SS Princess Sophia
_(ca_1912).jpg)
SS Princess Sophia circa 1912
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| History | |
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 Canada
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| Name: | Princess Sophia |
| Owner: | Canadian Pacific Railway |
| Port of registry: | Victoria B.C. |
| Route: | Vancouver and Victoria to northern British Columbia ports and Alaska |
| Ordered: | May 1911 |
| Builder: | Bow, McLachlan & Co, Paisley, Scotland |
| Cost: | £51,000 (about $250,000 at that time) |
| Yard number: | 272 |
| Launched: | 8 November 1911 |
| Christened: | By Miss Piers, daughter of Arthur Piers, manager of C.P. Steamship Service |
| Completed: | 1912 |
| Maiden voyage: | 7 June 1912 |
| Fate: | Grounded on 24 October 1918; sank following day during a storm |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Coastal passenger steamship |
| Tonnage: |
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| Length: | 245 ft (75 m) |
| Beam: | 44 ft (13 m) |
| Draught: | 12 ft (4 m) |
| Depth: | 24 ft (7 m) depth of hold |
| Installed power: | One triple expansion steam engine, 22", 37", and 60" x 36" |
| Propulsion: | single screw |
| Speed: | 14 knots (26 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 250 passengers; could carry more with special permission (capacity for 500) |
| Crew: | 73 |
| Notes: | Originally coal-burning; converted to oil fuel shortly after arrival in British Columbia |
The SS Princess Sophia was a steel-built coastal passenger liner in the coastal service fleet of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Along with SS Princess Adelaide, SS Princess Alice, and SS Princess Mary, 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, Alaska. With 343 or more people dying in the incident, the wreck of the Princess Sophia was 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.
Beginning in 1901, Canadian Pacific Railway ran a line of steamships on the west coast of Canada and the southeast coast of Alaska. The route from Victoria, BC and Vancouver, BC 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, BC; Alert Bay, BC; Wrangell, AK; Ketchikan, AK; Juneau, AK; and Skagway, AK.
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 miles 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.
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