"Think of a major shipping disaster and the first to spring to mind is that of the Titanic; however, only two years later, a tragedy of similarly epic proportions took place in the confines of the St Lawrence River in Canada. On a dark night in May 1914 the Norwegian collier Storstad rammed the Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Ireland. In less than fifteen minutes over 1000 people died, either trapped in the ship's hull or drowned trying to escape. They died within sight of land. It was the biggest Canadian maritime disaster in peacetime".