A Taste of Third Class - Empress of Ireland's Third Class Pantry

Being the first to visit an area of a shipwreck is a great feeling. I had an opportunity to have this exhilarating feeling when I visited the Empress of Ireland's third class pantry with my dive partner and good friend, the noted Canadian diver Dr. Steve Brooks in 1987.  This part of the ship at about 150 feet is fairly deep compared to the outer portions of the ship. This can be easily explained as the ship settling on the bottom of the river, where the pantry is now actually submerged in the muddy bottom. Initially Steve and I dove the dining room portion of the third class area together but mucked-up the visibility so bad, it made for an interesting trip out of the ship. On subsequent dives, one person would go in while the other would stay out of the area. In that way, if you messed up the visibility, then it was your fault. Once I saw this area devoid of the silty mess, the wall structures became apparent and going through the doorway aft of the dining room, you would go in and see the pantry where foods were prepared and plated for the passengers. Please note the stack of beautiful Minton porcelain plates that are stacked together and waiting 91 years for someone to come by. The wire that is hanging down was used for lighting the pantry and can easily wrap around an unsuspecting diver. Care is always taken when penetrating a vessel and the Empress gives you a lot of slack-enough to hang yourself with! The Empress of Ireland is a protected wreck, therefore the only thing that we recovered this day was some great video. Our expedition will be shooting some very high-end digital video using some of the latest SONY technology and revisiting all the notable areas of the ship.