The Sinking of the Princess Sophia: Taking the North Down
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Coates, Ken / Morrison, William, PUBLISHER: Oxford University Press, USA, On October , 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 ong>morningong>, 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.