Proud Mary – by Mike Creasy
Everybody in Victoria knows of the Princess Mary restaurant…. But did you ever wonder where the rest of this proud old ship ended up? I thought you’d never ask!
The SS Princess Mary was built by Bow, MacLaughlin Co. in 1910 in Paisley, Scotland for the CPR’s new coastal operation, which had started in 1901 with the purchase of the Canadian Pacific Navigation Co. The CPN/CPR fleet was doing a roaring business up the coast to southeast Alaska, as well as the Gulf Islands and Puget Sound.
Originally 210 feet, she was lengthened to 260 feet in 1914 and converted from coal to oil-fired at the same time. The Mary quickly became a fixture on the south coast of BC, and a regular at the CPR dock in Victoria, joining such notables as the Princess Sophia, Princess Maquinna, Princess Patricia and others.
The Mary saw over 40 years of service before her retirement from the CPR fleet in 1951. She was then sold to rival Union Steamships Co. for conversion to bulk cargo hauling and it was during this changeover that her upperworks were planted on the ground on Harbour Road. Stripped of her boilers and engines (and her dignity) the Mary began a new life as the Bulk Carrier #2. She didn’t take kindly to it. When first put into service in 1953, she was, to quote the Marine Superintendent, “unmanageable”. She was quickly dry-docked and had skegs welded onto the hull. She didn’t seem to like these either, so she was dry-docked again in the fall of 1953 and larger skegs fitted.
Now – hopefully under control, she began her new life as a cargo barge. At the time, Union Steamships was busy hauling mining ore from Alaska and the Yukon, plus freight and passenger services to the new community of Kitimat/Kemano. By the spring of 1954, a backlog had built up on the White Pass dock at Skagway, and in March, Bulk Carrier #2 was sent north to pick up a load.
She was towed by the 148 foot cargo/tug Chelan, a powerful new addition to the Union Steamships fleet. Chelan had been built in Bellingham in 1944 for the US Army, and had seen service in the Aleutians. She was designed for the west coast and her skipper, Cecil Roberts, was a long-time west coast tugboat master.
The trip northbound was routine; the inside passage to Dixon Entrance, then Wrangell Narrows to Lynn Canal and Skagway. Bulk Carrier #2 was loaded with 1920 tons of concentrated zinc ore from the United Keno Mine in the Yukon, while Chelan was loaded with 401 tons of higher value lead/silver ore.
Ship and tow left Skagway on the afternoon of April 13, 1954, southbound for Puget Sound. At about 7pm on April 15, she was nearing Cape Decision, about halfway between Skagway and Prince Rupert. The weather was bad, but nothing Chelan and her crew hadn’t seen many times. Winds were southeast at 50 knots, raising 6 foot waves. Swells were from the southwest at 5 feet.
Chelan made two short radio calls to the Cape Decision light. Within minutes, she sank by the stern. All 14 men aboard were lost. Bulk Carrier #2 drifted ashore in nearby Howard Cove.
No one knows what happened that night, but it seems clear that Chelan by herself should have had no trouble with that sort of weather.
Maybe the skegs weren’t effective in the swells and she veered off course, pulling the tug’s stern underwater. Or maybe the old Mary just decided she’d had enough. Whatever the cause, the Mary broke up quickly, ensuring that she would never be put back to work - or worse, sent off to the breaker’s yard.
Today, her rusty bones aren’t far from the wrecks of her sisters, Princess Sophia and Princess Kathleen. At last report, Chelan still lies in deeper water, upright and still carrying her silver treasure.
Bibliography:
US Coast Guard Investigation, May, 1954
Vancouver Coroner’s Inquest, April 30, 1954
The Pacific Princesses, Sono Nis Press, Robert Turner, 1977
Vancouver Maritime Museum Archives
Shipwrecks Magazine, Autumn 2002, Issue no. 11