SS Princess Sophia was a steel-built passenger liner in the coastal service fleet of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Along with , , and , Princess Sophia was one of four similar ships built for CPR during 1910-1911.Cruising the Pacific Northwest, 1910-1911 sister ships
On 25 October 1918, Princess SophiaThis vessel was generally referred to as Sophia for short. See McCurdy, at 300, for Captain Ledbetter's first hand account in which he refers to the vessel in this manner. sank after grounding on Vanderbilt Reef in Lynn Canal near Juneau, Territory of Alaska. All 364 persons on the ship died, making the wreck of Sophia the worst maritime accident in the history of British Columbia and Alaska.
Inside Passage Beginning in 1901, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) ran a line of steamships on the west coast of Canada and the southeast coast of Alaska. The route from Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, ran through the winding channels and fjords along the coast, stopping at the principal towns for passengers, cargo, and mail. This route is still important today and is called the Inside Passage. Major ports of call along the Inside Passage include Prince Rupert and Alert Bay in British Columbia, and Wrangell, Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway in Alaska.
The coastal liner
Many different types of vessels navigated the Inside Passage, but the dominant type on longer routes was the "coastal liner". A coastal liner was a vessel which if necessary could withstand severe ocean conditions, but in general was expected to operate in relatively protected coastal waters. For example, as a coastal liner, Princess Sophia would only be licensed to carry passengers within of the coastline. Coastal liners carried both passengers and freight, and were often the only link that isolated coastal communities had with the outside world. Originally coastal liners were built of wood, and continued to be so built until well after the time when ocean liners had moved to iron and then steel construction. After several shipwrecks in the Inside Passage and other areas of the Pacific Northwest showed the weakness of wooden hulls, CPR switched over to steel construction for all new vessels.
Sophia was also referred to as a "pocket liner" because she offered amenities like a great ocean liner, but on a smaller scale.Steamship Historical Society of America. (1940). Steamboat Bill (US), Vol. 54, p. 206. The ship was part of the CPR "Princess fleet", which was composed of ships having names which began with the title "Princess".Turner, Robert D. (1987). West of the Great Divide: an Illustrated History of the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia, 1880-1986, p. 65.
Design and construction Princess Sophia was a steamship of and , built by Bow, McLachlan and Company at Paisley, Scotland, United Kingdom. A strong, durable vessel, she was built of steel with a double hull. Sophia was capable of handling more than just the Inside Passage, as her use on the stormy west coast of Vancouver Island demonstrated. She was equipped with Wireless communications and full electric lighting. While not as luxurious as her fleet-mates serving the Pacific Northwest, Sophia was comfortable throughout, particularly in first class. She had a forward observation lounge panelled in maple, a social hall with a piano for first-class passengers, and a 112-seat dining room with large windows for observing the coastal scenery.
Princess Sophia was launched in November 1911 and completed in 1912. Miramar Ship Index, SS Princess Sophia, ID#130620 She was brought around Cape Horn by Captain Albert Adolphus Lindgren (1862–1916), who had also brought two other CPR coastal liners, and , out from Scotland on the same route. As built, Sophia burned coal; however, the vessel was converted to oil fuel shortly after arrival in British Columbia. At the time of her sinking, Captain Leonard Locke (1852–1918) commanded her, with Captain Jeremiah Shaw (1875–1918) as second in command.
Routes On arrival Sophia was put on the route from Victoria to Prince Rupert. The following summer CPR assigned her to run once every two weeks from Victoria to Skagway, Alaska, alternating with Princess May and stopping in Prince Rupert along the way. Occasionally Sophia was diverted to other routes, such as an excursion to Bellingham, Washington, United States.Newell, Gordon R., and Williamson, Joe, Pacific Coastal Liners, at 139, 140, 178, Superior Publishing, Seattle WA (Bonanza Books ed. 1959) (no ISBN) When Canada entered the Great War in 1914, early wartime economic disruption resulted in a sharp decline of business for the CPR fleet and a number of vessels, including Sophia, were temporarily taken out of service by November 1914. Sophia and other CPR vessels transported troops raised for service in Europe.
On 12 September 1918, Sophia struck the United States Bureau of Fisheries fishery patrol vessel while Auklet was moored at Juneau, Alaska.AFSC Historical Corner: Auklet and Murre, 1917 Sister Patrol Vessels Retrieved 17 September 2018 Auklet suffered significant damage to her deckhouse.
Final voyage On 23 October 1918, Princess Sophia departed Skagway, Alaska, at 22:10,Report to the Canadian Minister of Marine on the Causes of the Wreck of the Princess Sophia, Victoria, BC, 27 Mar 1919The ship was running on British Columbia time, which was one hour ahead of Alaska time. Thus the time of departure was 23:00 by ship's time. Alaska time is used in this article unless otherwise noted. To establish clarity and eliminate confusion between am and pm times, 24-hour time notation is also used. more than three hours behind schedule. She was due to stop at Juneau and Wrangell, Alaska, the next day; Ketchikan, Alaska, and Prince Rupert, on 25 October; Alert Bay on 26 October; and Vancouver on 27 October. On board were 75 crew and about 268 passengers, including families of troops serving overseas, miners, and crews of sternwheelers that had finished operations for the winter. Fifty women and children were on the passenger list, including the wife and children of gold speculator John Beaton.
