Credit River - SS Princess Sophia Traditional Cache
Credit River - SS Princess Sophia
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Credit River - Shipwreck Series
SS Princess Sophia
25 October 1918
There are many shipwrecks around the world. Some very famous and others not so. Each however has it’s own story to tell. As you travel along the Credit River doing this series of caches, we have highlighted a number of these shipwrecks. During low water levels on these parts of the Credit River, you need to be careful in a canoe or kayak so as you don’t wind up in your own shipwreck. Besides the many large rocks along the way, there are also some other obstacles such as dams which should be avoided. All of the geocaches in this series have been placed by tubing, inflatable boat or on foot by walking in the water along the Credit River. Whichever way you choose to search for these caches, use caution and common sense.
More information about this series can be found here: Credit River - Shipwreck Series
SS Princess Sophia
Shipwrecks are woven into the fabric of Atlantic Canada’s history, but the west coast has its own stories of deadly disasters at sea. On 25 October 1918, the Sophia sank with the loss of all aboard after grounding on Vanderbilt Reef in Lynn Canal near Juneau, Alaska. With 343 or more people lost, 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.
On 23 October 1918, Princess Sophia departed Skagway, Alaska, more than three hours behind schedule. On board were 75 crew and about 268 passengers, including families of men serving overseas in the war, miners, and crews of sternwheelers that had finished operations for the winter. Fifty women and children were on the passenger list. Four hours after leaving Skagway, while proceeding south down Lynn Canal, the steamship encountered heavy blinding snow driven by a strong and rising northwest wind.
Ahead of Sophia lay a rock in Lynn Canal called Vanderbilt Reef. 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 12 feet above the water at extreme low tide. Vanderbilt Reef was in fact the tip of an underwater mountain that rose 1,000 ft (305 m) from the bottom of Lynn Canal. The channel at this point was about 6.5 miles wide. The presence of the reef narrowed the main navigation channel to 2.5 miles on the east side of the reef. The area is an extremely dangerous one for ships. It has deep waters with strong currents, rocky cliff faces, and narrow fjords. Tides regularly bring ships dangerously close to the shore. In bad weather, winds in the Lynn Canal quickly become gales.
Heading south through Lynn Canal, Sophia drifted about 1.25 miles off course, on 24 October 1918, Sophia struck ground hard on Vanderbilt Reef, 54 miles south of Skagway. High tide came at 06:00 on 24 October. The wind had lessened, but Sophia was still stuck fast on the reef. Low tide came at about noon. The wind and waves forced the 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 the 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, the captain 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, the 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 the 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. With no apparent way to evacuate passengers, and Sophia stuck fast on the reef, the only thing that rescue boats could do was to wait to see if the weather would moderate enough to attempt an evacuation.
With no survivors and no witnesses to the actual sinking, what happened on 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 buoyant again, but only partially so. The bow of the vessel remained on the reef, and the force of the wind and waves then spun the vessel almost completely around and washed her off the reef. Dragging across the rock ripped out the ship's bottom, so when she reached deeper water near the navigation buoy, she sank. This process, based on the evidence, seems to have taken about an hour.
There appears to have been no time for an organized evacuation. Many people wore lifejackets, and two wooden lifeboats floated away (the 8 steel lifeboats sank). There were about 100 people still in their cabins when the ship sank. It's hard to know why if there was half an hour before the ship sank why so many people were below deck, but there could be many reasons. As the sea water invaded the ship, the boiler exploded, buckling the deck and killing many people. 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 on to these in the water awaiting rescue. These were worthless, as the coldness of the water would soon kill anyone in it long before rescue could arrive.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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