Passengers standing on the side of the Empress of Ireland just before she sank in the early hours of 29th May 1914 after collision with the Norwegian collier Storstad in the Saint Lawrence River. 'The ship was lying almost flat on the water on the starboard side. A passenger finally pulled me through [a porthole]. About one hundred passengers had gathered on the side of the ship, but the moment after I joined them the vessel plunged to the bottom' - description by Dr Grant, the ship's surgeon.