Peace and Peril Aboard the Steamship Empress of Asia
The remarkable story of how one ship--doomed by war--intersected lives and crossed into history.
Completed in 1913 for Canadian Pacific, the Empress of Asia plied the oceans for nearly thirty years. Built for peacetime travel, she saw wartime service as an armed merchant cruiser and troopship before Japanese dive bombers destroyed her off Singapore in 1942.
Through the Roaring Twenties and Great Depression, she brought continents and people together, delivering mail and multi-million-dollar consignments of silk. As a luxurious passenger liner, she was the "Greyhound of the Pacific," encountering enormous storms and smashing transpacific speed records. From stokehold to bridge, steerage to first-class staterooms, she steamed with a kaleidoscope of lives, including courageous and recalcitrant crew, immigrants and refugees seeking a better life, drug smugglers and weapons dealers, and the idle and not-so-idle rich. This is the dramatic story of how that one ship--and the lives of her passengers and crew--intersected during a tumultuous period of world history, culminating in her destruction off Singapore and the perilous fate of her crew.
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Dear Dan,
Looking forward to this book.
Lots of great stories.
Please let me know of book launch.
Cheers to you & A
Thank you Andrea.
I’ll keep you posted.
Best,
Dan
Congratulations, Dan! Have you seen Dr Wally Chung’s 14-ft model of the Empress of Asia at UBC? It’s amazing!
Hi Debbie, and thanks for commenting. I have yet to view in person the model of the Empress of Asia at UBC, but looking forward to a visit to that beautiful province.
I’m really looking forward to reading this book, as my father was one of the survivors when it was sunk near Singapore. Hoping that the book will be available to buy in the UK.
Hi Peter. Thanks for getting in touch, and yes, I’m happy to say the book will be available in the U.K. at bookstores and online, starting February 18, 2025.
Great News Dan! I am looking forward to “Oceans of Fate”. Congratulations on what will undoubtedly be another fine work of history.
Thanks so much Glenn. Thanks for your guidance and help along the way.