One hundred years ago, 368 people making the journey from Alaska to Victoria were killed when the ship they were on sank during a snowstorm.
The Princess Sophia sank in the frigid water off Alaska’s Vanderbilt Reef on Oct. 25, 1918, just two days after it departed from Skagway.
The shipwreck tragedy is described as the worst maritime disaster on the Pacific coast, and yet it is not remembered widely by Canadians.
According to Library and Archives Canada, there are a few reasons why: no one on board was prestigious; there are not many images associated to the tragedy and the incident overshadowed by the end First World War.
“All the news of the day was about the war ending, and not about the sinking of the Princess Sophia and the tragic loss of 368 souls lost that night,” explained Don Prittie, president of the Maritime Museum of BC's board of directors.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the shipwreck, the museum’s board fundraised and used money from its operations to honour one family that was on board the Princes Sophia with a marking stone.
Seven members of the O’Brien family perished, including five children. The the youngest was just two years old.
Their marking stone lists their names and ages, and above it, "Gone but not forgotten."
Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver is also the final resting place for 66 other victims.
“Those passengers were coming to Victoria on their way back from Yukon and Alaska, so it is a very important story for British Columbia and Victoria,” Prittie said.
