Shipwreck Monday-SS Princess Kathleen

 

I confess I liked the name of this ship so I… SS Princess Kathleen has a great story too.

The SS Princess Kathleen was a passenger and freight steamship owned and operated by Canadian Pacific Steamships. She served the coastal communities of British Columbia, Alaska and Washington.

The SS Princess Kathleen and the SS Princess Marguerite were built to replace the SS Princess Irene and SS Princess Margaret which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty during World War I.

SS Princess Kathleen was built by John Brown & Co., Clydebank and launched in 1924. She sailed from Glasgow to Vancouver via the Panama Canal on her maiden voyage in 1925. The SS Princess Kathleen and the SS Princess Marguerite relieved the SS Princess Charlotte and SS Princess Victoria on the "triangle service" between Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle. With a capacity of 1500 passengers, 290 berths, 136 staterooms, a 168 seat dining room and the ability to carry 30 automobiles, the SS Princess Kathleen and SS Princess Marguerite quickly became the preferred ships on this service. Both successfully competing against the Black Ball Line. Both ships were later modified to carry 1800 passengers by reducing the number of staterooms to 123.

The King and Queen traveled aboard SS Princess Kathleen en route to Victoria in 1939.

In September 1939, SS Princess Kathleen and SS Princess Marguerite were requisitioned by the Royal Canadian Navy for use as troop ships. SS Princess Marguerite was lost in action but SS Princess Kathleen was returned to Canadian Pacific in 1947 and resumed service on the "triangle service." Changing demands and increased automobile traffic saw Canadian Pacific transfer her in 1949 to the Vancouver - Alaska cruise service along the spectacular Inside Passage.

It was while during this assignment at 0300 local time on September 7, 1952 that SS Princess Kathleen ran aground at Lena Point in Alaska's Lynn Canal at low tide. She was later determined that radar was not operational at the time of the grounding. The United States Coast Guard was alerted two hours later and a rescue cutter arrived at 0630. The crew tried to reverse off Lena Point, however as the tide rose, her stern became swamped. All passengers and crew were transferred to lifeboats and ashore as she slid into deeper water and then sank.

The wreck of SS Princess Kathleen sits in approximately 50 ft -100 ft of water and is accessible to divers, however, tides and currents in the vicinity of Lena Point are strong. The wreck contains approximately 155,000 US gal of Number 6 fuel oil. In April 2010 crews began operations to salvage the fuel in advance of a possible catastrophic leak.