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The Secret Life of Canada. Season 6, Episode 20: The Final Voyage of the Princess Sophia

Hosts: Leah-Simone Bowen and Falen Johnson

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: This is The Secret Life of Canada, a podcast about the country you know, and the stories you don't.

FALEN JOHNSON: Hey, Leah.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Hey, Falen.

FALEN JOHNSON: Question for you. Have you ever heard of the Princess Sophia?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Uh, was she a colonizer or Disney princess? I don't know. This could go either way.

FALEN JOHNSON: Well, those are both wrong. But I kinda like the sound of that game, Colonizer or Disney Princess. I could see that working. No, but the Princess Sophia was a ship.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay. Good to know.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. Okay, so I am gendering the boat. I don't know, I don't know why, but the boat is a she. If listeners know why we gender boats, please write in. But she was a passenger ship that sank in 1918. And it's actually the worst maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, wow. Okay. And I've never even heard of it.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, I think more people on the West Coast might know about it, but I had never heard of it either.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: And it's been a while since we've talked about ships. There was the Jasper ice ship from season three. And then I think in season one we did the Northwest Passage. But that's, that's as ship-y as we've been.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, it's been a while since we've talked ships. But today I thought we could take a look at the Princess Sophia and learn how she got the nickname 'Canada's Titanic.'

[music, waves crashing]

FALEN JOHNSON: October 23rd, 1918, just after 10 p.m. The Princess Sophia is three hours behind schedule. Her captain, Leonard Locke, had to replace members of his crew at the last minute due to illness. At the time, it was being called the Spanish flu. These are dark times. World War I rages on as a pandemic sweeps across the globe. It's near the end of the season in the north, with many trying to leave before winter sets in. This was the last run of the season for the Princess Sophia, going from Skagway, Alaska, to Victoria in British Columbia. Aboard, there are over 350 people. Crew, passengers, some with tickets, others who snuck on without. Some are headed to the frontlines of the war that rages in Europe. As the days grow shorter and the weather colder, many go south for the winter. Some are leaving forever, finally exhausted in the search for gold in a rush that has long been over. In the hull of the ship there are 20 horses, five dogs and Christmas gifts. Shortly after 10 p.m., the Sophia finally sets off from Skagway. She's behind schedule, but her captain has travelled this route many times before. He maintains full speed ahead, confident in his navigation. As the ship heads south, the weather takes a turn. Winds howl, the snow greatly reduces visibility, and against the captain and crew's best efforts, the Sophia drifts off course.

FALEN JOHNSON: October 24th, 2:10 a.m. There's a loud crash heard on the Princess Sophia.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay, so this is not good. But truthfully, we already kind of know where this is going, obviously.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yes. But the ship doesn't sink. Not yet.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay, so what's going on? What did they crash into?

FALEN JOHNSON: Well, at first no one knows. Some are tossed out of their sleeping bunks and people panic. Once the confusion settles, the captain and crew determine that they have run aground, hitting a reef which lays almost dead centre in the Lynn Canal. This reef is not unknown to the captain or anyone who would have been travelling this route. And it's known as particularly dangerous. At low tide it peaks just over the water line, but when the tide is high, it's completely invisible.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay.

FALEN JOHNSON: So the captain radios to nearby Juneau and requests help. Soon a fleet of smaller ships are sent out to help evacuate the Sophia. But the water is too rough and it was decided that they should just try and wait out the storm. So the captain of the Sophia sends them away.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay, so it's just stuck in this reef, then?

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. The ship isn't taking on water, so it must have seemed relatively safe at the time. She's just kind of perched on these rocks. The hope was that they would just wait for the tide to rise again, thinking it would lift the ship off the reef and then they'd be free to continue their journey.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Still, I think I would be demanding to get off the boat.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, I could see that. But sometimes evacuating during a storm could be more dangerous than staying on. I read about one boat, the SS Clallam, that suffered a similar situation. In 1904, the Clallam ran aground, and the captain ordered an evacuation of women and children. Three lifeboats were loaded with people and then lowered into the water, where all three boats capsized, killing all who were in them.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, wow.

