The journalist and historian Eve Lazarus discusses her new book Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2025), with Joseph Planta.

Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Beneath Dark Waters

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Eve Lazarus joins me again. She’s got a new book out, Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck; and it’s a terrific read. What Eve has done is taken a forgotten maritime disaster, one that took more lives than the Titanic, and looked at the narratives in the press of the day that contributed to the sinking’s misinterpretation then. She draws on historical documents, as well as personal letters and weaves a fascinating tale that brings to life those lives lost, as well as survivors. Largely thanks to fog, in the early hours of 29 May 1914, the RMS Empress of Ireland, en route to Liverpool, England from Quebec City, was rammed by a Norwegian coal ship, Storstad, in the St. Lawrence River. It takes fourteen minutes for the Empress of Ireland to sink, and by then only four of the forty lifeboats had been launched. I spoke to Eve earlier this month, about the book, how she came to learn of the Empress of Ireland, and the process she undertook to write it. As a fan of Eve’s terrific history books largely on true crime, this new book might be a departure, but it’s dazzling one at that. We’re transported to a time of liner travel, a time when myths are created out of various press accounts, as well as how just how different life was then as now, thanks to technology. Eve Lazarus is a reporter, author, and the host and producer of the Cold Case Canada true crime podcast. She first appeared on the program eighteen years ago, and has been on six previous times for six previous books of hers. All her books seem to be acclaimed and bestsellers. This new one is from Arsenal Pulp Press. She joined me from her home in North Vancouver. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Eve Lazarus; Ms. Lazarus, good morning.

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