Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-10-27 | Page 1 | Huns' Losses 50,000 in Four Days

Ml LIVES Vessel Bound for Skag way, Alaska, Founders During the Night After Having Run Aground, Not a Soul Reported; Saved; Passengers Be-! lieved Alaskans Coming Com-ing From Territory, VANCOUVER. B. C, Oct. 26. "Two hundred and sixty-eight, pati- sengery were aboard, the Princess j Sophia when she went down, tho Canadian Pacific Railway announced an-nounced late today. The number of members in the crew was sev-enty-fivo. Not a soul survived, according to the wireless message from Juneau. Apparently, according to tho Ju- i neau wireless, the Sophia was I picked up by the gale, hurled across Vanderhilt reef and sent to tho bot- , H torn of the deep waters on the other side. SEATTLiE, Wash.. Oct, 21. Three nun-1 dred and forty-three persons, most offl them outbound Alaskans and residents cfB the Yukon territory, lost their lives whenl the Canadian Pacific Steamship company'sll passenger steamer Princess Sophia wart 1 battered Jast Thursday by storms, dragged! acrosy Vanderbtlt reef and dropped to them bottom of Lynn canal, an arm of the In -1 side passage not far south of Skagway, Alaska. "No survivors," read a wireless message today from Juneau, Alaska, telling of tho: IOS3. Shipping men tonight said t he loss of the Sophia with all aboard was tho worst marine disaster in the history of the Pa cific. coast. Tho vessel, 2320 tons gross, has been plying in western Canadian and south -eastern Alaska waters since she was built: In 1IU2. VESSEL CARRIED CAPACITY LOAD. Lists of passengers and details of Ihe wreck were not available tonight. Th vessel, it was thought, was carrying a capacity ca-pacity load of passengers, nearly all northerners, north-erners, who had taken the last steamboat up the Yukon river before the ice and had I oarded the Sophia at Skagwny. Tho pa.ssenKcrs were among the hundreds who left Alaska this fall to spend tho winter in the st-iies and Canada, They had, come as far as White Horse by river boat and there had boarded trains for tho Alaska port. . Wednesday the heavily loadod Sophia left Skagway for Vancouver and Victoria. Not many hours out sho ran Into one of the first snow storms of the year. Early Thursday, in the dark and storm, she ran aground on the Vanderbilt reef. Distress calls were sent out and the United Statea lighthouse, tender Cedar, the United States government steamer Peterson and several small boats went to her assistance. When daylight came it was found the boat whs ID resting easy and the weather Calm, and H it was decided not to remove the paesen- lU gers. Word was sent to Vancouver and the wrecking steamer Tees and the C. P. II K. Steamer Princess Alice were sent north, the wrecker to pull the Sophia off tffi the reef and the Alice to g-t her pas-H sen gers. These ships will arrive at th H scene tomorrow. STEAMER POUNDED AGAINST ROCKS. The Morin sprang up yesterday and tho I winds whipped down t he long, narrow H Lynn canal with hurri-nne forc Thf) H Sophia, hi the path of the gale, wasM pounded agafnfrt th- rocks. On account H of the danger of stranding, the near-by ships did not. dare go ne;jr her. Lifeboats H were Impossible, although the shore was D not man -' yards away. Lost night the U gale increased in fury and probably whllo H many of the passengers slept, lifted the steamer up, dragged her across the reef ;1 and sent her to the lxttom. Th' only definite word from the north H regarding the w reck came today when H tho Canadian wireles service ;it Victoria H ked up the following message, from the B United Stales wireh-ss station at Jutirau:H "Princess Sophia driven across reef last II (Continued on page Three.) CANADIAN STEAMER LOST, WITH 343 LIVES (Continued from Page One.) night. No survivors. Seventy-five in crew, 268 passengers. Everything possible was done. Terrible weather prevailed. Captain F. L. Locke was in charge of the vessel.