RMS Empress of Australia was an ocean liner built in 1913–1919 by Vulcan AG shipyard in Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland) for the Hamburg America Line.

[3] In trans-Pacific service, the ship garnered fame for her part in rescue efforts at Tokyo following the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923.

[4] In trans-Atlantic service, she earned distinction in 1927 by bringing the Prince of Wales from England to the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in Canada.

[4] The ship was originally built for the Hamburg America Line by Vulcan AG shipyard, Stettin, Germany (now Szczecin, Poland), in 1912, as yard number 333.

This choice of name was odd, as Admiral von Tirpitz, who had done much to improve Germany’s navy, had anti-British sentiments and views.

Thus Tirpitz became the third CPR vessel to carry the name Empress of China, however this honour would only last a matter of months.

[7] She was refitted by John Brown & Company, Clydebank, and renamed by CPR yet again to become RMS Empress of Australia in August 1921.

The vastly complex work was made more difficult by her divided uptakes, offering no central space to remove machinery.

Meantime, Lyons Maru, moored to the east, had lost her cable and drifted across the harbour, colliding with the Empress at her stern.

The Empress could not steer because of the damaged propeller, but was able to avoid the oil fire long enough to get assistance from the tanker Iris.

Then Empress of Canada transported a large number of refugees on to Kobe, where the Japanese government had set up a relief centre.

Empress of Australia was now free to leave, but at the request of the British Consul, she remained as long as needed for continued relief work.

Each morning, for the next several days, Empress of Australia re-entered the devastated harbour and sent her boats ashore manned by a combination of crew, local residents, and passenger volunteers.

A group of passengers and refugees who were aboard during the disaster commissioned a bronze tablet and presented it to the ship in recognition of the relief efforts.

When Empress of Australia was scrapped in 1952, the bronze tablet was rescued and presented to Captain Robinson, then aged 82, in a special ceremony in Vancouver.

In August, three years later, Empress of Australia departed from Hong Kong, after her twenty first and final Pacific voyage.

[4] In 1939, HMY Empress of Australia, sailed from Portsmouth 6 May 1939 and arrived at Quebec on 17 May 1939, two days late due to dense fog on the Atlantic.

Empress of Australia was sent to Southampton, where she was to be converted into a troopship; painted in grey, fitted with a three-inch (76 mm) gun and with a carrying capacity of 5,000.

[11] Japan surrendered before she reached her destination, and as a consequence she was diverted to take part in the reoccupation of Hong Kong by the British.

Notably, she ferried home the last British soldiers away from Bombay, just after they symbolically passed through the Gateway of India on 28 February 1948 following Indian independence in 1947.

[4] Her oak carved panelling from the smoking lounge was installed in the Ships Room in the Visitor Centre of the Glenfarclas Distillery at Ballindalloch on Speyside when it was built in 1973.