Service
history
RMS Empress
of Japan was an ocean liner built in 1929–1930 by Fairfield Shipbuilding &
Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific
Steamships. This ship was the second of two CP vessels to be named Empress
of Japan – regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast
of Canada and the Far East until 1942. In 1942, she was renamed RMS Empress of
Scotland – the second of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Scotland. In
1957, the Hamburg Atlantic Line purchased the ship and re-named her TS
Hanseatic. Empress of Japan carried out her sea trial successfully in May 1930.
The outbreak of war in Europe caused Empress of Japan to be re-fitted for
wartime service. Following the Japanese attacks on the Empire outposts in the
Far East In 1942 the name of the ship was renamed Empress of Scotland.
Following the end of World War II, Empress of Scotland In the period between
1948 and 1950 was rebuilt at Fairfield in Glasgow. This re-fitting included a
reconfiguration of her cabins. The Canadian Pacific Empress of Scotland
completed her last trans-Atlantic crossing in 1957; and she was temporarily
laid up in Belfast until being sold. Following her sale to Hamburg Atlantic
Line in 1958, the ship was radically rebuilt. The ship's superstructure and
funnels were rebuilt and her passenger accommodations were re-configured. The
vessel emerged as the 30,030 GRT TS Hanseatic. The renamed and re-flagged ship
was designed to carry as many 1350 passengers in comfortable luxury on the
Hamburg-New York route. On 8 September 1966, the ship caught fire at New York.
The fire developed in the engine room and gutted five decks.