Cutting corners, getting cheaper materials, being in a hurry, not following the rules, not paying attention (sometimes due to fatigue and sleepiness), pushing ahead despite bad weather, locking/blocking fire exits, disregarding regulations and lack of communication when someone sees something is wrong are all very dangerous or even deadly when they seem like such small, unimportant things.
I was taken aback by "But a combination of factors would see that not a single of the 340 passangers were rescued in time.." the first half of that sounded so promising.
Intensely tragic in retrospect. You can see the captain's thinking, though. It's easy to imagine an alternate-universe version of this video that goes something like: "An evacuation was begun immediately, but in the rough weather conditions, several lifeboats were overturned, or smashed into the hull. One of the boats that came to the rescue, The Cedar, ran aground itself on the reef. In a shocking twist of irony, the tumultuous weather would clear just two hours later. Had the Captain only waited and done nothing, a safe, orderly rescue would have been possible, and many more lives could have been saved." Across so many historical events, that question of "Act now... or wait?" makes all the difference, but is ultimately just a guess.
That alternate-universe version happened in reality 14 years earlier to the S.S. Clallam. The immediate evacuation as soon as the ship was in trouble resulted in every lifeboat capsizing or being broken up against the hull of the Clallam, killing every woman and child onboard. The surviving men and crew desperately tried to keep the ship afloat, and most of them were rescued by a tug hours later (and shortly before the Clallam capsized and sank). The captain of the Princess Sophia would have known this, as they both operated in roughly the same area.
Excellent comment and very true. It saddens me when i hear of these tragedies where the captain is vilified, when we all only know now what the right course of action was was through hindsight 😢
Great video. Worth adding that it's thought likely that the captain's decision not to abandon ship was influenced by a disaster that happened in 1904 when the SS Clallam started to founder in a storm and lowered lifeboats into the water too soon, leading to all those onboard drowning when they overturned.
I seen some ship distaster videos lately. Passengers dying in crushed lifeboats was a real concern for a good reason. Resently I saw one about a burning steamers that got ALL its lifeboats crushed with no survivors.
Came here to say this. They lowered all the women and children in the lifeboats, and all the men watched helplessly as the lifeboats flipped and every woman and child died. Then many of the men were rescued and had to live with that. So the captain of the Princess Sophia was afraid of repeating that situation. Which... fair.
We have a term in aviation called "get home-itis" or "get there-itis" that all pilots are taught and familiar with. So many plane crashes happen because someone just had to be someplace for whatever reason, and flew into bad weather or continued on with low fuel, or other circumstances. That applies here as well. The idea of running full steam, blind, and hoping you'd be ok by timing echos is insanity squared. They didn't have the technology for that back then, and I doubt even today. This was a suicide mission and the captain is guilty of manslaughter. That ship should have never left port.
I agree, if it had been a simple canal with deep water and no obstacles then it might have been viable to sail like that, but they had to have known about those rocks
Hard to believe the Princess Sophia was a victim of bad timing twice over. It sailed at an inopportune time leading to disaster and it sank at a significant moment in history leading to it being forgotten. A tragedy and an indignity all in one remarkable event! Kudos to you for keeping her memory alive.
I'm sure the loved ones of the deceased never forgot about it. As I'm typing this, people all over the world die in car accidents that are forgotten by the public the next day. I don't see why their lives would be less meaningful than the lives of those who died when Titanic sank, for example.
What hell that must have been. To have ready and willing rescuers so nearby and unable to do anything. To sit there and wait with death peering over your shoulder for a whole day. I understand business and schedules but I wonder if this tragedy could have been avoided with a simple delay or cancellation.
Considering the weather,even in hindsight, this was likrly to happen eventually. Cancelation would have saved them, yes. But eventually a ship would run aground.
From the oldest days of Tall Ships, and sailing... "Any port in a storm"... Find a harbor or just the lee-side of an island and drop anchor for a few hours, days, a week or two. Weather WILL pass. Driving on BLIND in a storm is a sure-fire way to wreck a ship. ;o)
I was thinking the same thing, but then realized that they had no idea what the weather was going to do, even today with modern detection systems storms can catch sailors off guard.
Can't guarantee you'll be mourned. Sometimes you gotta things yourself. No one can mourn you more than you XD I like think think that in the hereafter she took quite a deal of pride in her mourning. She made distraught war widows look stoic, dammit!
@@NaomiMoonMusicMaybe she was one of the bodies recovered and they took notice of her mourning dress,, which would have been recognisable as such at that time.
It’s sad that had that happened nowadays we have a ton of ways to rescue them. Helicopters, boats designed to go into shallow water and such even in crappy weather. It would have been almost a non incident. But because advances had yet to be made it was a prolonged tragedy. At least it led to them putting a beacon there, something so simple and easy to accomplish even back then.
