SS Princess Sophia
SS Princess Sophia circa 1912
| |
History | |
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Name | Princess Sophia[1][2][3] |
Owner | Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) |
Port of registry | Victoria, British Columbia, Canada |
Route | Vancouver and Victoria to northern British Columbia ports and Alaska |
Ordered | May 1911 |
Builder | Bow, McLachlan & Co, Paisley, Scotland, UK |
Cost | £51,000 (about $250,000 at that time)[1] |
Yard number | 272 |
Launched | 8 November 1911 |
Christened | By the 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 | |
Type | Coastal passenger steamship |
Tonnage | |
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)[1] |
Crew | 73 |
Notes | Originally coal-burning; converted to oil fuel shortly after arrival in British Columbia |
SS Princess Sophia was a steel-built
On 25 October 1918, Princess Sophia[5] sank with the loss of all aboard after grounding on Vanderbilt Reef in Lynn Canal near Juneau, Territory of Alaska.[6] All 364 persons on the ship died, making the wreck of Sophia the worst maritime accident in the history of British Columbia and Alaska.[7]
Inside Passage
Beginning in 1901, the
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 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.
Sophia was also referred to as a "pocket liner" because she offered amenities like a great
Design and construction
Princess Sophia was a steamship of 2,320
Princess Sophia was
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
On 12 September 1918, Sophia struck the
Final voyage
On 23 October 1918, Princess Sophia departed Skagway, Alaska, at 22:10,[13][14] 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.[2][15]
Four hours after leaving Skagway, while proceeding south down Lynn Canal, Sophia encountered heavy blinding snow driven by a strong and rising northwest wind.[16] 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 one nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) off course.[17]
Vanderbilt Reef
Ahead of Sophia lay a rock called
Vanderbilt Reef itself was marked with an unlit buoy, which of course would have been invisible at night. There was a staffed
Grounding
Heading south through Lynn Canal, Princess Sophia drifted about 1.25 miles (2.01 km)
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.[1]
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.[1][2][3]
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 Cedar and Miller of King & Winge. These two wrecks, of Clallam 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, Princess May, 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 May grounding had been in early August, and not late October, still there were other vessels with Princess Sophia grounding and the stranded ship seemed to be secure.[2]
The disaster of Clallam showed the dangers of a premature evacuation of people from a vessel into lifeboats. Clallam, a new vessel when she foundered, was sunk in a storm on what should have been an ordinary voyage across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Victoria, British Columbia. Clallam (168 feet, 657 tons), was a smaller vessel than Sophia and built of wood. Like Princess Sophia, Clallam was driven by a single propeller turned by a compound steam engine. En route to Victoria on 8 January 1904, Clallam, under the command of Captain George Roberts, encountered severe weather conditions. At about 3:30 p.m., with water rising on board apparently from a broken porthole and improper pumping procedures, Clallam seemed as if it would soon sink. Captain Roberts ordered the lifeboats lowered, and into them placed mostly women and children. All three boats capsized or failed to properly launch, drowning all 54 people aboard them. Clallam stayed afloat long enough for rescue vessels to reach her and evacuate the people left on board. [3][20][21][22][23][24][25]
Decision not to evacuate
Locke warned off James Davis, captain of the fishing vessel Estebeth, who attempted and then abandoned an effort to reach Sophia in a
Capt. J. W. Ledbetter, commander of the
Meanwhile, wireless reports of the grounding had reached
Communications problems
Cable communications to Alaska had been lost on 21 October 1918, and partly as a result of this, the wireless operators were having to contend with a rush of messages, which made it difficult to transmit essential messages relating to the grounding of Princess Sophia. Efforts to clear non-essential traffic were frustrated by the international character of the disaster. Word of the grounding only reached Cedar eleven hours after the grounding. Whether this was because Cedar was out of range or because wireless channels were jammed with non-essential traffic is not clear. The delay was unfortunate, as Cedar was the largest all-weather ship in the area, which could readily have taken on all of Princess Sophia's passengers and crew. No one knows what Cedar might have been able to do had she been alerted earlier. The delay could have been significant, as the late notice to him was still well recalled 45 years later by Captain Ledbetter.[1][3] Of all the rescue ships, only Cedar had wireless, and her not being on the scene earlier deprived the rescue effort of this resource, if no other.
