We’ve seen a painting of this ship before on a 1937 menu, at which time it was called the Empress of Japan, having been built in 1930 to serve Canadian Pacific between Vancouver and Yokohama and other Pacific ports. With a length of 644 feet, she had room for 1,173 passengers in four classes of service: first, second, third, and steerage. Although she had three funnels, the third was only to ventilate the boiler rooms and galleys.
Click image to download a 798-KB PDF of this menu.
In 1939, she was pressed into troop service and in 1942 her name was changed to Empress of Scotland. After the war, she was the only one of six Empresses that was returned to Canadian Pacific, the others being sunk or damaged beyond repair. CP spent two years re-outfitting her for summer service between Montreal and Liverpool and winter cruise ship service. She took her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Montreal in 1950. Steerage having been eliminated, she had room for 663 first- and third-class passengers.
The Empress of Scotland remained in Canadian Pacific service until November 1957, when she was replaced by newer ships. She was sold to the Hamburg-Atlantic line, which renamed her the Hanseatic. A fire in 1966 did so much damage that she was scrapped.
The painter of the 1937 portrait wasn’t identified but was probably Norman Wilkinson, whose art appeared on several other pre-war Canadian Pacific menu covers. The signature on today’s painting is that of Oswald Pennington, who also painted the Empress of Australia. Pennington was a sailor himself who served as an officer on many Canadian Pacific steamships and became a captain of troop ships during the war.
Helen Hruska collected this menu on her tour of Europe. Unlike many of the other menus used on board the Empress ships, this one is part of a series of menus that was also used on Canadian Pacific dining cars. While I don’t know if this particular menu cover was used in a dining car, at least one menu in this series, with a photo bordered by a white band on top, was used in dining car.