The Voyage of the Spammed - Part 2: "Departure"

It was time to say our final good byes to relatives and friends; those who remain behind.  The family is leaving England.  Time on the train en route to the Liverpool docks to read the ticket which will get us across the ocean.  Opening the ticket gives you the first series of conditions:

On the back of the ticket, the fine print continues:

But inside has all the details.  I have blanked the rest of the family names.

So we can see the name of the ship, date of departure, from and to, the cabin (which I will go into more detail in a future installment), and the fare.  That amount of 247 pounds would be 4915 pounds if taking the same trip today, which converts to $8,363.00 Canadian dollars as of this writing.  Was it a good rate for two adults and three kiddies?  No idea...

But we are now boarding the big boat; surprised my parents never took any photos of this part of the journey (as they usually took photos of everything else!).  To help us with the transition and a preview of the upcoming voyage, my parents have been given a nice glossy Passenger List booklet.

There are 8 pages in this booklet, full of fun facts and a complete listing of all on board.  There are two classes of passengers on the ship; first class and tourist class.  Tourist has the largest number of individuals and we are five of them...  I have not scanned in the complete list of names for privacy of the other passengers.  So when you open this 8" x 5" book, the first thing you see on the inside cover is a nice colour illustration of the "Empress of Canada".

I have not been able to make out the artist's name, but the location is identifiable.  It was "taken" somewhere on the St. Lawrence Seaway, as can be verified by the "Fleur-de-lis" flag on the lower left side of the painting.   We also get informed as to how much this ship weighs!  

Moving on the book itself, the title page:

More fun facts!  A brief synopsis of the ship, and the officers from captain right to the dancers(?).  What kind of ship is this....?  Next page is the 64-65 schedule of the White Empress Fleet, the sister ship being the "Empress of England".  This is also a cruise ship!

The next few pages are passenger listings.  Of course the first class get their own page (105 people actually...)  A few doctors and some other naval types.  And then onto tourist class.  When you reach the "centerfold", you get to see the route we are going to take.

No idea which of the two possible routes the ship took.  Guess it depended on the ocean conditions, weather, etc.  But I do remember seeing icebergs as we got closer to Newfoundland....  

A few more pages of tourist class, and then the last page.  

A listing of all Canadian Pacific offices throughout the world is the last page of the book.  The inside back cover shows the insignia of crew members.  Maybe do a bit of "Officer Spotting" whilst on the trip.  The back cover is nothing but the same navy blue as the front cover. 

The "Empress" has departed Liverpool and heading for Greenock.  Cabin M115 will be our temporary home for the next seven days.  Bon Voyage!  In Part Three I will explore the ship further, both above and below decks.