Digital Bob Archive

OCTOBER 1918 - PART 3:

Nineteen Juneau people rose early on Thursday morning, October 24. Their bags were packed and they were waiting to board the Canadian steamer Princess Sophia for the voyage south. They were to be disappointed. About 2:15 o'clock that morning the Navy wireless station in Juneau had picked up a message from the Sophia. The message said that the steamer had run aground on Vanderbilt Reef, some 40 miles north of Juneau, during a blinding snowstorm. The Navy operator notified F.F.W. Lowie, the Juneau agent for the Canadian Pacific line, and the news slowly filtered through downtown Juneau.

The news did not cause any great excitement, although there were no doubt sighs of frustration from the would-be passengers. Alaskans were used to having ships go on the rocks; only a couple of days earlier the southbound steamer Alaska had gone aground in British Columbia and had been pulled off without serious damage. Wireless messages from Captain L.P. Locke of the Sophia were reassuring. There was no danger, the captain said, as the ship was not taking any water. He did ask Agent Lowie to send boats to take off the passengers until the ship could be floated. Agent Lowie dispatched the ferry boats Amy and Lone Fisherman and the mailboat Estebeth to the scene and they were followed later by the big halibut schooner King & Winge. The wireless operator at Haines picked up the distress message and the Army boat Peterson from Fort Seward headed for the wreck. The lighthouse tender Cedar, Captain John Leadbetter, also arrived at the wreck scene.

Both Juneau papers carried the shipwreck story on their front pages, but not in the outside columns where big stories customarily ran. The story ran under a single-column headline and on the following day, Friday, both papers moved the Sophia story off the front page, the Dispatch to page 2 and the Empire to its back page. \"Sophia Rests Easily Although the Sea is Rough,\" said the headline in the Dispatch. The story went on to say that Captain Locke was awaiting the abatement of the storm so the passengers could be taken to Juneau. There were 260 passengers from Skagway, according to the news story. There were also 24 horses and five tons of freight. Three passengers were due to disembark at Juneau. One was Collector of Customs John F. Pugh who had gone to Skagway a week earlier to assist in clearing up the backlog of business generated by the many Canadian travelers. Mrs. George Marcus, wife of the Northern Commercial manager at Fairbanks, and her young daughter Virginia, planned to spend a few days in Juneau visiting Mr. and Mrs. Ray G. Day before going on south.

It was not only blowing a near gale but was snowing hard. Captain McDouglas of the Amy reported that two feet of snow had fallen on his decks. It was blowing so hard by Friday night that the rescue fleet was forced to seek shelter in nearby harbors.