The Canadian Pacific Railway steamer departed Skagway that morning, heading through the Inner Passage between Skagway and Victoria, British Columbia, with 343 passengers and crew. Captain Leonard Locke, a veteran of heavy weather and high seas, had no intentions of facing a Gulf of Alaska storm, which can blow as strong as a hurricane, with snow and ice to boot.

But as Sophia steamed down the Lynn Canal fjord, conditions rapidly deteriorated. The fjord’s cliffs can funnel and intensify northerly winds, and soon a 50-mph blizzard with 30-foot seas engulfed the ship.

With visibility restricted, Locke navigated by using his whistle’s echo to bounce off surrounding cliffs, but it wasn’t enough. Princess Sophia ran aground on Vanderbilt Reef, 45 miles north of Juneau. Concluding damage was not fatal, Locke decided to ride the storm out trapped on the reef rather than abandon ship.

His distress call mobilized a Juneau rescue fleet led by the lighthouse tender USS Cedar. They arrived in late afternoon, but howling gales and rampaging waves thwarted every attempt to approach near enough for rescue.

Before dawn, the raging elements began moving the Sophia around. Battered by wind and waves, she slipped stern first off Vanderbilt Reef and began sinking. When her boiler room flooded, the boilers exploded, shattering portholes and blowing away part of the deck. When Cedar finally arrived, only Sophia’s mast remained above water.

All 343 aboard were lost-- their bodies later recovered on nearby shores-- giving this tragedy the single highest death toll in Northeastern Pacific shipping history.

Thanks to our contributing writer, meteorologist Keith Heidorn. The Weather Notebook is generously supported by Subaru of America.

Today's Links

The Wreck of the Princess Sophia
http://www.ssislander.co.uk/sophia.html

Princess Sophia
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/nonmarketoperations/mountainview/history/sophia.htm