The Empress Wreck

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 31, 26 June 1914, Page 5

The Empress Wreck

EVIDENCE AT THE ENQUIRY.

ONE OF THE BUILDERS.

ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO RESCUE

THE BODIES.

By Cable—Press Association—Copyright

Received 2&, 12.20 a.m. Quebec, June 25,

Percy Hillhouse Fairfield, of the shipbuilding company which constructed tiie Empress of Ireland, continued his evidence. He stated that one foot was added to the rudder of the Empress of Ireland after the accident in 1008 to improve her steering qualities. He stated that he had heard no complaints from the captains regarding her steering. He gave the first adequate explanation of the actual injuries of the Empress ot Ireland, telling of water rushing through a wound of 328 square feet at the rate of 200 tons a second. He believed that the twist of the bow of the Storstad was caused by the impact heforc penetrating the Empress of Ireland. The divers from the man-of-war Essex were ordered back to the scene of the wreck after a conference with Captain Walsh, of the Canadian-Pacific Railway, and Captain Watson, of the Essex, which decided that a further attempt should be made to recover the eight hundred bodies entombed in the Empress, despite the fact that the work had been abandoned following on a report indicating dnnculties and dangers. Captain Kendall, recalled, gave the times that the ship travelled on her two courses after leaving Father Point prior to the accident, showing a discrepancy in the captain's time given of dropping the pilot and the time jgiven by the captain of the pilot boat which picked up the pilot.