FALEN JOHNSON: And that evacuation was undertaken by experienced sailors. The Sophia's crew were a mixed bag: some had a decent amount of experience, others had been hired last minute to replace men who were sick or impacted by the Spanish flu. So they might not have been as capable in getting people off the boat safely. Or at least that thought may have crossed the captain's mind.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: So while the situation on the Sophia might have seemed dangerous, the option of trying to get people off the ship might have been worse.

FALEN JOHNSON: Exactly. And some point to what happened on the Clallam as to why the captain of the Sophia might not have wanted to have used the lifeboats. I also read that ships running aground, it wasn't super uncommon at this time. The Sophia had done it before and was still seaworthy. She had a double hull, so she was tough, and she had travelled this route many times. So there they sat, seemingly safe.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: So what was going on in the ship? How were the passengers dealing with the situation?

FALEN JOHNSON: Well, it seems that morale was mixed. We get a sense from some of the letters that were written during the incident. Leah, can you read a bit from this one?

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: [reading letter] My Own Dear Sweetheart, I'm writing this dear girl while the boat is in grave danger. We struck a rock last night which threw many from their berths, women rushed out in their night attire, some were crying, some too weak to move, but the lifeboats were soon swung out in all readiness, but cannot get near owing to the storm raging and the reef which we are on. There are now seven ships near. When the tide went down two thirds of the boat was high and dry. We are expecting the lights to go out any minute, also the fires. The boat might go to pieces, for the force of the waves are [sic] terrible, making awful noises...No one is allowed to sleep, but believe me dear Dorrie it might have been much worse...I made my will this morning, leaving everything to you, my own true love. In danger at Sea, Princess Sophia, 24th October 1918. J. Maskell.

FALEN JOHNSON: And while it might have seemed quite ominous at first, as time went on it seemed some may have thought everything was going to be okay. Here's another letter.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: [reading letter] Dear Mama...At 3 a.m. yesterday she struck a rock submerged at high tide, and for a while there was some excitement, but no panic. Two women fainted and one of them got herself into a black evening dress and didn't worry over who saw her putting it on. Some of the men, too, kept life preservers on for an hour or so and seemed to think that there was no chance for us...We had three tugboats here in the afternoon, but the weather was too rough to transfer any passengers...A lighthouse tender, big enough to hold all the 400 passengers, and one big launch are standing by...We are mighty lucky we are not all buried in the sea water. Lovingly, Auris.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay, so that lady changing into a black evening gown, was that, like, so she would look good if the ship went down?

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, I guess so.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: That's that thing where your mother's like, always wear clean underwear, you know, when you're going out or travelling, because if you die, you don't want to be, you know, [FALEN: Yeah.] ID'd in the morgue in gross, holey underwear.

FALEN JOHNSON: I guess so. You want to be in a black evening gown.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Yeah, you want to be in a black evening gown underneath your jeans.

FALEN JOHNSON: [laughs] Underneath your jeans, yeah. [Leah-Simone laughs] So these letters, they would have been found on the bodies that would be eventually recovered. What happened on the Sophia has been called a disaster in slow motion. One that would play out over almost two full days. But when the end was near, it came very fast.

[music]

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: So the Princess Sophia, a ship travelling along the Pacific Northwest coast, has run aground on a reef. The weather is so bad that no other ships can get close to them to help them. And after almost two days of being stranded, things finally take a turn.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yes. On October 25th at 4:10 p.m., the following message is sent via Morse code from the Sophia to the nearby ship, the Cedar.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: [reading message] SOS. Ship foundering on reef. Come at once.

FALEN JOHNSON: Another message was sent at 5:20.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: [reading message] For god's sake hurry. The water is coming in my room.

FALEN JOHNSON: A boat that was nearby attempted to locate the Sophia, but again, it was too stormy.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: [reading message] Attempted to reach Sophia. 5 p.m. Blinding snowstorm. Could not make her. Will advise you as soon as weather permits.

FALEN JOHNSON: The captain of the Cedar was worried that his ship would crash into the reef. The decision was made to come back the next day. On the morning of October 26th, the Cedar returned.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: [reading message] Cedar at Vanderbilt Reef. 8:30 a.m. Sophia driven over reef at night. Only mast showing. No survivors.

FALEN JOHNSON: All that remained of the Sophia was a portion of her mast sticking out of the water. The rescue became a recovery mission.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: So do we know what actually happened to the ship? How did it sink?