Rescue effort begins Friday morning
Ledbetter, having the only ship with wireless, and thereby able to keep in ready contact with Princess Sophia, organized the rescue effort. The rescue plan, although dangerous, and perhaps even desperate, was to wait until high tide at 5:00 covered the reef with at least a few feet of water. This it was hoped would be enough to launch Sophia's boats and use them to take the people from Princess Sophia to the rescue ships. Cedar had anchored in the lee of a nearby island for the night. King and Winge, under captain J.J. Miller, had circled Princess Sophia all night, the only vessel to do so. On arrival at 20:00 on Thursday, Ledbetter ordered searchlights shined on Princess Sophia. What he saw convinced him that no boats could be then launched. Waves were breaking hard against the trapped steamship's hull, and the wind was rising. Meanwhile, the stranded ship remained fixed firmly in the grip of the rocks. Ledbetter, Miller, and Locke all agreed that the passengers would be safer aboard Princess Sophia and postponed any attempt to take them off by boat.[1]
Rising winds force abandonment
By 09:00 on 25 October, the wind was rising towards gale strength. Ledbetter was having difficulty keeping Cedar on station, and the smaller rescue boats that had run for shelter on the evening of 24 October were unable to return to the reef. Ledbetter decided he would try to
The conditions grew steadily worse, and by about 13:00 on the 25th both Cedar and King and Winge were having difficulty keeping on station. Ledbetter radioed Locke, and asked him for permission to retire to a more protected area. Locke assented. Cedar and King and Winge then went to the lee of Sentinel Island, where Miller, captain of King and Winge, came aboard Cedar to discuss a rescue plan with Ledbetter. They agreed that King and Winge, which carried a 350-
Last call for assistance
Just as Miller was disembarking from Cedar to return to King and Winge, at 16:50 on 25 October, Princess Sophia sent out a wireless message: "Ship Foundering on Reef. Come at Once." Ledbetter immediately prepared to steam out to the reef. He signaled Miller on King and Winge to follow him with two blasts of the whistle, but Miller did not at first understand the signal. Ledbetter then drove Cedar alongside King and Winge and shouted out to Miller: "I am going out there to try to locate him. If the snow should clear up, you come out and relieve me." Miller replied: "I will give you an hour to find them."
One of the last distress messages, at 5:20pm by wireless operator David Robinson, stated, "For God's sake hurry, the water is coming into my room".[17] Aware that Princess Sophia had weak wireless batteries, Cedar wired the passenger linke "We are coming. Save your batteries." Princess Sophia's operator radioed back: "Alright I will. You talk to me so I know you are coming." This was the last wireless message from Princess Sophia.[26]
Search in the storm
Cedar left the protected harbor at Sentinel Island and was immediately blasted by the wind and blowing snow. Conditions were so bad that 500 yards (460 m) from the lighthouse, the station's light could not be seen and the
David Leverton of the Maritime Museum of British Columbia told the CBC that the captain's barometer predicted an improvement in the weather and suggested to rescuers that they try the next day. "They had seven different rescue ships ready to come to the aid of the ship if it foundered off the reef. But what ended up happening was that it settled down on the reef" until approximately 5p.m. when it was lifted off the reef.[17]
Loss of the ship
With no survivors and no witnesses to the actual sinking, what happened on Princess Sophia to drive her off the reef is a matter of reconstruction from the available evidence and conjecture. Based on the evidence it appears that the storm, blowing in from the north, raised water levels on the reef much higher than previously, causing the vessel to become
There appears to have been no time for an organized evacuation. Many people wore lifejackets, and two wooden lifeboats floated away (the eight steel lifeboats sank). There were about 100 people still in their cabins when the ship sank. It is hard to know why, if the ship took half an hour to sink, so many people were below decks, but there could be many reasons. It was believed that seawater invaded the ship, the boiler exploded, buckling the deck and killing many people, but divers to the wreck have found all three boilers intact. Oil fuel spilled into the water, choking people who were trying to swim away. Sophia had been equipped with extra flotation devices, on the theory that people could cling to these in the water awaiting rescue. These were worthless, as the cold seawater would kill a swimmer long before rescue could arrive.[1]
Wreck located
The next morning, 26 October, it was still snowing, but the wind had died down somewhat. Cedar, King and Winge and other rescue vessels returned to the reef. Only the
When the watches on bodies in the water were examined, they were noted to have stopped at 5:50 p.m. The sole survivor of the wreck was an English setter dog found in Auke Bay, outside Juneau.[17]
Aftermath of wreck
