Canadian Northern Steamships, Ltd.
Westbound Avonmouth to Halifax. On 8 April encountered and reported an ice field in the vicinity of the subsequent Titanic disaster site : 42 degrees 50’N, 49 degrees 30’W to 42 degrees 30’N 50 degrees 10’ W.
Port of registry: Toronto, Canada
Flag of Registry: Canadian
Funnel: Yellow with blue top
Company flag: Blue and white pennant divided vertically, horizontal red stripe on the blue with saltaires above and below, red ball on the white.
Signal letters: H M D G Wireless call letters M E R
Steel hull, two funnels, two masts, triple screw, three steel decks, wood sheathed, web frames, shelter deck, teak sheathed, engines: 3 steam turbines, 19.5 knots.
Accommodations as built: 344 First Class, 210 Second Class 560 Third Class.
Tonnages: gross 11,117
Dimensions: length 526.1 ft width 60.2 ft. depth 26.8 ft.
1890 Dec. Built and engined by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd., Govan, Scotland Yard no. 450, sister ship: Heliopolis
1907 Renamed Cairo for the Egyptian Mail Steamship Co., Ltd.
1908 Dec. Laid up with Heliopolis for 9 months when the steamship company failed .
1909 Aug. Purchased by Canadian Northern Steamships and renamed Royal Edward.
1910 May First voyage Avonmouth-Quebec-Montreal
1914 May 100 miles east of Cape Race, damaged her bow in collision with an iceberg.
1915 13 Aug. While in service as a British troop transport, carrying troops to Gallipoli, was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-15 six miles west of Kandeliusa Island in the Aegean Sea, 935 of the 1,586 aboard were lost.
