How long did the empress of Ireland to sink?

Answer 1

The Empress of Ireland collided with a Norwegian Coal ship in the middle of a fog around 2:00 AM and sank rapidly in 14 minutes. Most passengers did become aware of the thick fog before the collision. Many people were awakened (the ones in the upper decks were awaken from their beds or even men playing card games at night were interrupted by the feel of shaking like a serious earthquake). The 3rd class (lower deck passengers were awakened from violent shaking and water pouring in their porthole windows)-the lower deck halls began flooding rapidly, and not many people could make it to the upper decks-the people who were on lower decks were mostly European immigrants (most were non-English speaking) and were in too much in panic of the collision. Many passengers had no time to dress themselves-the mothers had no time to dress their children (most were in their night clothes) or even put on lifebelts, get their belonings. Lifeboats could not be launched. Few people made it to the lifeboats that were floating. When the ship capsized, people on upper decks tried to rescue the ones who were trapped below (unfortunatly those who were trapped below the flooding decks already drowned, most bodies were not found-as if they were possibly washed out by the rapid waves- the ones who were retrieved on the upper deck by rescuers had already perished from the freezing cold waters).