This year marks the 100th anniversary of the deadliest shipwreck in the history of British Columbia, a maritime tragedy that many people have never heard of.
The SS Princess Sophia was travelling from Alaska to Vancouver and Victoria, B.C. on Oct. 24, 1918, when she encountered stormy weather.
The ship was four hours out of Skagway, Alaska, when she hit Vanderbilt Reef.
“They drove the ship high and dry up on the reef and remained on the reef for the next 40 hours,” David Leverton, executive director of the Maritime Museum of BC, said.
In a blinding snowstorm and gale force winds, rescue boats rushed to the scene but the seas were too high to launch the lifeboats.
“The captain’s decision was to hold everybody on board the ship rather than risk any of the lives of the passengers,” Leverton said.
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The rescuers left as darkness fell but were called back when the Sophia shifted from the rocks and began to sink.
“By this time, a snowstorm had increased in such intensity that they couldn’t get out of their anchorages,” Leverton said.
In the morning, rescuers were able to finally make their way back to the Sophia.
“By that point, all that remained of the Princess Sophia was 40 feet of her forward cargo mast,” Leverton said.
All 364 people on board died.
“In the end, nobody survived with the exception of a dog that was discovered months later,” Leverton said.
Vancouver Maritime Museum curator Duncan MacLeod hopes a new exhibit will shed new light on B.C.’s worst maritime disaster.
“We hope that what people come away with is a better understanding of one of the most significant events that happened on the northwest coast in B.C.,” he said.
The SS Princess Sophia exhibit at the Vancouver Maritime Museum will run until May 6.
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