My great grandfather was one
of the survivors of the wreck
(John Ryan - Fireman )
and I am researching the story
all the time. According to his official
"Continuous Certificate of Discharge" log books, John served on two
Canadian sister ships, The Empress of Britain and The Empress of Ireland.
The Empress of Britain voyage to Quebec on 5th June 1911 was uneventful as
was the Empress of Ireland voyage to Halifax on 21st March 1914. Two
months later on 29th May 1914 John boarded the Empress of Ireland at
Quebec bound for Liverpool. He was heading home to his family.
When the Empress was pierced by the
Storstad, the engine room was flooded in seconds but some how John Ryan
escaped the torrent and immediate listing of the Empress. Did he
manage to navigate the maze of corridors and reach an open port hole or
door, or did he escape from the very hole left by the brief encounter with
the Storstad? Unfortunately these questions will never be answered but we
can only imagine the feeling of being close to death and the fight for
survival.
I have created a game where you have to
escape the sinking as part of my Masters Degree. The game uses
actual blue prints from the ship which I recreated in 3D (I could not
make the whole ship but a very small part). The idea of the game
is to guide John Ryan from the boilers to an upper deck in 6 minutes, as
after this time the lights failed and you would be trapped.
Crew
| Name |
Position |
Rescued/Lost |
|
Ryan, John |
Fireman |
Rescued |