Hellicopters wouldnt have helped due to weatger. But yes, we have better lifeboats now. Not to metion faster ships that can bring nessecary equipment or specialized boats like hoverceafts (even if its unlikely for one to be local)
@@ethribin4188 they weren’t specific on what the weather was like exactly at every point. They mentioned it was clear enough for a risky attempt by boat so there may have been opportunities for the coast guard to fly in in that time. But yeah even inflatables would have probably helped
There’s even more to the story. There were times when the lifeboats and equipment they had would probably have been enough to save everyone. However, the year before a ship called the SS Clallam had been damaged in heavy seas in the same region. Women and children were evacuated on lifeboats, which promptly sank, to the horror of those left on board. Compounding the tragedy, the ship itself never sank, and was able to limp back to port. The captain of the Princess Sophia was likely afraid of the same scenario happening. The channel Big Old Boats has long vides on both the Princess Sophia and the Clallam.
Even today, with all the technology boats still sink taking lots of lives with them. Sewol, Costa Concordia, Al salam boca hizo, el faro, etc etc. no matter how much technology, can’t control Mother Nature
Not sure if the perspective of the photographs is deceptive, but from appearances it looks as if the shore isn't that far away from the wreck site. Not sure why some didn't risk it and try to swim for shore. Surely a slim chance is better than none?
I truly and wholly appreciate that you retell these historic events with facts, instead of embellishing on what had happened and retelling it as if it were a story. It's so much more than that. Too often I see people insert their own feelings into the matter, and heavily dramaticize what had took place, or even guessing what could have happened. These are horrific tragedies where often many people lose their lives; to tell these like dramatic fun horror stories would be disrespectful to those lost. Thank you for what you do.
_Mr_ _Ballen_ comes to mind. More often than not, he embellishes the stories with made-up stuff, like telling what someone was thinking at the time of a tragedy, even though that person was killed and wasn't there to tell what exactly he went through in his mind...
How unimaginably tragic for both victims and rescuers. Rescue so close but just out of reach. Every plan failing due to circumstances. And the waiting... Truly heart wrenching
The most terrible thing for the passengers of this ship was to see those small ships that came to the rescue, but were not able to provide any help. And so on until the ship sank, and with it all the passengers. Only one dog survived, a horror...
The thing that shakes me to the core about this tragedy, is that the captain's decision is one any reasonable person could have made. "Gee, this looks kinda bad now, no point in risking a rescue when the weather could let up" and only to have the exact opposite happen. ...and then to feel your ship breaking up under you when you know you missed your opportunity to do anything meaningful about it. What a terrible way to go.
Thanks for the presentation. Commercial fishing captain 33 years. Mostly Alaska. I've stranded on sand bars anxiously awaiting tide and weather. This hits home a little.
The most frustrating thing is the fact that it took the ship so long to sink so it should have given the passengers ample time to be rescued in time but unfortunately that was not the case and they all ended up perishing in this horrible tragedy
1. This was not the 90's. 2. One night Huguenot park , jaxsonville Florida. I was in a kayak. High tide was just comming in. A small sharp storm came in. I had a cheap ass fishing yak. Seemed together in two halfs tightly. It filled up with some water. It flipped on me. Long story short. The fear was paralyzing and I'm a combat veteran. The black water on the black sky is mind blowing fear, then the lightning strikes and you see the real shit your in. And then the black is not so bad. ....... Sooo it's a scary situation and my shit is small red potatoes. You have to make your body work or die. Try not to judge anyone trapped on the ocean, especially not back in Ww2. He went down with the ship. The only reason I'm alive, was because the tide was coming in. That's it. Swim like a wild crack head? wouldn't have made a difference. So afraid I couldn't cry. I cried when I got to Amelia Island. Had a new lease on life. So I give that man props. #Stay floating
As someone with a hefty fear of the water, especially concerning sunken ships and other objects, I find these both fascinating AND horrifying. There’s something about only being able to see the mast of a ship without knowing the extent of what lies beneath that chills me to the core.
It must have been so frightening to know that the rescue ships were so close while you were sinking. I think this is one of the saddest stories I've watched here...
I would have tried swimming for it. I saw another video about this that stated some of the smaller lifeboats they launched from the other ships actually got within a couple hundred meters of the Sofia. I mean the dog made it all the way to shore.
The one dog that survived probably tried to help his owners escape. It's a sad image, the dog swimming around uselessly then finally struggling to get ashore.
God, I remember reading about this during one night of Wikipedia browsing. It is utterly heartbreaking that despite everyone's best efforts, no one was saved, but the dog.
Thank you for covering this!!! I grew up in Juneau, Alaska and got to see one of the first performances of an opera based off of this story. It was such a tragic event and I hope the souls of the passengers know they have not been forgotten. One quick note: as far as I'm aware it's actually pronounced so-phi-a (with the i pronounced like the word I) not so-phee-a.
