Weather and the SS Princess Sophia

This latest ship sinking takes me back to yet another sinking that I like to read about.  I remember the first time I heard about the SS Princess Sophia.  I was on my first sailing to Alaska (very close to where the ship sank).

Our lecturer (this was a lecture on the Alaskan Inside Passage and moments in its history) was mentioning that this was one of the greatest disasters, but of course, it is overshadowed by the Titanic.

This great ship ran aground between Skagway and Juneau in the most beautiful waters along the Lynn Canal (which is actually the deepest fjord in North America---and simply gorgeous).  It had just a little less than 350 people on board.  Weather played a MASSIVE part in the story of Princess Sophia. The weather may be the major cause of the ships doom.  The weather in Alaska is wild and unpredictable.  I have experienced that first hand, but we had modern equipment.  The ships mentioned in this terrible story had none of that, just their basic Alaskan weather history and their brains.

I am not going to type the story for you, you need to google it or click on the links I have provided.  I am just going to show you some pictures that I saved after I got home from that Alaskan cruise in 2008.  I just found them on the internet.

And if you want to purchase a book about the sinking:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/739967.The_Sinking_of_the_Princess_Sophia