Four hours after leaving Skagway, while proceeding south down Lynn Canal, Sophia encountered heavy blinding snow driven by a strong and rising northwest wind.One source says that Captain Locke ordered speed decreased and additional lookouts set. McCurdy at 299. Another source says Captain Locke ordered that speed be maintained. Coates. Captain Locke navigated the canal at full speed, possibly in an attempt to make up time. Due to the prevailing snowy conditions, the crew was required to use dead reckoning by blowing the ship's whistle and making calculations as to their location within the canal, based on the time it took for the echo of the whistle to return. The ship was at least off course.
Vanderbilt Reef Ahead of Sophia lay a rock called Vanderbilt Reef, the tip of an underwater mountain that rose from the bottom of Lynn Canal. At high tide the rock might be awash or almost invisible under swells. At low tide it looked like a low table, with its highest point standing above the water at extreme low tide. At the time, Vanderbilt Reef was at extreme high tide and was unlit. The channel at this point was about wide, but the presence of the reef narrowed the main navigation channel to on its east side. This area, with deep waters, strong currents, rocky cliff faces, and narrow fjords is dangerous for ships. Tides regularly bring ships dangerously close to the shore. In bad weather, winds in the canal quickly become gales.Tales of Tragedy and Triumph: Canadian Shipwrecks, a virtual museum exhibition at Library and Archives Canada
Navigation aids
Vanderbilt Reef itself was marked with an unlit buoy, which of course would have been invisible at night. There was a staffed lighthouse at Sentinel Island about to the south. The light station on Sentinel Island had an area of sheltered water that was used for the station's wharf. Princess Sophia passed another staffed light station at Eldred Rock, the Eldred Rock Light, 30 miles south of Skagway. Keepers at both light stations kept weather logs, which became useful later in reconstructing the events of the next two days. The dock at Sentinel Island was used as a staging point by the vessels attempting rescue of the Princess Sophia on 24 and 25 October 1918.
Grounding
Heading south through Lynn Canal, Princess Sophia drifted about off course, and at 02:00 on 24 October 1918, Princess Sophia struck ground hard on Vanderbilt Reef, south of Skagway. A letter later recovered from the body of a passenger, Signal Corps Private Auris W. McQueen, described the scene on board just after the grounding: "Two women fainted and one of them got herself into a black evening dress and didn't worry about who saw her putting it on. Some of the men, too, kept life preservers on for an hour or so and seemed to think there was no chance for us."Turner, at 115–116
First distress call sent The Wireless operator on Princess Sophia sent out a distress call immediately. Wireless was weak in those days. The distress signal could not reach much farther than Juneau. The message did reach Juneau however, and by 2:15am the local CPR shipping agent was awakened with the news. He immediately began organizing a rescue flotilla from the boats in the harbor.
Stranded on the reef High tide came at 06:00 on 24 October. The wind had lessened, but Princess Sophia was still stuck fast on the reef. Low tide came at about noon. The wind and waves forced Princess Sophia even farther up onto the reef, but fortunately the vessel's double hull was not breached. At low tide on the reef the entire hull of Princess Sophia was completely out of the water. The barometer was rising, which indicated a possible improvement in the weather. With the next high tide at 16:00, and the seas so rough that any evacuation would be hazardous, Locke chose to wait to see if he could get the vessel off. This proved impossible. Without a tug, or more likely two or three tugs, Princess Sophia could never be taken off the reef. Worse yet, the passengers could not be evacuated from the vessel without life-threatening danger. At low tide Princess Sophia was surrounded on both sides by exposed rock. At high tide, the rock was awash, but the swells were such that a lifeboat would strike the rocks as the waves pounded up and down.
Similar wrecks While there had been many shipwrecks and groundings over the years, and it was the rare vessel that did not run aground or have some problem of this nature, two shipwrecks would have been foremost in the minds of Captain Locke and his officers, as well as other senior captains and officers among the rescue vessels, like Captains Ledbetter of and Miller of . These two wrecks, of in 1904 and Princess May in 1910, showed well the dilemma faced by Captain Locke in making a decision whether to evacuate Princess Sophia.
In fine weather and smooth seas on 5 August 1910, , another CPR steamship, grounded on Sentinel Island within sight of Vanderbilt Reef. All aboard were evacuated to the nearby light station, and the vessel itself was later removed from the rock with relatively minor damage. It was Princess May that CPR dispatched on hearing of the grounding of Princess Sophia to pick up her passengers who they presumed would be soon evacuated. While Princess Mays grounding had been in early August, and not late October, still there were other vessels with the Princess Sophia and the stranded ship seemed to be secure.