For months after the wreck, bodies washed up for as much as thirty miles to the north and south of Vanderbilt Reef. Wreckage and the passengers' belongings were also found, including toys of the children who had died on the ship. Many of the bodies were scarcely recognizable as human remains, being covered with a thick coat of oil. Among the dead was Walter Harper, the first person to reach the summit of Denali, the highest mountain in North America.[28] Most of the bodies recovered were taken to Juneau, where many of the local citizens volunteered to help identify the remains and prepare them for burial. The bodies had to be scrubbed with gasoline to remove the oil. Teams of women prepared female bodies, and teams of men handled the males. The volunteers were particularly affected by the bodies of the children. Divers at the wreck site recovered about 100 bodies. Many were floating in cabins for months after the wreck. The families of passengers brought legal action against Canadian Pacific, but these failed.[1]
Evaluation of the decision not to evacuate
Many people believed that the decision not to evacuate the ship was a grave error by Captain Locke, and that most or even all of the passengers could have been saved. The Ministry of Marine reached a similar conclusion in 1919 after hearing the evidence from first hand witnesses.[13] Later, the courts ruled that right or wrong, the decision was within the reasonable range of judgment of the captain. Captain Ledbetter of Cedar stated that in his opinion, he never saw conditions that would have permitted evacuation of the ship, but he was careful, even almost 50 years later, to state that this was as far as he could tell from when he arrived at the reef, which was at 20:00 on 24 October. As early as 10:20 on 24 October there were enough rescue vessels at the reef to have accommodated all of the people on Princess Sophia, and there would be four or five hours until the wind began to rise. Also Princess Sophia had eight lifeboats built of steel, not wood, which would presumably have fared better on wave-washed rocks. On the other hand, Captain Locke could not have known the weather would worsen, and there seem to have been signs that it would improve. Historians Coates and Morrison speculate that the memory of the wreck of Clallam, when everyone in the lifeboats died after a premature abandonment of the vessel, may have played a role in Locke's decision.[1][3]
Letters recovered from the lost passengers
The passengers and crew on Princess Sophia realized their extreme danger. Many wrote letters to loved ones. At least two of these were later recovered. The letter of John R. "Jack" Maskell, found on his body, was widely printed in newspapers at the time:
Shipwrecked off coast of Alaska
S.S. Princess Sophia
October 24, 1918
My own dear sweetheart,
I am writing this my dear girl while the boat is in grave danger. We struck a rock last night which threw many from their berths, women rushed out in their night attire, some were crying, some too weak to move, but the lifeboats were swung out in all readiness but owing to the storm would be madness to launch until there was no hope for the ship. Surrounding ships were notified by wireless and in three hours the first steamer came, but cannot get near owing to the storm raging and the reef which we are on. There are now seven ships near. When the tide went down, two-thirds of the boat was high and dry. We are expecting the lights to go out at any minute, also the fires. The boat might go to pieces, for the force of the waves are terrible, making awful noises on the side of the boat, which has quite a list to port. No one is allowed to sleep, but believe me dear Dorrie it might have been much worse. Just hear there is a big steamer coming. We struck the reef in a terrible snowstorm. There is a big buoy near marking the danger but the captain was to port instead [of] to starboard of [the] buoy. I made my will this morning, leaving everything to you, my own true love and I want you to give £100 to my dear Mother, £100 to my dear Dad, £100 to dear wee Jack, and the balance of my estate (about £300) to you, Dorrie dear. The Eagle Lodge will take care of my remains.
In danger at Sea.
Princess Sophia
24th October 1918
To whom it may concern:
Should anything happen [to] me notify, notify Eagle Lodge, Dawson. My insurance, finances, and property, I leave to my wife (who was to be) Miss Dorothy Burgess, 37 Smart St., Longsight, Manchester, England.
J. Maskell[29]
Jack Maskell was buried in Vancouver's Mountain View Cemetery amidst 66 other victims of the Princess Sophia tragedy. Most lie near East 41st Avenue and Prince Edward Street in the Jones 37 section.
Timeline
Wednesday 23 October 1918
- 08:15 Snow starts falling at Sentinel Island Light Station ("LS") 58 miles south of Skagway; continues falling until 06:50 on 24 October.[13]
- 11:10 Snow starts falling at Eldred Rock LS, 30 miles south of Skagway, continues falling until 06:00 on 24 October.
- 16:33 Sunset (at Juneau); twilight begins[30]
- 17:14 Twilight ends (at Juneau); night begins
- 19:01 gibbous(79% of Moon's visible disk illuminated))
- 22:00 Princess Sophia departs Skagway, Capt. Locke in command.
