News and Updates
Nice New Poster for September 20, 2025 Book Signing
Hope you can join us in Lyndhurst, Ontario, for a signing at the Lyndhurst Branch of the Leeds and Thousand Island Public Library. The event is part of the popular Turkey Fair, which draws thousands of visitors to the Eastern Ontario village.
Poem For A Father’s Journey to Gold Mountain
Dr. Raymond Chong recently visited Vancouver, where–with “tremendous melancholy”–he stood on the bustling waterfront trying to picture his father’s arrival on the Empress of Asia in April 1932. His father, Gim Suey Chong, was just a boy when he set foot in Canada. His long and risky voyage across the Pacific and into Canada and the United States is captured in Oceans of Fate: Peace and Peril Aboard the Steamship Empress of Asia.
In the days after Raymond Chong’s visit to Vancouver, he composed a poem for his father, and he has granted me permission to include it here. I am very grateful to Raymond for sharing his poem as it serves to bridge our understanding of past events and the impact they have today. For reference, I’ve included a photo of Gim Suey Chong, along with an image of the big, gleaming passenger liner.
Saltwater City
In the Year of the Water Monkey
After a transpacific voyage
From the Pearl of the Orient–Hong Kong,
On a spring dawn,
The RMS Empress of Asia, the Greyhound of the Pacific,
Steams into Burrard Inlet,
Surrounded by an emerald rainforest,
To arrive at Canadian Pacific Railway Pier B-C,
In the Saltwater City–Vancouver,
Of the Great White North–Canada.
Aboard the steerage,
Gim Suey Chong, a young boy from Hoyping,
Watches in awe and fear
As he observes the bustling passenger terminal.
Amidst the silhouette of Edwardian skyscrapers,
He tepidly wanders to the grand Canadian Pacific Railway Waterfront Station,
With its Chateauesque style,
Red brick facade, iconic columns, and scenic murals.
There, he embarks
On the Canadian Pacific Railway Imperial Limited train,
Heading to Beantown–Boston,
To pursue his American Dream
On Gold Mountain.
In the Year of the Wood Snake
Ninety-three years later,
I eerily retrace my father’s sojourn
In Saltwater City.
Amid the sheeny towers
Of Modernist Downtown,
Surrounded by the majestic North Shore Mountains,
I hauntingly observe Canada Place
With its iconic sails.
As I walk along the Waterfront,
Teeming with hustle,
I edgily reflect on The Station,
With its neoclassical grandeur.
This spring Aurora,
I poignantly remember my dear father–Gim Suey Chong.
Copyright: 2025 Raymond Douglas Chong
Postcard from 1932
Dated December 6, 1932, this postcard showing the Empress of Asia was addressed to a Mr. A.Y. Brown of Acton, Ontario. The initials of the sender appear to be A.S.
Friend and researcher Glenn Wright was attending a postcard show in Merrickville, Ontario, when he made the find while “browsing ships.” The postcard didn’t make it into Oceans of Fate, and so I thought I should share it on the website, with a big thank you to Glenn.
A variety of postcards of the Empress of Asia and her sister ship the Empress of Russia were produced during the 1920s and 1930s. This one published by the Coast Publishing Co. of Vancouver.
The handwritten message on the reverse side states the sender was “Just leaving to have lunch with Aunt Lizzie and Mrs. Fatheringham. We went over Saturday partly to see this “awfully big” boat go out at eleven–a great thing to see….”
The postcard was post marked three days after the Empress of Asia commenced her outbound transpacific crossing from Vancouver on December 3, 1932. The ship’s master was Captain A.V.R. Lovegrove.
Eastern Ontario Book Launch for Oceans of Fate
Nice crowd on hand for the book launch hosted by The Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 245, in Merrickville, Ont., April 22, 2025.
Scene from a West Coast Book Launch
With Maritime Museum of British Columbia Events Coordinator Anya Zanko at the March 14, 2025, West Coast book launch in Victoria, B.C.
Book Launches and Signing Events
British Columbia Book Launch for Oceans of Fate, Friday, March 14th, Maritime Museum of British Columbia, Victoria. The event begins at 3 p.m.
Book signing for Oceans of Fate, Sunday, March 16, Indigo bookstore, Robson Street, Vancouver. The event begins at 12 noon and runs until 5 p.m.
Eastern Ontario Book Launch for Oceans of Fate, Tuesday, April 22nd, Merrickville, Ontario, Royal Canadian Legion hall. Starting at 7 p.m.
Book signing for Oceans of Fate, Saturday, May 17, 2025, Octopus Books, Ottawa, 116 Third Avenue (at Bank Street), 11 a.m. to 1 p.m
Book signing for Oceans of Fate, Saturday, May 24, 2025, Merrickville Book Emporium, 105 Wellington Street East, Merrickville, Ontario, 1-3 p.m.