It is, though when I made a video on this topic and used that pronunciation, it caused so much irrational anger. It's like their brain broke when they heard it! 😆
How had I never heard about this?? This is really one of the most horrifying incidents you've shared. Excellent and respectful portrayal, though! I just feel so terrible about something like this happening in plain sight of so many other ships...
The Inside Passage actually can be pretty rough for ships. It's obviously better than the open ocean but it's known for severe weather like what the Princess Sophia faced, and the shallower waters and many islands make for numerous hazards
This is why I adore your channel my friend you talk of the events many may know with respect but you also bring light to events that have been overshadowed by another and forgotten as I never knew about this until now and what a tragic tale >< i can't begin to imagine how the people on board must have felt, the fact they were stuck there for that long before it did sink or the fact that help was right there but everything was against them.
Skagway is in Alaska, USA, so it was strange to hear you say it's in BC, Canada. But eh, they're so close Skagway almost could be in Canada. What a heartbreaking story. I had to go back twice to clarify that you said none of the passengers made it off alive. That's insane!
I am from a town very close to where it sunk, in fact, most of the bodies were stored here afterwards. It’s still talked about today, very tragic. You covered it very well.
I went to high school up in Juneau. Vanderbilt Reef is a popular place to go trolling (in the fishing sense, not the internet sense). The reef is completely out of the water in places at low tide. It's pretty terrifying thinking about trying to navigate that without modern technology, in a storm, at night.
My brother spent a summer in Juneau allegedly living in some sort of "tent town" while working at a fish canning factory in the late 80s. Is that a thing and does it exist today?
@@twistoffate4791 camping has always been a popular summer housing option. In the early 2000s CBJ opened a city and borough sanctioned long term campground that in part catered to seasonal workers. Before that it would have been ad-hoc and not really organized, so that's a maybe. Wouldn't be surprised though.
@@twistoffate4791 City and Borough of Juneau. Alaska doesn't have counties, they have these things called Boroughs instead with the biggest difference being that not all the state is in a Borough (less then half of it is. Areas need to organize a Borough if they want one, otherwise it's just directly under the state). Juneau is a consolidated City Borough, the city boundaries are the same as the Borough boundaries and the local government is one body, the City and Borough of Juneau or CBJ.
I am always so appreciative of your compassion and empathy when you tell these stories. You tell each tragedy with the gravitas it deserves, and each loss of life is treated with respect, not sensationalism. Thank you.
Anchored behind Mab Island near there last summer and saw our first-ever humpback whale breaching at least 5 times out near the reef. It was as awesome as it sounds. It was only later that I learned about this disaster. A very beautiful, wild and dangerous place. The waters all around the reef are quite deep and I can see how difficult rescue would have been, especially with the weather and nowhere close to anchor.
Skagway, oddly, is in Alaska, not British Columbia… to get to it from Canada you have to drive from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, there’s no direct route through BC.
These accounts of tragedy and disaster are excellently done. The scripting is very well done ... spare but very informative. The mellifluous, even soothing voice of the narrator is clear and strangely and fascinatingly contrapuntal to the horrific events it narrates. Excellent tight little videos!
If we learned anything from other passenger transportation disasters, it's to act immediately. Don't go by hope of a better future situation, get the passengers off now. Those poor people. A great video as usual!
The captain was likely hesitant due to the SS Clallam disaster, which is the reason why you shouldn’t always act immediately. To balance information, options, and possible consequences is the lesson.
@@zippersocks As I mentioned in another comment, what bothers me about this one is that the captain's decision could have been made by any reasonable person, really. Why unnecessarily risk the lives of the rescuers if you don't have to? ...and then by the time you know you've made a bad decision, it's already too late. Just as well, the captain could have tried an evacuation to only have lifeboats dashed against the rocks and passengers could have perished anyway. The captain drew the proverbial short straw - literally damned if you do, damned if you don't.
This had to be so hard on the rescue ship captains and crews - to have been there watching the whole time, feeling completely helpless as the situation got worse and ultimately so many perished. That surely haunted them the rest of their lives.
I feel really bad for the captain. He was caught between a rock and a hard place, and he chose the option he believed would be the safest for his ship and passengers, but it ultimately cost everyone their lives.
Insightful video into the hazards of water travel in the last century. Also the difficult task captains faced making decisions with limited knowledge and resources.
7:27 I really appreciate that you've taken the time to note that the image you've used to represent the survivor dog was clearly noted as not of the actual dog. This sort of attention to accuracy makes this channel a huge cut above the vast majority of TH-cam channels crating content based on history. Thank you.
No matter how well I know your subject matter I can’t help but watch your videos. So well put together. The Ss Clallum disaster influenced this story greatly, the captain likely had that fresh in his mind.
Optimism bias can be such a deadly thing indeed. I don't really blame the ship's captain for making that particular decision at that time, but it makes me tremendously glad that today we have all the equipment and data to do better.