- 23:00 Sophia passes Battery Point, 16 miles south of Skagway; weather worsens, wind gusting to 50 miles per hour.
Thursday 24 October 1918
- 02:10 Princess Sophia grounds at Vanderbilt Reef, 54 miles south of Skagway and 46 miles north of Juneau.
- 02:15 Word of stranding reaches Juneau by wireless distress call .
- 06:00 High tide on Vanderbilt reef; Sophia's hull pounds on rocks; storm lessens but vessel cannot get free; first rescue ship arrives; snowfall stops at Eldred Rock LS, 24 miles north of Vanderbilt reef; weather remains clear at this light station until 13:00.
- 06:12 Dawn twilight begins
- 06:50 Snowfall stops at Sentinel Island LS, 4 miles south of Vanderbilt Reef; weather remains clear at this light station until 12:10.
- 06:53 Sunrise
- 09:00 U.S. harbor boat Peterson arrives at Vanderbilt Reef.
- 10:00 Mailboat Estebeth arrives at Vanderbilt Reef.
- 10:20 Amy arrives at Vanderbilt Reef; rescue vessels at scene now have capacity to take off at least 385 people, more than are on board Sophia.
- 12:00 Low tide on Vanderbilt Reef
- 12:10 Snow begins falling again at Sentinel Rock LS, continues falling until 03:40 on Sunday, 27 October.
- 13:00 Snow begins falling again at Eldred Rock LS, continues falling until 08:00 on 27 October.
- 14:00 Wireless message from Juneau alerts Captain John Ledbetter, of lighthouse tender Cedar, then 66 miles south of Vanderbilt Reef; Cedar proceeds immediately to Vanderbilt Reef, arrives six hours later at 20:00.
- 15:00 Wind begins rising at Vanderbilt reef[13]
- 15:30 Ferry boat Lone Fisherman arrives at Sentinel Island (does not proceed to reef).
- 16:00 High tide on Vanderbilt Reef; Sophia cannot break free; sea conditions rough and waves pound at hull as tide rises; when Sophia not heavily damaged, Captain Locke advises Amy and Estebeth to seek harbor; they do; Sitka arrives at reef.
- 16:30 Sunset
- 17:11 Twilight ends; night begins
- 18:20 King and Winge arrives at reef, stays on station until 13:00 on 25 October.
- 19:00 Elsinore arrives at reef.
- 20:00 Cedar arrives at reef. Wireless communication now possible between rescue vessels on scene and Sophia.
- 20:15 gibbous(69% of Moon's visible disk illuminated))
- 20:30 Light and heat lost on Sophia, causes temporary belief on King and Winge that vessel has sunk. Loss of power causes loss of wireless communications.[31]
- 19:00 Cedar departs at Vanderbilt Reef.
- 23:30 Vancouver, BCbound for Juneau to pick up passengers who are anticipated to be evacuated from Sophia.
Friday, 25 October 1918
- 04:35 Cedar returns to Vanderbilt Reef; King and Winge has been there all night. Rescue effort postponed because of sea conditions.
- 06:14 Dawn's first light
- 06:55 Sunrise
- 08:00 Electrical power and steam heat restored on Sophia; wireless communication possible again.
- 09:00 Cedar attempts to anchor and evacuate passengers by breeches buoy. Attempt to anchor fails.
- 10:00 Locke radios Ledbetter, tells him to abandon attempt to anchor, wait until next low tide.
- 13:00 Worsening weather conditions force Cedar and King and Winge to leave the reef, after first receiving assent from Locke.
- 13:45 Cedar and King and Winge reach relatively protected water in lee of Sentinel Island. Exhausted wireless operators on Cedar and Sophia agree not to communicate until 16:30 to give themselves time to rest.
- 16:47 Sunset
- 16:50 Sophia radios Cedar: "Ship foundering on reef. Come at once." Cedar proceeds to area of Vanderbilt Reef, but cannot locate the vessel.
- 17:09 Twilight ends; night begins
- 17:20 Last wireless message from Sophia
- 17:50 Most watches recovered from Sophia victims stop. It is presumed that by this time, Sophia had sunk and the victims were forced into the water. No one on board survives.
Saturday, 26 October 1918
- 06:16 Dawn's first light
- 06:58 Sunrise
- 07:21 Cedar departs Sentinel Island to return to reef to search.
- 08:30 Cedar arrives at reef and sees only the foremast of Sophia above the water on south side of reef.
