stopped at Vladivostok on the return voyage to North America from the Far East to pick up Canadian soldiers who had served at part of the Canadian Siberian Expeditionary Force during the Russian Revolution. In this period, Empress of Russia transported Philippine Senator Manuel L. Quezon on his return to Manila from the first Independence Mission to the US Congress in 1919. These trans-Pacific sailings continued up through December 1940. The routine nature of her schedule did nothing to diminish public interest in the comings and goings of Empress of Russia. For example, The New York Times regularly published news of mail ships sailings. In an era when airplanes carrying mail was still relatively novel, for example, the newspaper published a regular "Shipping and Mails" column. In a 1938 edition, the Times reported: During this peacetime period, she completed 310 crossings. Amongst the famous passengers who traveled on Empress of Russia were Chinese Nationalist leaders Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek, who sailed from Hong Kong to Shanghai in 1922; and American humorist Will Rogers who sailed to Japan in late-November 1932. World War II Empress of Russia was again commissioned by the British Admiralty as a troop transport. Initially, she carried Australian and New Zealand Air Force recruits to Canada for flight school training. In March 1941, she was refitted at dockyards on the River Clyde in Scotland. The captain of Empress of Russia in 1941–42 would only realize many years later that he had had a VIP aboard — a young Midshipman Philip Mountbatten (later to become Duke of Edinburgh) is remembered for having helped stoke the boilers in 1941. Empress of Russia was involved in the North Africa landings in 1943. In October 1943, she made a special trip to Gothenburg to exchange prisoners of war. This was followed by seven trips to Reykjavík for the RAF. In early 1944, she was used as an accommodation ship at Rosyth for Russian crews who were to take over a number of British warships. In June, she was moved to Spithead where she was used as a depot ship for tugs after the D-Day landings. In October 1944, she sailed to Gareloch where she was laid up until June 1945. Work was begun on the refitting Empress of Russia for service transporting Canadian troops from Europe to North America; however, she was gutted by fire on 8 September 1945 at