Curse

[Jack Coburn]

I read somewhere on a site that a few years before the Empress of Ireland sank, Captain Kendall managed to help the police in the arrest of a man (can't remember his name) who murdered his wife in London. He was fleeing Britain on one of the ships (can't remember it's name either) commanded by Kendall. Kendall found out about the criminal and informed the police. When the ship docked he was arrested and later hanged back in Britain. As he was handed over to the police the man told Kendall he would pay dearly for what he had done. This was sometime before the Empress of Ireland sank. Does anyone have more information on this?

 

[Jeremy Lee]

Was it the Dr. Crippen case?

 

[David Zeni]

Jack:
You are absolutely correct about the story. It was as Jeremy points out...Crippen. He was sailing to Canada on CPR's Montrose with his mistress Ethel Le Neve. Crippen is reported to have cursed Kendall upon his arrest by Inspector Dew of Scotland Yard near Father Point, Quebec, where the Pilot is embarked. Dew was in disguise as the Pilot which may have irritated Crippen who was both upset and relieved at the same time. The curiosity, as chronicled in every book written, is that the Empress sank off Father Point four years after the alleged curse. Cheers, dave zeni

 

[Michael H. Standart]

While not germane to any curses, I'm sure any students of the Empress of Ireland will be interested to know that The History Channel is doing something on her. Deep Sea Detectives will be doing a feature on her tommorrow night at 8pm Eastern Standard Time.

 

[James Hill]

A recent channel 5 documentary has looked into Crippen`s case again.They believe he was inocennt and police tampered and "fixed" some evidence in order to make the case simple and less complicated.Truly interesting.Anyone else see it.I`m begining to wonder,was he innocent ? was an innocent man sent to his death.

 

[Steven Christian]

I was reading some stuff on the Empress and ran across this. I know there are superstitions associated with sailors...never leave port on a Friday...ect. I guess the crew took this as a bad omen.

Emmy was the ship's cat on RMS Empress of Ireland. She was an orange tabby cat who never missed a voyage. However, on 28 May 1914, Emmy tried to escape the ship. The crew could not get her to return to the ship, and Empress of Ireland left without her. This was thought to be a very bad sign.[9] Early the next morning, Empress of Ireland ran into SS Storstad while sailing through fog at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Empress of Ireland sank quickly, killing over 1,000 people.