Linda’s Monthly Monday Mornings Moaning’s for June 5, 20023
Built in England by the Hawthorn, Leslie & Co. in 1888, the ship was originally named Cass, where in 1901 after thirteen years serving along the Chinese coast, the Canadian Pacific Railway Coastal Service purchased and renamed the Cass, the ‘Princess May’, after Mary of Teck, who was known as ‘May’ and would in 1910 become Queen of England.
On 5 August 1910, the Princess May departed Skagway, Alaska, with 80 passengers and 68 crew and a shipment of gold. The ship was steaming down the Lynn Canal at 12 knots under heavy fog in the command of Captain John McLeo, when it stuck the rocks near the north end of Sentinel Island early in the morning. It was high tide and the momentum of the ship forced it well up onto the rocks, with the bow jutting upward at an angle of 23 degrees.
The hull was breached, through which water began to pour in and flooded the engine room, cutting off electrical power to the ship’s instruments, including its wireless set. The wireless operator, W.R. Keller, ran to the engine room and rigged an improvised electrical connection with the engine room telegraph battery, and using this was able to send out a wireless distress call before the engine room was completely flooded. The close proximity of Sentinel Island helped prevent a major disaster. The passengers and crew were able to safely evacuate to the island, and the gold shipment was also secured. Later the passengers and crew were picked up by Princess Ena and other rescue ships and taken to Juneau.
Over a 120 plates were damaged on the hull, and the largest hole was approximately 50 feet long and two foot wide. Many attempts were made to remove the ship from the rocks, and with a cost in 1910 finances of $115,000. it was salvaged. The grounding left the ship jutting completely out of the water, where it would go on to become the subject of a very famous ship wreck photograph.
Sentinel Island Lighthouse is located in Alaska just adjacent to the Lynn Canal, between the main land and the Lincoln and Shelter Islands by Juneau City. Another famous image from the islands history shows the ‘Princess May’ on the rocks from in front of the lighthouse itself. I unfortunately have not been able to acquire a postcards of that image. Postcard images are from the authors collection.
On that ‘wee note’ till next month, Monday July 3, 2023.
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Linda Osborne Cynowa 