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The Empress of Britain‘s First World Cruise

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Train LoverFebruary 5, 2023

During the 1931 season, the Empress of Britain made nine round trips between Southampton and Quebec. For its last westbound trip of the season, however, it headed straight to New York, where it was prepared for its first world cruise. This cruise departed New York on December 3 and returned on April 8, thus lasting 127 days — a full ten days less than the 1930-31 cruise.

Artwork in the 1931-32 world cruise booklet includes black-and-white versions of the Frederick Griffin paintings in the Empress of Britain booklet shown yesterday combined with what appears to be Gillespie/Greenwood drawings and paintings of people in some of the cruise’s exotic destinations. Click image to view and download a 56.9-MB PDF of this 66-page booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

When reconfigured as a cruise ship, in which all rooms were effectively first class, it had a capacity of 641 passengers. Despite the shorter cruise, fares were advertised as starting at $2,000 per person, the same as the previous year. Continue reading →

The World’s Wonder Ship

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Train LoverFebruary 5, 2023

The introduction of the second Empress of Britain was so momentous in Canadian Pacific ocean liner history that I’m using 1931, rather than 1930, to divide the ’20s from the ’30s in these posts documenting the empress fleet. The Britain, whose maiden voyage began on May 27, 1931, was the largest and fastest ocean liner ever to regularly serve Canada and, when she went on nine world cruises, she was the largest ocean liner to visit most of the ports she visited, including Los Angeles.

Click image to download a 34.8-MB PDF of this 28-page booklet. I redid the Chung collection’s PDF of this booklet to restore the colors and make pages correctly oppose one another. Click here to download a 63.5-MB PDF of the Chung collection’s version from the University of British Columbia library.

CP issued the above booklet early in 1931 to publicize the ship before photos were available. The cover painting — which wraps around the back; click here to download a 2.6-MB PDF of the full front- and back-covers — as well as thirteen interior paintings are by a then-unknown English artist, Frederick Griffin (1906-1976), who was only 24 years old at the time. He later did many travel posters for British railroads and airlines. Continue reading →

Africa-South America Cruises

Posted on March 7, 2023 by Train LoverMarch 7, 2023

South America-Africa was the last cruise added to Canadian Pacific’s offerings, first taking place in 1928. Although the cruise visited some famous sites, including the pyramids and Mount Vesuvius, these were also visited by the world and Mediterranean cruises. Otherwise, most of the places visited, while fascinating, were less well known, such as Corcovada, Brazil; Montevideo, Uruguay; Fame’s Drift, South Africa; and Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanganyika. This probably made it more difficult to sell the cruises.

Click image to view and download a 17.2-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

This makes it surprising that the booklet advertising the inaugural run of this cruise has such a plain cover. Turning the page reveals another surprise: a wonderful painting by Maurice Logan on page 2, which should have been on the cover. Pages 6 to 23 show 17 more paintings, but they are unsigned so were probably done by CP artists Charles Greenwood and/or Gordon Gillespie. Continue reading →

Mediterranean Cruises, 1924-1931

Posted on March 6, 2023 by Train LoverJune 30, 2023

Canadian Pacific’s Mediterranean cruises included excursions to many of the same locations as the first part of its world cruises, including Madeira, Gibralter, Algiers, Cairo, Jerusalem, Naples, and Monaco, but the Med cruises also went to Seville, Constantinople, Athens, and Lisbon. Like the 1924 world cruise, the Mediterranean cruise was preceded and perhaps inspired by a 1922 Frank Clark cruise that chartered the Empress of Scotland. The Chung collection has a menu from that cruise.

Click image to view and download a 17.2-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

The 1924 cruise also used the Empress of Scotland, one of the ships originally built for Hamburg America and acquired by CP after the Great War. Though both were launched in the same year, Scotland was much bigger than the Empress of Britain, which CP used for its West Indies cruises. Continue reading →

West Indies Cruises, 1923-1931

Posted on March 5, 2023 by Train LoverFebruary 4, 2023

Round the world cruises weren’t the only cruises offered by Canadian Pacific. Trans-Atlantic ocean liner traffic greatly declined in winter, so CP used its ships on cruises to the West Indies (more frequently called the Caribbean today), the Mediterranean, and Africa/South America. The West Indies cruises were the shortest and least expensive of all CP’s offerings.

