The Sinking of the Princess Sophia: Taking the North Down with Her

On October 23, 1918, the Canadian Pacific steamer Princess Sophia left Skagway, Alaska, on its last run of the season to Vancouver, Victoria, and Seattle. A storm rose and at 2 a.m. it ran aground on Vanderbilt Reef. Rescue vessels were quickly assembled, but the storm worsened and they were forced to take shelter themselves. By the following morning, the Princess Sophia had sunk to the bottom of the Lynn Canal, taking all of its passengers--a significant cross-section of the population of the Yukon and Alaska--with it. This volume examines the impact of this loss on a society that, with the end of the gold rush, was already in decline.