OhSoSharp.com
Title
Empress of Scotland -- An Illustrated History
Description
, and that my Uncle Ernest was the Captain. I also learned that Ernest had recently met Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh when they sailed across the Atlantic on his ship. When the Queen's Coronation took place the family was particularly excited because Ernest was going to be present in the Abbey, and would be also marching in the procession. We sat around the fuzzy nine-inch screen of a black and white television, vainly trying to spot him.
In 1955 my aunt and uncle went to live in Montreal, Canada, because he had been promoted to a shore-based position with Canadian Pacific. They were very much the celebrities of the family, and the times when they came back to England for visits were great occasions. Among the many things that they sent me from Canada were copies of promotional material to do with the launching of two new ships :- Empress of Britain, and Empress of England.
Vera and Ernest retired to the Isle on Man in 1963, and Vera was widowed in 1978. When she died in 1997 we found that she had bequeathed to a maritime museum the many items and papers to do with Ernest's naval career that she had kept. Going through this material turned out to be most interesting, and served to pad out my hazy knowledge of my uncle's distinguished Merchant and Royal Navy careers. Interweaved with it emerged the story of Empress of Scotland. A few years later it occurred to me that the story of the ship might be a suitable subject for a small website, especially since I had a lot of original material and pictures available.