Click image to view and download a 15.2-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

The first West Indies cruises took place in 1923, a year before the first world cruise. They left New York City on January 20 and February 20, lasted about 27 days, visiting the Bahamas, Cuba, Martinique, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Venezuela. The cruise was aboard the original (1905) Empress of Britain and fares started at $250 — about $4,500 today — and could go as high as $1,250 per person. Continue reading →

A Cruise Menu at Banff

Posted on March 4, 2023 by Train LoverFebruary 4, 2023

This menu advertising Canadian Pacific cruises was used at the Banff Springs Hotel on September 7, 1930, less than three months before the world cruise would depart New York City. The back of the menu also mentioned the 73-day Mediterranean cruise (which would leave February 3 on the Empress of France and 29-day West Indies cruises (which would leave on January 9 and February 11 on the Duchess of Bedford).

Click image to view and download a 10.7-MB PDF of this menu from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

The cover art is rather spectacular, but it is also an amalgamation of two paintings by Fred J. Hoertz that were used in the decks-and-fares brochure presented here yesterday. One of the paintings showed the Empress of Australia and the other a Chinese junk. Continue reading →

The 1930-31 World Cruise

Posted on March 3, 2023 by Train LoverFebruary 4, 2023

This would be the last world cruise taken by the Empress of Australia. Canadian Pacific’s magnificent new Empress of Britain had been launched in June, 1930, and would make its maiden voyage from Southhampton to Quebec just a few weeks after this world cruise ended. That ship would be used for all future Canadian Pacific world cruises.

Click image to view and download a 63.5-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

Canadian Pacific advertised this cruise in North America with this booklet with an elaborate cover painting by Albert Cloutier. Inside, black-and-white photos are supplemented by 15 pencil or charcoal drawings signed “AC.” I wonder how he drew those pictures, as I haven’t found his name on any previous passenger lists. Perhaps he used photos from previous trips. Continue reading →

1929-30 World Cruise

Posted on March 2, 2023 by Train LoverJune 30, 2023

Canadian Pacific’s 1929-30 world on the Empress of Australia was 137 days, one day longer than the previous year’s, which had been the longest up to that year. The cruise left New York on December 2 and returned on April 17.

Click image to download a 29.6-MB PDF of this 112-page book.

The Chung collection didn’t have a booklet advertising this cruise in its collection, so I found one on line. I was surprised to find that it is a hard-bound book, as none of the previous booklets in the Chung collection appear to be hard bound. The front cover and spine are deeply embossed with “The World Is Round” title, which indicates this wasn’t some after-market binding. Canadian Pacific apparently earned enough profits on its world cruises that it could afford to publish its advertiser as a hard-back book. Continue reading →

1928-29 World Cruise

Posted on March 1, 2023 by Train LoverFebruary 5, 2023

Canadian Pacific’s 1928-29 world cruise was the longest to date, and it is especially long as described in this booklet, which was aimed at residents of Great Britain. For them, the cruise would be a trip around the world plus two trips across the Atlantic.

Click image to view and download a 60.7-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

They would begin on November 14 on the Empress of Australia‘s last trans-Atlantic voyage of the season from Southampton to Quebec. They would then spend three days at the Chateau Frontenac while the Australia was being refitted and revictualed before re-embarking for a short trip to New York. Continue reading →

1927-28 World Cruise

Posted on February 28, 2023 by Train LoverFebruary 4, 2023

For 1927-28, Canadian Pacific elected to use the Empress of Australia for its world cruise. This may be because the Empress of Scotland was getting old; it was eight years older than the Australia and would be scrapped in 1931, while the Australia continued to serve the Canadian Pacific for another two decades. It could also have been that the Australia was a little smaller, since — as will be shown below — despite being smaller it had more than enough space to meet the demand.

Click image to view and download a 53.6-MB PDF of this booklet from the University of British Columbia Chung collection.

The cover art for this 92-page booklet describing the cruise wraps around to the back, but the art covers only about 5 percent of the back cover so I’m only showing the front. This is the same artwork used on the Ceylon pages in the 1926-27 booklet, expect the art is flipped so that most of the image is on the righthand side. The blank area, of course, was for text in that booklet, but the area was left blank on the back cover of this one. Nothing in this booklet suggests that the cover art was by Maurice Logan, which is further evidence that this and the other interior art in the 1926-27 booklet was by Greenwood or Gillespie. Continue reading →