Even though the contents of the letter were so distressing it makes me happy knowing that Dorrie was so loved. I hope she gained some solace from that letter after her fiancé passed
Wow, this is one of the crazier stories. I mean, it was a perfect storm of unfortunate events, turning something that should have been a mundane grounding into a catastrophe with a 100% mortality rate. Absolutely crazy.
So often it’s not the accident that dooms the victims, but the surrounding weather or other circumstances. I can’t believe not a single person could be saved. Terrible to contemplate your demise for a whole day like that.
Interesting that this story came up while I’m sitting on a cruise ship not far from where this happened. I heard the story today from the Skagway Streetcar Tour guide. In a hour we’ll be going past the reef it ran aground on.
It’s Lynn canal to be exact, not just the Inland Passage. The canal is very wide and rough and no one could swim away. The dog that was found was a miracle, if it was indeed from the Sophia.
I live here. At night, its eerie to see the navigation light on the rock in the middle of the fjord, knowing what happened there. There is a maker on Eagle Beach in remembrance
I’m from Haines, Alaska - Haines is just up the Lynn Canal (not channel) from where this happened. If you guys could see the shoreline in the Lynn Canal, you might appreciate some of that captains apprehension about abandoning ship right there. It’s pretty much cliffs going straight up at the water’s edge. No place to land any kind of lifeboat. I always think of the Princess Sophia every time we round that corner on the ferry nowadays.
What an awful way to go, with rescue so close and yet so far. God bless the man who left his will, that’s so heartbreaking. I hope his fiancé was able to find joy in her life again.
Hey, I'm glad you did this! I'd considered sending it in as a recommendation but now I don't have to. I live in Whitehorse, Yukon and we know this story quite well, as most of the passengers were wealthy Yukoners heading south for the winter (this was the last steamer of the season). The sinking was devastating here, as many of our business and political leaders were on the Sophia. Even though thr Klondike Gold Rush had been 20 years before, there was still considerable mining and business taking place in the Yukon. (And one small correction: Skagway is at the northern end of the Alaskan panhandle... it's not in British Columbia)
I was literally on your channel looking for a new video. Lol I must have been right before you posted what fate. Love it. You should do the failed antarctic venture of explorer Scott. Hw failed dramatically
Maritime Horror also covered this and included a significant detail you neglected to mention at around 16 minutes in... that the captain may have been thinking of the sinking of the Clallam in 1904, where the captain was too eager to launch the lifeboats, they all capsized, all the women and children drowned, and then all the men who stayed on the ship ended up getting rescued.
Hey! Love your videos, would love to see a playlist made some point down the line putting all the events in chronological order, It's interesting to hear how the world responds to something depending on the time period.
Its pretty neat seeing the Vancouver coastline outside of looking at a map.. princess sophia wasn’t the only ship to go down in that area, BC ferry also sank there
I took a stormy trip down this same “Inner Passage” in the 1990’s. At night the waves were truly wild and the ferry was rocking so much I refused to look out the window because I knew it would scare me. I preferred to die with my ignorance firmly intact. I simply kept my eyes closed and calmly prayed to God to live through it. 😂 My husband, however, looked out the window and immediately regretted it. He said the only thing that kept him from panicking was that the crew appeared calm. There had been dark grey skies and intense wind all day, and yeah it was terrifying at night. So it’s a moody area prone to unpredictable weather and, oh yeah, seasick passengers! My husband was seasick and never gets seasick. I wasn’t seasick and I always get seasick! Why? “Seabands”. Sold at drugstores, they put pressure on the main vein in your wrists which for some reason prevents seasickness? After that trip I could have done commercials for them. As I laid there, praying, first my feet rose skyward and then my head, over and over again, and I wasn’t nauseous at all. ☺️ The fact that the Princess Sophia broke apart and went down at night is true horror. It would be bad enough during the day.
What is it with people thinking they can predict the weather? You don't know whether it's going to get better or worse. Even with a forecast. My dad pulls the same shit too and then complains when it rains when it wasn't supposed to. Just go when conditions are good, Jesus.
You know the story is gonna end badly everytime we hear "the captain was keen to make up time"
Right smh
Fr.
Just like the Poseidon!
Cutting corners, getting cheaper materials, being in a hurry, not following the rules, not paying attention (sometimes due to fatigue and sleepiness), pushing ahead despite bad weather, locking/blocking fire exits, disregarding regulations and lack of communication when someone sees something is wrong are all very dangerous or even deadly when they seem like such small, unimportant things.
Honey let’s be real, we know the story gonna end badly if it ends up on this channel to begin with 💀
I was taken aback by "But a combination of factors would see that not a single of the 340 passangers were rescued in time.." the first half of that sounded so promising.
Same here. I'm thinking, oh so all sav....WHAT??!
Right? Was completely expecting to hear "that not a single one ... had perished"
I actually shouted at my monitor, "...THIRTY HOURS?!?"
