THE Canadian Pacific Railway luxury liner, Empress of Britain, was launched by the Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor) at John Brown’s Clydebank yard on June 11, 1930. “When the signal ‘all clear’ was given,” this paper reported, “the Prince cut the ribbon and the bottle of wine crashed on the stern. The cradle creaked under the weight of the leviathan, unleashed from the stocks, and the magnificent liner was soon moving down the ways, slowly and with a stately dignity.” The Empress could accommodate 465 passengers, including servants, 260 tourist-third cabin class passengers, and 470 third-class passengers. Many celebrities of the era sailed on her. In August 1934 (above) the liner arrived at Southampton from Quebec, its crossing of four days, six hours and 58 minutes having beaten the previous record by over half an hour.

The Empress came to a sad end, however, when it was bombed and set on fire, then torpedoed and sunk, off the coast of Ireland, in October 1940. Most of the passengers and crew were picked up by British destroyers. Brown’s sent a message to Canadian Pacific, deploring the loss of the Empress.

In June 1955, 11,000 gathered at the Fairfield’s yard as the Queen launched the latest Empress of Britain (the third Clydebuilt liner to bear the name). Its construction had meant work for thousands - not just workers in the shipyard and its engine shops, but in the workshops of 184 other firms in 65 towns and cities across Britain.