RMS Empress of Britain, World's Wonder Ship - 1938
Front Cover, Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship of the Canadian Pacific Line, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 2137dd8989
The Empress of Britain—760 Feet Long, 97 Feet Broad—Holds the Land-To-Land Transatlantic Record (Bishop's Rock to Belle Isle) of 3 Days, 1 Hour, 30 Minutes. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 2138028a38
Empress of Britain
42,350 Tons, 24 1/2 Knots
Fastest to Europe by the Smooth "59% Less Ocean" St. Lawrence Seaway Route
Only Three Days Open Sea
Comfort Counts
Modern travel, swift and far-reaching, commands it. Speed, efficiency, and comfort—luxurious comfort—are essentials in today's travel conditions. This especially applies to trans-Atlantic travel, with very particular emphasis on the Empress of Britain.
The ideal of complete and unquestionable travel comfort dominates the whole design of this great, famous, and graceful ship.
She took shape on generous lines of comfort—a ship of abundant spaciousness, genial breadth, comfortable size, and comfortable reserve of speed.
The beauty of her external lines, spick and span and lovely in white paint, crowds the deck rails of other ships she passes in midocean or draws admiring crowds when she steams majestically into the dock.
The RMS Empress of Britain achieved the fastest crossing of the Atlantic over the St. Lawrence Seaway Route with undisturbed passenger comfort. Her charm is such that her passengers part from her with regret and return to her with delight.
Passengers find that beauty as well as comfort should be found aboard, which is a further expression of the ideal the Empress of Britain has brought into being. Today she is the ship chosen and remembered by widely experienced and discriminating travelers, for whom there exists no competitor.
Modern ship comfort is not a chance manifestation. Only from a basis of well-considered design could the richly congenial luxury-comfort of the Empress of Britain be developed.
A perfect, highly efficient, pleasantly modern, ocean-traversing hotel, the ship has eleven lounges and dining rooms, an entire deck set aside for palatial public rooms, a sports deck with a full-size regulation tennis court, and a charming swimming pool.
Her apartments are invitingly furnished, lofty, and spacious like bedrooms in handsome private houses ashore, and from your bedside within them, you can contact anyone in the world by telephone.
The number of cabin passengers for whom accommodation is provided on the Empress of Britain, divided into the measurements of the public and private rooms available, gives each passenger more cubic feet of space than on any other ship.
The photographs on the ensuing pages are Vivex Natural Color Photographs.
The Empress Room, Designed by Sir John Lavery, R.A. Vivex Natural Color Photograph. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 21384ea855
The Mall, Designed by P. A. Staynes and A. H. Jones. Vivex Natural Color Photograph. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 2138652803
The Cathay Smoking Lounge, Designed by Edmund Dulac. Vivex Natural Color Photograph. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 21388ab973
The Salle Jacques Cartier, Designed by Frank Brangwyn, R.A. Vivex Natural Color Photograph. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 2138ac864e
Mayfair Lounge, Designed by Sir Charles Allom. Vivex Natural Color Photograph. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 2138c17a7f
The Grand Staircase, the Mall. Maurice Greiffenhagen's Great Historical Painting, " Champlain Welcomes His Bride to Quebec," Is at Its Head. Vivex Natural Color Photograph. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 21390f89f9
Famous artists and interior decorators designed the Public Rooms of the Empress of Britain.
Most of these rooms are on the Promenade Deck: the Empress Room, the Mayfair Lounge, the Cathay Lounge, the Cocktail Bar, the Card Room, and the Writing Room.
Uniting them is The Mall, a brilliantly lighted inner promenade used as a popular rendezvous at the top of the principal stairway. Lifts from the lower decks also serve it. In the Empress Room, the latest moving pictures are shown nightly.
There is also a Children's Room, shops, beauty parlors, hair-dressing rooms for men, a daily newspaper, and other amenities.
The broad Sports Deck, above the Promenade Deck, offers all the customary sea-faring games and a full-size Tennis Court. The Empress of Britain has squash racket courts, a gymnasium, Turkish baths, and a stunning interior swimming pool.
Knickerbocker Cocktail Bar, Designed by Heath Robinson. Vivex Natural Color Photograph. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 213913fb81
The Olympian Swimming Pool. Vivex Natural Color Photograph. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 213928e7aa
One of Many Moderately Priced Apartments With These Rooms, as With 75% of Apartments, Passengers Can Choose One With a Private Bathroom. Vivex Natural Color Photograph. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 213972ae6e
The designers produced a generous variety of color schemes and tasteful furnishings, and the requirements of the most fastidious traveler were thus amply catered for.
An adequate staff of well-trained stewards, stewardesses, and bellboys ensures prompt and cheerful service for one's smallest needs.
Ample provision is made for a wide range of moderately priced accommodations, comprising single and double Apartments with either private baths, private shower baths, or optional private baths. Apartments are situated on the Sports, A, B, and C Decks, the last mentioned being the lowest deck on which Cabin passengers are accommodated.
There are also three types of private suites, epitomizing the seclusion of the residential atmosphere. Each suite has a charming double room, a roomy lounge, an entrance hall, a bathroom, ample baggage room—and if required, a servant's room. Some suites have a cheerful sun verandah.
In addition, many adjoining apartments may be used as en suites.
Suit No. 120-122 Consisting of Bedroom, Sitting Room, and Bath. Vivex Natural Color Photograph, Designed by P. A. Staynes. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 2139f0f431
Room 331 Is One Type of Single Apartment. Vivex Natural Color Photograph. Empress of Britain: The World's Wonder Ship, 1938. From the Chris Crofts Collection. GGA Image ID # 213a8ab85b
Canadian Pacific: World's Greatest Travel System with Traffic Agents in Canada and the United States for Canadian Australasian Line. General Agents in Canada for the P. and O. Offices and agencies throughout the world. Passengers are cordially Invited to make them their headquarters, and to have mail and telegrams addressed in their care.
H. M. MacCULLUM, Steamship General Passenger Agent, Montreal.
W. G. ANNABLE, Asst. Steamship Passenger Traffic Manager, Montreal.
Wm. BAIRD, Steamship Passenger Traffic Manager, Montreal.
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
Brochure No. 50-A-38
Vivex Natural Color Photographs
Vivex was a wash-off relief process using three negatives on waxed cellophane, one for each primary color. It was a subtractive process using cyan, magenta, and yellow primaries. The public did not widely use Color photography until the 1960s because it was expensive. Color photographs were used for special occasions only.
It was produced by the British company Colour Photography Limited of Willesden, which operated the first professional color printing service. The company was in business from 1928 until World War II in 1939. Until the war, the Vivex process accounted for 90% of UK color print photography.
Brochure Images Contributed by Chris Crofts, 2023-2024.
