Sailing the Empress of Ireland

On May 29th, 1914, the great steamship liner Empress of Ireland collided with a collier in the St.Lawrence River off the coast of Rimouski, Quebec, Canada. Within 14 minutes the ship capsized and sank. In all, 1012 souls were lost. Out of 137 children on board only four survived. The Empress was one of three great ships that would sink within four years:Titanic in 1912, Empress of Ireland in 1914 and Lusitania in 1915.

The music on the CD is dedicated to the memory of those who were lost on the Empress of Ireland, to her crew, and to the 117,000 immigrants she brought to Canada during her years of service between 1906 and 1914 as a Canadian Pacific Steamship liner, along with her great sister ship the Empress of Britain.

Jeremy Spencer and Susan Spencer: Canadian composers and producers, Jeremy is the great-great grandson of David and Bertha Creighton, who both perished on the Empress in 1914. Jeremy has always felt a special connection to the Empress of Ireland tragedy, and