Yeah, I was just like "geeeeeeze!" 😦
@@robinauseer499 Exactly!! It was an oddly phrased sentence. You'd expect it to start with something like "Unfortunately....".
Intensely tragic in retrospect. You can see the captain's thinking, though. It's easy to imagine an alternate-universe version of this video that goes something like: "An evacuation was begun immediately, but in the rough weather conditions, several lifeboats were overturned, or smashed into the hull. One of the boats that came to the rescue, The Cedar, ran aground itself on the reef. In a shocking twist of irony, the tumultuous weather would clear just two hours later. Had the Captain only waited and done nothing, a safe, orderly rescue would have been possible, and many more lives could have been saved."
Across so many historical events, that question of "Act now... or wait?" makes all the difference, but is ultimately just a guess.
That alternate-universe version happened in reality 14 years earlier to the S.S. Clallam. The immediate evacuation as soon as the ship was in trouble resulted in every lifeboat capsizing or being broken up against the hull of the Clallam, killing every woman and child onboard. The surviving men and crew desperately tried to keep the ship afloat, and most of them were rescued by a tug hours later (and shortly before the Clallam capsized and sank). The captain of the Princess Sophia would have known this, as they both operated in roughly the same area.
@fionawilson
As so often....it takes a woman to make sense😉
Best comment of all!
Cheers
Excellent comment and very true. It saddens me when i hear of these tragedies where the captain is vilified, when we all only know now what the right course of action was was through hindsight 😢
Sometimes you're not sure whether to heed "He who hesitates is lost" or "Look before you leap."
Great video. Worth adding that it's thought likely that the captain's decision not to abandon ship was influenced by a disaster that happened in 1904 when the SS Clallam started to founder in a storm and lowered lifeboats into the water too soon, leading to all those onboard drowning when they overturned.
Yeah. I read about that.
One of the times that the lessons learnt from previous disasters actually were detremental.
I seen some ship distaster videos lately. Passengers dying in crushed lifeboats was a real concern for a good reason. Resently I saw one about a burning steamers that got ALL its lifeboats crushed with no survivors.
Bear in mind, if a storm is too rough for the big ship, the lifeboats won't be much good.
Came here to say this. They lowered all the women and children in the lifeboats, and all the men watched helplessly as the lifeboats flipped and every woman and child died. Then many of the men were rescued and had to live with that. So the captain of the Princess Sophia was afraid of repeating that situation. Which... fair.
Was just about to comment this. Arguably the biggest reason why he didn’t try the evacuation. The wreck of the clallam stuck with him heavily.
I actuslly tear'd up when he said only a dog survived and found 8:54 "totally exhausted and covered in oil" 😢
Poor, *Poor* lil doggy...
omg same as soon as dogs come up in these kind of videos its over for me
We have a term in aviation called "get home-itis" or "get there-itis" that all pilots are taught and familiar with. So many plane crashes happen because someone just had to be someplace for whatever reason, and flew into bad weather or continued on with low fuel, or other circumstances. That applies here as well. The idea of running full steam, blind, and hoping you'd be ok by timing echos is insanity squared. They didn't have the technology for that back then, and I doubt even today. This was a suicide mission and the captain is guilty of manslaughter. That ship should have never left port.
Or when it got so bad anchor immeidately and not move forward
I agree, if it had been a simple canal with deep water and no obstacles then it might have been viable to sail like that, but they had to have known about those rocks
Agreed. Captain made a foolish choice to press on in blizzard conditions.
More truckers have died/killed others from terminal Get-There-Itis... as I remind myself when I start getting into "hammer down" mode!
My grandfather who was a top turret gunner and flight engineer on B-24's during ww2 used to say..."bad things happen when your in a hurry"
Hard to believe the Princess Sophia was a victim of bad timing twice over. It sailed at an inopportune time leading to disaster and it sank at a significant moment in history leading to it being forgotten. A tragedy and an indignity all in one remarkable event! Kudos to you for keeping her memory alive.
I'm sure the loved ones of the deceased never forgot about it. As I'm typing this, people all over the world die in car accidents that are forgotten by the public the next day. I don't see why their lives would be less meaningful than the lives of those who died when Titanic sank, for example.
@@VideoDotGoogleDotCom For heaven's sake, it's not a competition, don't make it out to be. No one like's people like that.
All that is needed is a movie studio with a gigantic budget willing to make a blockbuster
@@damagecontrol7 Still kind of surprised no one has made a disaster film about the Andrea Doria.
What hell that must have been. To have ready and willing rescuers so nearby and unable to do anything. To sit there and wait with death peering over your shoulder for a whole day. I understand business and schedules but I wonder if this tragedy could have been avoided with a simple delay or cancellation.
Considering the weather,even in hindsight, this was likrly to happen eventually.
Cancelation would have saved them, yes.
But eventually a ship would run aground.
