Although the Empress of Scotland went from Montreal to Liverpool, Helen and Vilma Hruska got off in Greenock, Scotland, on July 5, a day before the ship arrived in Liverpool. They returned on the same ship, leaving August 21 and arriving in Montreal on August 27. Presumably they traveled by train from New York to Montreal and from Greenock to London and eventually to the continent, but I have documents relating only to the Empress and one hotel they stayed at in Brussels.
Click image to download a 880-KB PDF of this brochure.
Fortunately, the items Helen collected on the trip to Scotland mostly complemented the items she saved from the return trip, and between them we can get a pretty complete picture of what life was like aboard a Canadian Pacific ocean liner. The above brochure brags that trips on the Empresses included fewer than 2,000 miles in the open sea (plus about a thousand miles in the St. Lawrence Seaway) while trips from New York to Liverpool spent more than 3,000 in the open ocean. A stamp on the back indicates the brochure was distributed by the National Education Association, of which Vilma, a school teacher, was probably a member. Other documents indicate that the sisters were on a NEA-sponsored tour. Continue reading