RMS Empress of Japan (1930)
Empress of Japan
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| Builder: | Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Govan, Scotland |
| In service: | 1930 |
| Out of service: | 1966 |
| Identification: | IMO number: 5514232 |
| Fate: | Destroyed by fire at New York City harbour, 7 September 1966. Subsequently scrapped |
| General characteristics (as Empress of Scotland) | |
| Type: | ocean liner/cruise ship |
| Tonnage: | 30,030 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Displacement: | 21,000 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length: | 205 meters |
| Beam: | 25,5 meters |
| Speed: | 22 knots |
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| General characteristics (as Hanseatic) | |
| Type: | ocean liner/cruise ship |
| Tonnage: | 30,030 gross register tons (GRT) |
| Length: | 205 meters |
| Beam: | 25,5 meters |
| Speed: | 22 knots |
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RMS Empress of Japan was an ocean liner built in 1929–1930 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship was the second of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan – regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1942.
In 1942, she was renamed RMS Empress of Scotland – the second of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Scotland. In 1957, the Hamburg Atlantic Line purchased the ship and re-named her TS Hanseatic.
By the 1920s the Canadian Pacific conglomerate had established a sea/rail connection between Europe and the Far East. The company's steamships would carry passengers from Great Britain to Canada, the same company's railroad carried passengers across the North American continent to Vancouver, where passengers boarded another Canadian Pacific ship that would carry them across the Pacific to Asia. This was at the time the fastest way to reach the Far East from Europe. In the late 1920s Canadian Pacific decided to modernize their Pacific and Atlantic fleets, with the aim of reducing the journey time between Europe and the Far East by two days.
The new liner intended for the transpacific service was envisioned at approximately 25,000 gross register tons, 203.05 m (666 ft 2 in) in length and capable of carrying 1173 passengers in four classes. Construction of the vessel was awarded to Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan near Glasgow in Scotland. She was launched on 17 December 1929 and named Empress of Japan. Originally Canadian Pacific had planned on constructing a sister ship for her for the Pacific service, but due to the Great Depression the second ship was left unrealized. Instead, the company decided to concentrate their resources on Empress of Britain, a larger version of Empress of Japan under construction for their trans-Atlantic service. Empress of Britain was approximately 16,000 GRT larger than Empress of Japan.
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