Living History is an ongoing series showcasing just a small assortment of the more than 350,000 items housed at The Salvation Army Heritage Centre in Toronto. This month, we spotlight one of its most treasured artifacts. 

One of the darkest days of the early Canadian Salvation Army occurred on May 29, 1914, when the Empress of Ireland, carrying a delegation bound for an Army congress in London, England, was rammed by the SS Storstad, a Norwegian collier. One hundred and twenty-four Salvationists perished.

A thick wool tablecloth from the Storstad was donated to the Heritage Centre by way of one of the Empress survivors who lived to tell his story, Alfred Keith. He describes the ordeal in the moments after the ship was struck: “I sensed I was going over,” Keith said. “I went as low as possible on the port side and dived in headfirst.” A competitive swimmer, he frantically swam as fast as he could away from the rapidly sinking Empress. He recalls being sucked under water by the force of the backwater as the ship went down. Keith held his breath for what seemed an eternity, and just as he felt he would not be able to hold his breath any longer, he was propelled up from beneath the icy waters.

Numb and exhausted from the physical strain, Keith floated on his back for over an hour without a lifejacket until his head struck a floating log. He desperately wrapped his weary arms around the bobbing debris until he was picked up by a lifeboat from the Storstad, making one last sweep to search for survivors.

As Keith boarded the Storstad, weary, wet, cold and exhausted, a quick-thinking crew member retrieved a thick wool tablecloth from the dining room and wrapped it around the shivering survivor.

More than a century later, the Heritage Centre is privileged to have that tablecloth among its valued holdings. Keith went on to have a distinguished career in The Salvation Army, but he never parted with the tablecloth that saved his life. Eventually, Keith’s son donated it to the centre for safekeeping.

Alfred Keith

An old illustration of the Empress of Ireland

Main photo: Camilo Mejia; historical photos: courtesy of The Salvation Army Heritage Centre

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