Didn't the captain have several times where they could have gotten someone off the boat?
From the oldest days of Tall Ships, and sailing... "Any port in a storm"...
Find a harbor or just the lee-side of an island and drop anchor for a few hours, days, a week or two. Weather WILL pass. Driving on BLIND in a storm is a sure-fire way to wreck a ship. ;o)
@@gnarthdarkanen7464 That's a fact. Even a few days late to your destination is far superior to an early grave.
I was thinking the same thing, but then realized that they had no idea what the weather was going to do, even today with modern detection systems storms can catch sailors off guard.
The lady dressing up to mourn her own death is so extra and I love it
We all have that aunt
Can't guarantee you'll be mourned. Sometimes you gotta things yourself.
No one can mourn you more than you XD
I like think think that in the hereafter she took quite a deal of pride in her mourning. She made distraught war widows look stoic, dammit!
I wonder if it's even true though. If there were no survivors how could stories like that be known?
@@NaomiMoonMusic Shh! I want to believe it
@@NaomiMoonMusicMaybe she was one of the bodies recovered and they took notice of her mourning dress,, which would have been recognisable as such at that time.
It’s sad that had that happened nowadays we have a ton of ways to rescue them. Helicopters, boats designed to go into shallow water and such even in crappy weather. It would have been almost a non incident. But because advances had yet to be made it was a prolonged tragedy. At least it led to them putting a beacon there, something so simple and easy to accomplish even back then.
Hellicopters wouldnt have helped due to weatger.
But yes, we have better lifeboats now.
Not to metion faster ships that can bring nessecary equipment or specialized boats like hoverceafts (even if its unlikely for one to be local)
@@ethribin4188 they weren’t specific on what the weather was like exactly at every point. They mentioned it was clear enough for a risky attempt by boat so there may have been opportunities for the coast guard to fly in in that time. But yeah even inflatables would have probably helped
There’s even more to the story. There were times when the lifeboats and equipment they had would probably have been enough to save everyone. However, the year before a ship called the SS Clallam had been damaged in heavy seas in the same region. Women and children were evacuated on lifeboats, which promptly sank, to the horror of those left on board. Compounding the tragedy, the ship itself never sank, and was able to limp back to port. The captain of the Princess Sophia was likely afraid of the same scenario happening.
The channel Big Old Boats has long vides on both the Princess Sophia and the Clallam.
Even today, with all the technology boats still sink taking lots of lives with them. Sewol, Costa Concordia, Al salam boca hizo, el faro, etc etc. no matter how much technology, can’t control Mother Nature
Not sure if the perspective of the photographs is deceptive, but from appearances it looks as if the shore isn't that far away from the wreck site. Not sure why some didn't risk it and try to swim for shore. Surely a slim chance is better than none?
I truly and wholly appreciate that you retell these historic events with facts, instead of embellishing on what had happened and retelling it as if it were a story. It's so much more than that. Too often I see people insert their own feelings into the matter, and heavily dramaticize what had took place, or even guessing what could have happened. These are horrific tragedies where often many people lose their lives; to tell these like dramatic fun horror stories would be disrespectful to those lost. Thank you for what you do.
Mu6mj😅😮
_Mr_ _Ballen_ comes to mind. More often than not, he embellishes the stories with made-up stuff, like telling what someone was thinking at the time of a tragedy, even though that person was killed and wasn't there to tell what exactly he went through in his mind...
How unimaginably tragic for both victims and rescuers. Rescue so close but just out of reach. Every plan failing due to circumstances. And the waiting... Truly heart wrenching
The most terrible thing for the passengers of this ship was to see those small ships that came to the rescue, but were not able to provide any help. And so on until the ship sank, and with it all the passengers. Only one dog survived, a horror...
The thing that shakes me to the core about this tragedy, is that the captain's decision is one any reasonable person could have made. "Gee, this looks kinda bad now, no point in risking a rescue when the weather could let up" and only to have the exact opposite happen. ...and then to feel your ship breaking up under you when you know you missed your opportunity to do anything meaningful about it. What a terrible way to go.
Thanks for the presentation. Commercial fishing captain 33 years. Mostly Alaska. I've stranded on sand bars anxiously awaiting tide and weather. This hits home a little.
"Oh Thurston, darling I simply CAN'T drown"
"But, Lovey, Why?"
"I haven't a THING to wear!"
Gilligan!!
The most frustrating thing is the fact that it took the ship so long to sink so it should have given the passengers ample time to be rescued in time but unfortunately that was not the case and they all ended up perishing in this horrible tragedy
There was lots of time, but obviously options were very limited. And the Captain could not know the weather would worsen.
