Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

The Sinking of the SS Princess Sophia

SS Princess Sophia was a steel-built passenger liner in the coastal service fleet of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Along with SS Princess Adelaide, SS Princess Alice and SS Princess May, Princess Sophia was one of four similar ships built for CPR during 1910-1911.

On 25 October 1918, Princess Sophia sank with the loss of all aboard after grounding on Vanderbilt Reef in Lynn Canal near Juneau, Territory of Alaska. All 364 persons on the ship died, making the wreck of Princess Sophia the worst maritime accident in the history of British Columbia and Alaska. The circumstances of the wreck were controversial, as some felt that all aboard could have been saved.

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, British Columbia, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway, 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 50 nautical miles (93 km; 58 mi) 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.

Princess Sophia was also referred to as a "pocket liner" because she offered amenities like a great ocean liner, but on a smaller scale. The ship was part of the CPR "Princess fleet," which was composed of ships having names which began with the title "Princess".

Design and construction

Princess Sophia was a steamship of 2,320 gross register tons (GRT) and 1,466 net register tons (NRT), built by Bow, MacLachlan and Company at Paisley, Scotland. A strong, durable vessel, she was built of steel with a double hull. Princess Sophia was capable of handling more than just the Inside Passage, as her use on the stormy west coast of Vancouver Island demonstrated. Princess Sophia was equipped with wireless communications and full electric lighting. The ship was launched in November 1911 and completed in 1912. She was brought around Cape Horn by Captain Albert Adolphus Lindgren (1862–1916), who had also brought two other CPR coastal liners, SS Princess Adelaide and SS Princess May, out from Scotland on the same route. As built, Princess Sophia burned coal; however, the vessel was converted to oil fuel shortly after arrival in British Columbia. While not as luxurious as her fleet-mates serving the Pacific Northwest, Princess 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. 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 Princess Sophia was put on the route from Victoria to Prince Rupert, British Columbia. The next summer CPR assigned Princess Sophia to run once every two weeks from Victoria to Skagway, Alaska, alternating with Princess May, and stopping in Prince Rupert along the way. Occasionally Princess Sophia was diverted to other routes, such as an excursion to Bellingham, Washington. In 1914 the Great War began and with Canada as a participant, early wartime economic disruption resulted in a sharp decline of business for the CPR fleet, and a number of vessels, including Princess Sophia were temporarily taken out of service by November 1914. Princess Sophia and other CPR vessels transported troops raised for service in Europe.