Digital Bob Archive

A sad seventieth anniversary comes on October 25 and one of especial interest here because so many of the victims of the Princess Sophia wreck are buried in Evergreen Cemetery. But the story has at least one bright spot, related by the late Edby Davis of Fairbanks.

The United States was at war in 1918 and Edby, just out of high school, was mustered into the service at Fort Gibbon that fall. He was one of 77 men who were placed in the charge of Private Milo Saulich and ordered to proceed to Camp Lewis, Washington, for training. They traveled by river steamer to Whitehorse and by train to Skagway and they were booked to go south on the Princess Sophia.
That steamer had not yet reached Skagway but the Canadian national ship Prince Rupert was in port. Milo Saulich was impatient and tried to get the tickets changed. \"We can't win the war here in Skagway,\" he told the ticket agent, but the agent was adamant that they must sail on the Sophia.

Edby told the rest of the story this way: \"The next order we had from him was 'Fall in,' then 'Forward march,' with Milo in the lead. We all knew he had a pistol, but now it was visible. Milo smoked a big cigar, his doughboy hat to one side, and he marched with a foreign step. He led us to the Prince Rupert and did not order 'Halt' until we were all on board. Captain McKenzie ordered us off. Milo and the captain discussed the situation and Milo brought out the fact that Skagway was a long way from the Von Hindenburg line. Finally Milo said, 'There are seventy-seven of us. If you have crew enough, throw us off.'

\"We stayed. One reason Captain McKenzie did not make much of a fuss was that there was an influenza epidemic and some of his crew had come down with it. He feared that if we returned ashore we might carry it into Skagway and he would be blamed. The Prince Rupert was a Canadian boat and its crew was composed of boys too young for the war and of wounded British sailors. They were glad to see us. The steamer was soon on its way down the Inside Passage and the first night out we passed the Princess Sophia northbound. We were told shortly before we reached Vancouver, B.C., that the Sophia had gone on a reef but had no idea how serious it was. To commend Milo for getting us aboard the Prince Rupert with no delay at Skagway we gave him the title Grand Duke and thereafter addressed him as such.

\"At Vancouver we left the steamer, were taken on a sightseeing trip through the city, then went by train to Seattle. It was not until after we reached Camp Lewis that we saw a newspaper with the news that the Princess Sophia had gone to the bottom with all aboard, more than 300 people. As soon as possible I sent a telegraph to my father in Fairbanks, telling him that we were all safe. It was the first word from any of us; relatives and friends in Fairbanks had assumed that we were among the missing.\"