FALEN JOHNSON: Well, there's a couple of theories that I've, that I read about online. One is that the ship lifted with the tide and storm and then slid backwards off the reef, scraping out the hull, and the ship filled with water. Another theory I have heard is that the ship sort of twisted on the reef with the wind and it turned almost 180 degrees, and then the ship's hull was ripped away that way.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Hmm. So I guess it might not really matter, you know, how it happened, but it just seemed to happen pretty fast.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yes. In a matter of a couple of hours. The initial SOS went out at 4:10, and when the bodies of passengers and crew began to be recovered, all their watches had frozen at 5:50 p.m. So, it seems to have happened pretty quick. Divers would eventually find over 100 bodies in the ship, those who didn't make it out. Which points to, you know, they didn't know that the ship was sinking. They weren't even aware that they should go up to the deck.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Wow. Wow.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. There are other theories that when the ice water reached the hot oil in the boiler room, that there would have been an explosion, tearing holes into the ship, which also might have made it sink faster. But some divers have said that the boilers are intact. We do know that the oil did spill into the water, though, because many of the bodies that were recovered were covered in it.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: That's terrible.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. Those who did make it to the lifeboats, they weren't saved by them. The water was rough, and they overturned, and they sank immediately under the heavy storm or they crashed into the reef. Some passengers might have just jumped out into the water directly and tried to swim ashore. But the oil in the water stuck to them and it weighed down their clothing, getting into their mouths and noses and lungs, suffocating them.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: That's horrific.

FALEN JOHNSON: I know. One man, the Sophia's second mate, Frank Gosse, did seem to make it ashore in a lifeboat. He was found with a head wound on shore. And he made it there only to die, likely of exposure.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Damn, after all of that.

FALEN JOHNSON: For weeks and even a year after the disaster, corpses washed ashore. The CPR offered $50 for each body found. But some were never found. Those bodies that were recovered in the weeks after the disaster were taken to Juneau, where they were prepared to travel to their intended destinations. The Princess Alice, the sister ship to the Sophia, carried bodies to Vancouver. The press dubbed the vessel the "Ship of Sorrow."

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Jesus, this is... It's incredible.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. And it's, it gets worse.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay. Great.

[music]

FALEN JOHNSON: So the Princess Alice, the Ship of Sorrow, docks in Vancouver on November 11th, Armistice Day -- the day the war ended. Newspapers have headlines like, "Peace! Germany Surrenders" and "Greatest Victory in History Won." People are jubilant. War is over.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right. So the ship full of corpses is met with a party.

FALEN JOHNSON: Essentially, yes. And what's worse is that there's a full-on pandemic happening. So the Spanish flu is ravaging much of the world, and the victims of the Sophia, they aren't allowed to have funerals in the traditional sense.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right.

FALEN JOHNSON: The bodies are lined up on the dock for families to identify.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right. Sounds very much like what happened in our, our very own pandemic. Remember that, everyone?

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. Yeah. And so there are similarities between what happened in the pandemic that was, that was COVID. Like the naming. The strain of influenza that occurred in 1918 was called the Spanish flu, but I read that it most likely originated in Kansas. The Spanish flu is considered a derogatory term now by many.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, it came from Kansas. Of course they blamed it on someone overseas.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. The Kansas flu just doesn't have the same ring.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, so the first cases are thought to have started in the spring of 1918, and within four months, the flu had made its way around the world. It's said to have killed between 21 and 50 million people, killing more people than any other illness in recorded history.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: The flu was a serious thing to consider in all of this. Like, it does make me think of the workers who were replaced because, because they had it, so they didn't get on the boat in the first place. You know, it was almost [FALEN: Yeah.] like a saviour in that respect.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yes. Yes. There was one crew member from the Sophia who actually got onto an earlier boat so that he could rush to see his daughter who had contracted the flu. So, he lived. The flu for him was a life saver. But then there were others, like a young man by the name of Norman Blyth, who was on the Sophia, returning to Victoria to go see his ailing mother. She also had the flu.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay, so what I wanna know is, who got sued here? Or were they suing people back then, I don't know. Because it's just an awful story and it feels like, you know, someone needed to be held responsible.