1. This was not the 90's.
2. One night Huguenot park , jaxsonville Florida. I was in a kayak. High tide was just comming in. A small sharp storm came in. I had a cheap ass fishing yak. Seemed together in two halfs tightly. It filled up with some water. It flipped on me. Long story short. The fear was paralyzing and I'm a combat veteran. The black water on the black sky is mind blowing fear, then the lightning strikes and you see the real shit your in. And then the black is not so bad. ....... Sooo it's a scary situation and my shit is small red potatoes. You have to make your body work or die. Try not to judge anyone trapped on the ocean, especially not back in Ww2. He went down with the ship.
The only reason I'm alive, was because the tide was coming in. That's it. Swim like a wild crack head? wouldn't have made a difference. So afraid I couldn't cry. I cried when I got to Amelia Island. Had a new lease on life.
So I give that man props.
#Stay floating
Thank you captain obvious, I didn’t realize that that was a frustrating thing…
Love the maritime videos - all of the content on the channel is good, but the maritime stuff is, well fascinating.
As someone with a hefty fear of the water, especially concerning sunken ships and other objects, I find these both fascinating AND horrifying. There’s something about only being able to see the mast of a ship without knowing the extent of what lies beneath that chills me to the core.
It must have been so frightening to know that the rescue ships were so close while you were sinking. I think this is one of the saddest stories I've watched here...
I would have tried swimming for it. I saw another video about this that stated some of the smaller lifeboats they launched from the other ships actually got within a couple hundred meters of the Sofia. I mean the dog made it all the way to shore.
The one dog that survived probably tried to help his owners escape. It's a sad image, the dog swimming around uselessly then finally struggling to get ashore.
I hope he knew that he was a very good boi 🥺
God, I remember reading about this during one night of Wikipedia browsing. It is utterly heartbreaking that despite everyone's best efforts, no one was saved, but the dog.
well the dog saved himself
That dog makes Lassie look like a freeloader by comparison.
Thank you for covering this!!! I grew up in Juneau, Alaska and got to see one of the first performances of an opera based off of this story. It was such a tragic event and I hope the souls of the passengers know they have not been forgotten.
One quick note: as far as I'm aware it's actually pronounced so-phi-a (with the i pronounced like the word I) not so-phee-a.
It is, though when I made a video on this topic and used that pronunciation, it caused so much irrational anger. It's like their brain broke when they heard it! 😆
*Whenever I have a shitty day, I come here and watch some videos.*
*And I think that, my day was not so bad after all.*
How had I never heard about this?? This is really one of the most horrifying incidents you've shared. Excellent and respectful portrayal, though! I just feel so terrible about something like this happening in plain sight of so many other ships...
that one woman who dressed herself in mourning clothes to prepare for her own death really already lost faith that they will not be saved.
Ya' think?
honestly kinda metal though
@@lukev7 Yeah that's pretty damned metal 🖖
The Inside Passage actually can be pretty rough for ships. It's obviously better than the open ocean but it's known for severe weather like what the Princess Sophia faced, and the shallower waters and many islands make for numerous hazards
I always get SO happy when you put a new video out, the music, your awesome voice, the respectful way you tell the stories… *chefs kiss*
WTF is this Chefs Kiss bullshit? Second time I've seen this today.
@@sidneyvandykeii3169 I agree! Time to get super angry! 😠
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This is why I adore your channel my friend you talk of the events many may know with respect but you also bring light to events that have been overshadowed by another and forgotten as I never knew about this until now and what a tragic tale >< i can't begin to imagine how the people on board must have felt, the fact they were stuck there for that long before it did sink or the fact that help was right there but everything was against them.
Gotta respect the person who packs a mourning dress for a cruise
Skagway is in Alaska, USA, so it was strange to hear you say it's in BC, Canada. But eh, they're so close Skagway almost could be in Canada. What a heartbreaking story. I had to go back twice to clarify that you said none of the passengers made it off alive. That's insane!
I am from a town very close to where it sunk, in fact, most of the bodies were stored here afterwards. It’s still talked about today, very tragic. You covered it very well.
I went to high school up in Juneau. Vanderbilt Reef is a popular place to go trolling (in the fishing sense, not the internet sense). The reef is completely out of the water in places at low tide. It's pretty terrifying thinking about trying to navigate that without modern technology, in a storm, at night.
My brother spent a summer in Juneau allegedly living in some sort of "tent town" while working at a fish canning factory in the late 80s. Is that a thing and does it exist today?
@@twistoffate4791 camping has always been a popular summer housing option. In the early 2000s CBJ opened a city and borough sanctioned long term campground that in part catered to seasonal workers. Before that it would have been ad-hoc and not really organized, so that's a maybe. Wouldn't be surprised though.
@@PineappleForFun What is CBJ?
@@twistoffate4791 City and Borough of Juneau. Alaska doesn't have counties, they have these things called Boroughs instead with the biggest difference being that not all the state is in a Borough (less then half of it is. Areas need to organize a Borough if they want one, otherwise it's just directly under the state). Juneau is a consolidated City Borough, the city boundaries are the same as the Borough boundaries and the local government is one body, the City and Borough of Juneau or CBJ.