Book Talk for Oceans of Fate, Monday, June 16, Brockville Probus, at Royal Canadian Legion Branch, Park Street, Brockville, 10 a.m.
Book Signing for Oceans of Fate, Saturday, September 20, Lyndhurst Branch, Leeds and Thousands Islands Public Library, Lyndhurst, Ontario, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., during the village’s popular annual Turkey Fair.
Book Talk for Oceans of Fate, Tuesday, October 7, 2025, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, N.S.
Book Talk for Oceans of Fate, 2 p.m., Sunday, April 26, 2026, Mallorytown Talks, Mallorytown Community Centre, Mallorytown, Ont.
Big Thanks to Canada’s History Magazine
The October/November 2024 issue of Canada’s History Magazine features a separate article I wrote on the last hours of the Empress of Asia. The magazine can easily be subscribed to or purchased where magazines are sold. Meanwhile, the release date for the book Oceans of Fate: Peace and Peril Aboard the Steamship Empress of Asia is February 18, 2025–published by Dundurn Press.
New Headstones in Quebec City for two Chinese Labour Corps Men Who Died en route to France
Very grateful to Dr. Catherine Paterson, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s Regional Manager for Canada and the Americas who has told me that the long-awaited headstones for Chinese Labour Corps members Han Hsiang T’ai (Han Xiangtai, No. 31277) and Chang Hsueh P’u (Zhang Xuepu, No. 51100) have been installed at Quebec City (Mount Hermon) Cemetery. The markers are located in Section C.
Dr. Paterson and the team at the Canadian agency of the CWGC office in Ottawa offered tremendous assistance during the research phase of Harry Livingstone’s Forgotten Men: Canadians and the Chinese Labour Corps in the First World War, published in 2019.
Both men were bound for war-torn Europe to work behind the lines during the First World War, and died while travelling across Canada as part of large CLC contingents in 1917.
Book Reviews and a Nice New Promotional Cover Graphic from Dundurn Press
Early Reviews for Oceans of Fate
“The challenge when writing about a ship is not just to find personal stories but to weave them into a compelling narrative that keeps the reader turning the pages…. Black has done a meticulous job of unearthing diaries, journals, and personal letters and photographs of both crews and passengers, as well as plowing through dozens of newspapers, essays, and journal articles. The book’s appendices include casualty lists and a detailed timeline…. The result is a highly informative chronicle. Each character is given his or her backstory….”–David Stafford, May 2025 issue of the Literary Review of Canada.
“This is historical writing at its finest.”–Victor Suthren, author and former Director General Canadian War Museum.
“This book will be a great addition to the maritime story of Canada and the World Wars.”–Robert D. Turner, author and Curator Emeritus, Royal BC Museum
“Oceans of Fate is a richly and highly immersive account of those who served in and travelled aboard–through war and peace and war again–one of Canada’s great luxury steamships. Its brisk and compelling narrative takes readers on a riveting adventure story spanning some of the most tumultuous decades of the 20th century.”–author Brian Jeffrey Street
“Oceans of Fate is a thrilling and uplifting history of the first half of the 20th century revealed through the 30-year life of one of the great Canadian ocean-liners of the period. It is for all those who love the sea, witnessed war and cherished freedom.”–author Peter Johnson
“With impeccable research and the eye of a screenwriter, Dan Black breathes life back into the Empress of Asia during her 30-year voyage through a gilded and tumultuous era bookended by her service in two world wars. Oceans of Fate profiles a cast of characters who sailed her across the Pacific as crew and passengers, and it reveals the “upstairs, downstairs” hierarchy on board…. Most dramatic of all is Black’s telling of the ship’s harrowing end, when it is set on fire and sunk by Japanese dive bombers while transporting troops into besieged Singapore–his narrative of the attack and the plight of survivors is worthy of a movie. The author has once again brilliantly illuminated a lesser-known piece of Canadian history.”–Roger Smith, former foreign correspondent and political reporter, CTV News
“Dan Black’s Oceans of Fate is beautifully written. It transforms the steel and wood of a hull and deck into flesh and bone, weaving together the legacy of a ship that was not simply sailing the oceans carrying passengers and cargo but experiencing the tensions of wars and ultimate savagery of warfare. We are fortunate to have such a gifted writer in our midst.”–A. Blake Seward, M.S.M., Lest We Forget Project Founder
“Oceans of Fate is a masterly portrait of the ship, its crew, and passengers. Black’s skillful writing makes thousands of people who passed through the Empress during its thirty-year existence come alive, and the narrative is enhanced by maps and period photographs.”–Colonel John Boileau (ret’d), author of Samuel Cunard: Nova Scotia’s Master of the North Atlantic, and The Lucky and the Lost: The Lives of Titanic’s Children.