They All Died in Sight of Rescue | The Princess Sophia

On October 24, 1918, the Canadian Pacific liner Princess Sophia ran onto Vanderbilt Reef in Alaska's Lynn Canal during a snowstorm, carrying 364 people south for the winter: miners, riverboat crews, and the families of the far North. She held together on the reef, intact, for nearly two days, while a fleet of rescue boats stood by, unable to safely take anyone off in the heavy sea. Then, on the night of October 25, a rising gale lifted her off the rock and tore her open, and she sank near the buoy. Every single person aboard died. The only survivor was a dog. This is the story of the Princess Sophia: how a routine sailing became the worst maritime disaster in the history of British Columbia and Alaska, why the rescue boats watched and waited, and why, in the end, no one was ever blamed. Chapters: 0:00 A ship on a rock 1:00 The last boat south 2:18 The Princess Sophia 3:14 Onto the reef 4:32 The trap 5:22 The vigil 6:30 The storm 7:38 The morning after 8:50 Who was to blame 9:54 The North never got them back The Cold Wake tells the true stories of the world's forgotten maritime disasters, rebuilt from real archival photographs and records. #PrincessSophia #MaritimeDisaster #History #Alaska #Shipwreck #TrueStory #ColdWake