Here’s a dive into the Record Group Crew or Passenger Lists collection, part of the Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981 now available on Ancestry. They are sourced from the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology (Ingenium).
There’s a drop-down to select the year ranging from 1904 to 1981, with many gaps. There are also lots of anomalies! For 1903 the document is a wine list!
The table below shows the number of voyages completed by each ship by year from 1954 to 1957. All have complete passenger lists showing name, age and place (final destination). Most are westbound.
| Ship | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 |
| Beaverford | 5 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| Beaverlodge | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Empress of Australia | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Empress of Britain | 0 | 0 | 8 | 11 |
| Empress of England | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Empress of France | 1 | 2 | 10 | 9 |
| Empress of Scotland | 0 | 11 | 9 | 8 |
The Beaverford and Beaverlodge were freighters, with accommodation for up to 12 passengers, usually sailing from Antwerp. The Empresses usually sailed from Liverpool.
The other record groups available are:
Immigration Regulations and Policy
Journals, Logs and Ship Movement Books
Miscelanious Records
Named Ships
Programmes, Menues and Events
Promotional Artwork
Schedules and Fares
Ships Officers, or Company Officials
Voyage Reports
The spelling is Ancestry’s!
Ship Movement Books record the time and date that ships arrived and departed. Voyage Reports, vary in detail, such as injuries to passengers, are not available for all voyages.
Are these records aldo on the Science museum’ website somewhere? I’ve looked but it’s not easily navigated for anything but objects. It used to be far better
Wow! Do I feel old as I am on the Passenger List for the Empress of Scotland, departing Canada in April and another Empress, coming home to Canada in October 1956. My mother, a War Bride, took us to see her family ..and since we were younger than 10, our passage on board was cheaper. I visited England and Scotland to stay with relatives. I have great memories of that trip from visiting Buckingham Palace to attending a Ceilah (sp) in Timabrugh, Scotland. I even attended a small school while there and took highland dancing lessons.
Fantastic collection – I found my parents’ passenger list entries and downloaded them. They arrived within 6 months of each other in 1958, travelling separately and unknown to each other until a couple of years later, though they’d lived at one point about 15km apart in England.
Like Helen, I found the information in the Museum of Science and Tech catalogue to be less than helpful when trying to craft a decent citation.