SS Princess Sophia Memorial

On October 23, 1918, the Princess Sophia left Skagway bound for Juneau on one of the final outbound voyages of the year, one of the last chances for residents of the interior to depart before the Yukon River froze and closed riverboat travel for the season. Most passengers came from the Yukon Territory and Interior Alaska, and at least 80 worked for the White Pass & Yukon Route Riverboat Division. Although the mood was celebratory as the ship departed, a storm blew it off course, and in the early hours of October 24, 1918, it struck Vanderbilt Reef in the Lynn Canal. After more than 40 hours stranded on the reef in the storm, the ship sank on October 25, 1918, causing the loss of more than 350 people. There were no human survivors; only a dog swam to shore. The disaster was a tragic loss to the Northland, and news of the end of World War I overshadowed what was the most fatal shipwreck on the West Coast.

Skagway, Alaska · United States