Karen Autio likes to keep company with words, whether as a writer, reader, or calligrapher. When Karen's Finnish grandmother gave her a silver spoon and told her its tale, Karen had no idea it would lead her into a whole novel's worth of words. She learned that her grandmother's Finnish friends had members of their family from Port Arthur who died in the wreck of the Empress of Ireland. Karen researched the steamship and wove the ship's story into fictional Saara's life. Karen grew up in the Thunder Bay area and now lives in Kelowna, B.C., with her husband and two children. Second Watch is her first book.

Second Watch

Second Watch is based on true details of Finnish immigrant culture and the sinking of the great Empress of Ireland. Over the eight years that this Canadian Pacific steamship sailed the Atlantic Ocean, it transported more than 117,000 passengers to Canada. The sinking of the Empress on May 29, 1914, remains Canada's worst maritime disaster during peacetime. Of 1,477 passengers and crew on board, 1,012 were lost – more passengers than in the sinking of the Titanic. Yet the Empress of Ireland and its fate remain little known to most Canadians.

JUVENILE HISTORICAL FICTION • 208 pp • 5¼ x 7¾ • map and archival photos
ISBN 1-55039-151-8 • paper • $9.95
Ages 8-13