What did

[Rocky Whiteside]

her interior look like?

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Pretty much standard 1900-1910 ocean liner. Dining room with central well giving a dome effect. Ornate lounge, which originally had a cut-out in the center that served to open the dining room into a third deck- subsequently covered over. The impression given by photos is that the interiors were somewhat fussy....one suspects a lot of red velvet, tassels, and subtly gilded woodwork.

 

[Jason Schleisman]

Hi Rocky, check out this site:

http://www.lostliners.com/Liners/Canadian_Pacific/Empress_Ireland/index.html

Several pictures of EofI interiors there, as well as quite a few other interesting EofI pictures if you click around the site.

 

[Rocky Whiteside]

Wow. Her dining saloon looks like a less beautiful version, of the Lusitania's. You were right. Thanks!

 

[Jeremy Aufderheide]

I think she looks really cramped. The dining room is pretty fantastic, but the other rooms look tiny. The photo of the grand staircase (not on this site) looks "crunched".

 

[Michael H. Standart]

Keep in mind that space on a ship was at a premium so there was quite the inclination to make the cabins as small as possible. One of the reasons that ships became larger over time even when passenger capacity didn't increase signifigently was to provide some semblance of elbow room for customers who were wanting more of it.

 

[David Saint-Pierre]

Just wanted to reply to Jim Kalafus, there never was a cut-out covered over in the Empress of Ireland.

I don't know where your information comes from but I guess it's a confusion created by post-WW1 photos of her sister ship Empress of Britain. In the Britain, there was indeed cut-outs covered in the former Café (then Lounge) over the First Class dining room.