RMS Empress of Britain Liner Painting

Built by John Brown on Clydebank between 1928 and 1931the ship was launched on 11 June 1930 and embarked on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1931. In the ownership of the Canadian Pacific company, the ship was built with a reinforced hull in anticipation of meeting ice on her more northerly routes.

Billed as the world’s most economical ship and Canada’s challenger on the Atlantic she was kept small enough to traverse the Suez and Panama canals during her winter cruising schedule when the St Lawrence River was impassable. On the first of these cruises she cruised around the world for 128 days, returning to the Atlantic route after re-fit.

When war came she took part in the ‘millionaire’s convoy’ in June 1940 but would be sunk by U-32 after an attack by an Focke-Wulf Fw-200.

In John Stewart’s liner painting the ship is seen approaching Gibraltar on her long cruise. This is the cropped version of this print which gives a greater proportion of the print to the ship.