When the Empress of Ireland was found in Bas-Saint-Laurent 50 years after her sinking off Sainte-Luce, the wreck, thought to be abandoned, became hunting ground for dozens of local and international looters. .
The divers, mainly Ontarians and Americans, but also Quebecers and Europeans, dived there with the sole aim of taking their share of the treasure with them.
With a sledgehammer or jackhammer, the latter weren’t used to ripping portholes out of the hull or actual steel walls, propellers or lettering out of the hull. Crockery, equipment and top-end champagne bottles (Pol-Roger, Veuve Clicquot, Veuve Pommery) – some bottles of which were still drinkable on their return to shore – were also pulled from the frigid waters of Saint-Laurent to tend personal collections, completely with impunity.
The looting continued for thirty years until the wreck, which was once very luxurious, was classified as a historic and archaeological property by Quebec’s Minister of Culture and Communications in 1999.
Since that date, the value of artifacts collected from the bottom of the water has increased significantly, ranging from $500 to over $10,000 each.
PHOTO Christian Lamontagne
The continuation of the documentation
Director and marine historian Samuel Côté, who presented a first documentary about the discovery of the Empress of Ireland last May, this time devoted the second part to the period after (1965-1999).
Told through a series of interviews with former divers and archives of past missions, the story of the excavation and looting of the famous passenger liner, owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, is at times breathtaking.
Accompanied by historian David St-Pierre, the director confirms and debunks several rumors about the British-built boat’s alleged loot and backs up the paperwork.
PHOTO Christian Lamontagne
In addition to wealthy passengers, the ship, which sailed from Canada to Liverpool, England, carried at least 250 silver bullion, various Canadian timber, oil, nickel bullion and copper. Insurance claims led to an accurate inventory of property sunk in May 1914, including valuables and an impressive collection of jewellery.
Despite having more than enough lifeboats, on May 29, 1914, 1,012 of the 1,477 passengers perished, making the sinking the worst peacetime maritime disaster in Canadian history.
It took the ship just 14 minutes to sink, but half a century before wealthy businessman Aubert Brillant and his divers found it in 1964. In the mid-1960s, the man freed up considerable resources to reassemble thousands of artifacts that will remain at home before some of them are made in museological institutions some thirty years later.
Today the wreck is the burial place of 600 victims of the tragedy.
The documentary “A Wreck with a Thousand Treasures” will be broadcast on Historia next Saturday at 9 p.m. This is the sequel to the documentary To Conquer the Empress of Ireland which covered the period 1914-1964 and aired on the same channel last May.