the United Kingdom with winter service out of the port of Saint John, New Brunswick.

Troopship
During World War II, the Duchess was requisitioned as a troopship. Early in the war, she transported men to the fighting in North Africa, stopping briefly in Algiers to disembark troops on November 14, 1942.

Empress
In 1947 she was refitted as a luxury liner with the new name Empress of Canada and returned to service on her original Canada to England route.

On 25 January 1953 the Empress of Canada caught fire and heeled over against the dock wall at Gladstone Dock, Liverpool. Re-floated after being righted by parbuckling, the following spring she was taken to La Spezia, Italy where she was scrapped. The difficulty of her recovery has been likened to that of USS Oklahoma (BB-37) at Pearl Harbor in 1943 and SS Normandie in New York harbor in 1942.