FALEN JOHNSON: Well, the CPR, the Canadian Pacific Railway, who operated the Sophia, was initially held responsible. They were ordered to pay around $2.5 million to the crew and passengers' families. But that was overturned, and the CPR would eventually only be responsible for baggage and passenger fare expenses.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: I mean... that's terrible. I've had very bad travel experiences before myself, but that's... [FALEN: Yeah.] that's terrible.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, the CPR had actually put in a request the previous year to put a light on the reef, but the government denied the claim because the country was focusing on funding efforts for World War I.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: And is there one now?

FALEN JOHNSON: Yes. In 1921, a small tower with a light was added to the reef. It's still there today. And the CPR, it did eventually change its rules. If a ship ran aground, the passengers have to be removed. There's no waiting anymore.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Well, that's, I mean, that's a good thing that came out of it. I mean, I wouldn't say good enough, but that's something.

[music]

FALEN JOHNSON: The sinking of the Sophia was devastating to many places. The loss of those people was felt all the way from Whitehorse to Seattle and beyond. There were people on the Sophia from places like Sweden, Syria, Denmark, China, Japan.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, wow.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. So why do we know this story? It's extraordinary and horrifying. Well, the sinking of the Sophia coincided with the end of World War I coupled with the Spanish flu. Many were concerned about themselves or their families contracting the often lethal sickness, and others were celebrating the end of an absolutely brutal war. Their minds had turned to celebration. It was encouraged to look forward, to move on.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Yeah, I guess I can see that. And you know, also, there was so much death at this time already.

FALEN JOHNSON: There's also, like, a thinking that there were so many people, like, young men who died in Europe and never were brought home, right? They're buried over [LEAH-SIMONE: Right.] there. And so I think, like, these bodies being returned was just kind of a reminder of that loss, too, of not being able to mourn those people.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Right.

FALEN JOHNSON: So, some say that the Sophia was lost twice -- once when she sunk, and another time when she was forgotten. Lost in collective memory.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Hm.

FALEN JOHNSON: But Leah, I should tell you, there was one survivor.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Oh, really?

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah. Yeah. His name was Tommy.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Okay. And who was Tommy?

FALEN JOHNSON: He swam 15 miles to Tee Harbor and made his way to Auke Bay. He was covered in oil, half starved. And he may have been an English setter or a Cessie, it's unclear.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Aww. Oh, my God, [laughs] it's a dog! Hooray!

FALEN JOHNSON: He's a dog.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: The dog lived.

FALEN JOHNSON: I know. So, yeah, he was identified as belonging to James and Louisa Alexander, who were aboard the Sophia. A local cannery took in Tommy for a time. And it's said that he was, he had a severe fear of water, obviously...

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Ohhh.

FALEN JOHNSON: And that when he had to cross a certain bridge that was-- that went over water, he would crawl.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Ohh. Tommy.

FALEN JOHNSON: I read that eventually Tommy made his way to go live with relatives of the Alexanders. But you can see a statue of Tommy in Juneau, Alaska, today.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Hey, there's a positive monument we can get behind.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah, I know.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: You know?

FALEN JOHNSON: It’s hard to know-- Some people doubt that Tommy was actually aboard the Sophia, but you know what, I want to believe because it gives us, it gives us something to hold on to in a truly horrific story.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: Yeah, a little silver lining. That's nice.

FALEN JOHNSON: Yeah.

[Episode closing music]

FALEN JOHNSON: This episode of The Secret Life of Canada was written and produced by me, Falen Johnson.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: And me, Leah-Simone Bowen. With sound design and editing by Graham MacDonald.

FALEN JOHNSON: Script editing is by Yvette Nolan with research assistance by Andrea Eidinger and CBC Archives. Our logo is by Patuo’kn Illustration and Design.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: For CBC Podcasts, the coordinating producer is Roshini Nair. The executive producers are Cesil Fernandes and Chris Oke, and Tanya Springer is the senior manager. Kate Evans is the senior producer.

FALEN JOHNSON: The director of CBC Podcasts is Arif Noorani. You can find us on Instagram @thesecretlifeofcanada, and our full show notes and links are on our website at cbc.ca/secretlife. Reach us by email, secretlifeofcanada@cbc.ca.

LEAH-SIMONE BOWEN: If you learned something in this episode, please share it with a friend. And thanks for exploring Canada's hidden history with us.

TRANSCRIPT: The Secret Life of Canada, Season 6: The final voyage of the Princess Sophia

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