See also
- Lulu Mae Johnson, a notable victim of the tragedy
- Princess fleet
Notes
- ^ ISBN 0-912006-50-1
- ^ ISBN 0-919462-04-9
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Newell, Gordon R. ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 90, 100, 145, 204, 236, 299, 300, 392, 433, 458, 589, Superior Publishing, Seattle WA 1966 (No ISBN)
- ^ Cruising the Pacific Northwest, 1910-1911 sister ships
- ^ This 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.
- ^ "Report of wreck of Princess Sophia". RG 42, Marine Branch, Series B-1, Volume 290, File 47799, pt. 2. Marine Branch. 14 February 2006. Retrieved 7 December 2008.
- ^ "Forgotten voyage". CBC News. CBC. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
The 364 passengers and crew on board never reached their destination. It's the worst maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest. But it's almost been forgotten.
- ^ Steamship Historical Society of America. (1940). Steamboat Bill (US), Vol. 54, p. 206.
- ^ Turner, Robert D. (1987). West of the Great Divide: an Illustrated History of the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia, 1880-1986, p. 65.
- ^ Miramar Ship Index, SS Princess Sophia, ID#130620
- ^ Newell, Gordon R., and Williamson, Joe, Pacific Coastal Liners, at 139, 140, 178, Superior Publishing, Seattle WA (Bonanza Books ed. 1959) (no ISBN)
- ^ a b AFSC Historical Corner: Auklet and Murre, 1917 Sister Patrol Vessels Retrieved 17 September 2018
- ^ a b c d e f Report to the Canadian Minister of Marine on the Causes of the Wreck of the Princess Sophia, Victoria, BC, 27 Mar 1919
- ^ The 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.
- ^ Hawley, Charles C. (December 2001). "John Beaton (1875 - 1945)". Alaska Mining Hall of Fame Foundation. The Alaska Miner. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c d e "Forgotten voyage". CBC News. CBC. 26 October 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
The 364 passengers and crew on board never reached their destination. It's the worst maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest. But it's almost been forgotten.
- ^ Tales of Tragedy and Triumph: Canadian Shipwrecks, a virtual museum exhibition at Library and Archives Canada
- ^ Turner, at 115–116
- ^ Newell, Gordon R., and Williamson, Joe, Pacific Steamboats, at 84-85, Bonanza Books, New York, NY 1958 (no ISBN)
- ^ Newell, Gordon R., Ships of the Inland Sea, at 136-142, Binford and Mort, Portland, OR (2nd Ed. 1960) (no ISBN)
- ^ "The SS Clallam founders in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on 8 January 1904, with a loss of 56 lives", HistoryLink.org
- ^ "Clallam Founders – Fifty-six lives lost as result of Friday’s Terrible Storm" Port Townsend Morning Leader, 10 January 1904[permanent dead link]
- ISBN 0-914515-00-4
- ^ "Steamer Clallam Breaks Down in Strait – Has Not Been Reported as Sighted Up Till One O’Clock This Morning", Port Townsend Morning Leader, 9 January 1904[permanent dead link]
- ^ All quotations from Coates and Morrison, at 91-92
- ^ McCurdy
- ISBN 978-0-9809573-7-2.
- ^ Reprinted, with punctuation added, at Coates, pages 171–72.
- ^ "U.S. Naval Observatory astronomical data calculator". Archived from the original on 6 April 2011. Retrieved 7 December 2008.
- ^ Sophia had storage batteries for wireless use in the event of power failure, but there appear to have been some problems with them.
External links
- Princess Sophia (City of Vancouver historical page) Archived 3 August 2005 at the Wayback Machine - City of Vancouver 's Mountain View Cemetery page on the shipwreck. Includes list of 66 people from wreck buried in Mountain View Cemetery and list of crew of Princess Sophia.
- This website from the University of Victoria examines the loss of the Princess Sophia in the context of the Great War.
- Gord's Maritime website — CPR British Columbia Coast Steamships Has images and capsule histories of Princess Sophia, Princess May and other CPR steamships
- Kalafus, Jim, "The Loss of the Princess Sophia" Gare Maritime - Article on loss of ship, with two illustrations beyond those on Wikipedia or Wiki commons
- Ricketts, Bruce "The Princess Sophia Disaster", Mysteries of Canada Summary and two photos of wreck.
- Vancouver Maritime Museum — Bell of Princess Sophia Archived 26 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine The bell of the Princess Sophia was recovered in salvage efforts and in 2004 found its way to the Vancouver Maritime Museum. It has been certified as a national treasure of Canada.