@@PineappleForFun Thank you for filling me in. Seems complex!
You always find the most obscure stories. I’ve never heard this one!❤
I am always so appreciative of your compassion and empathy when you tell these stories. You tell each tragedy with the gravitas it deserves, and each loss of life is treated with respect, not sensationalism. Thank you.
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Anchored behind Mab Island near there last summer and saw our first-ever humpback whale breaching at least 5 times out near the reef. It was as awesome as it sounds. It was only later that I learned about this disaster. A very beautiful, wild and dangerous place. The waters all around the reef are quite deep and I can see how difficult rescue would have been, especially with the weather and nowhere close to anchor.
Skagway, oddly, is in Alaska, not British Columbia… to get to it from Canada you have to drive from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, there’s no direct route through BC.
I noticed the same mistake.
These accounts of tragedy and disaster are excellently done. The scripting is very well done ... spare but very informative. The mellifluous, even soothing voice of the narrator is clear and strangely and fascinatingly contrapuntal to the horrific events it narrates. Excellent tight little videos!
If we learned anything from other passenger transportation disasters, it's to act immediately. Don't go by hope of a better future situation, get the passengers off now. Those poor people. A great video as usual!
The captain was likely hesitant due to the SS Clallam disaster, which is the reason why you shouldn’t always act immediately. To balance information, options, and possible consequences is the lesson.
@@zippersocks As I mentioned in another comment, what bothers me about this one is that the captain's decision could have been made by any reasonable person, really. Why unnecessarily risk the lives of the rescuers if you don't have to? ...and then by the time you know you've made a bad decision, it's already too late. Just as well, the captain could have tried an evacuation to only have lifeboats dashed against the rocks and passengers could have perished anyway. The captain drew the proverbial short straw - literally damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Extremely sad and traumatic for all those passengers. Thank you for mentioning the dog that survived.
This had to be so hard on the rescue ship captains and crews - to have been there watching the whole time, feeling completely helpless as the situation got worse and ultimately so many perished. That surely haunted them the rest of their lives.
I feel really bad for the captain. He was caught between a rock and a hard place, and he chose the option he believed would be the safest for his ship and passengers, but it ultimately cost everyone their lives.
Thank you for covering these stories
Insightful video into the hazards of water travel in the last century. Also the difficult task captains faced making decisions with limited knowledge and resources.
"No one survived."
Terrible. What a tragic loss...
"Except the dog."
*It could have been worse.*
7:27 I really appreciate that you've taken the time to note that the image you've used to represent the survivor dog was clearly noted as not of the actual dog. This sort of attention to accuracy makes this channel a huge cut above the vast majority of TH-cam channels crating content based on history.
Thank you.
okay, but the lady who changed into a mourning gown? iconic.
Wow you hit 1million subs and then some! Richly deserved! This is a great channel and I watch faithfully every Tuesday morning ❤
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I’ve actually heard of this ship before. Here in BC a few of the ferries have plaques referencing this event.
No matter how well I know your subject matter I can’t help but watch your videos. So well put together.
The Ss Clallum disaster influenced this story greatly, the captain likely had that fresh in his mind.
Went and looked that up. Really good point!
If there is one thing this channel teaches us, it's when things go sideways you take the first opportunity to save yourself and others.
Optimism bias can be such a deadly thing indeed. I don't really blame the ship's captain for making that particular decision at that time, but it makes me tremendously glad that today we have all the equipment and data to do better.
Even though the contents of the letter were so distressing it makes me happy knowing that Dorrie was so loved. I hope she gained some solace from that letter after her fiancé passed
Wow, this is one of the crazier stories. I mean, it was a perfect storm of unfortunate events, turning something that should have been a mundane grounding into a catastrophe with a 100% mortality rate. Absolutely crazy.
Ahhh, the brilliance of hindsight, it never fails.............
The more old disasters I hear about, the more I realise the value of reasonably accurate weather forecasts.
Great "format". Great voice. Great explications. Splendid. I love to watch these videos. For me among the best of its kind on TH-cam.
This sort of event makes me very thankful that we have so many more options these days for being rescued at sea/from the waters
I was interested to hear your side on a disaster like this and you didn't disappoint. Great job
That woman who donned a mourning dress in anticipation of her own demise is a BIG mood. I wish she could get a Tumblr
For real
Nice video! Local legend - this happened just some miles north of where I live. One note, though... Skagway is in Alaska, not British Columbia.
So often it’s not the accident that dooms the victims, but the surrounding weather or other circumstances. I can’t believe not a single person could be saved. Terrible to contemplate your demise for a whole day like that.
Excellent video once again. Such a devastatingly sad story.
Interesting that this story came up while I’m sitting on a cruise ship not far from where this happened.
I heard the story today from the Skagway Streetcar Tour guide.
In a hour we’ll be going past the reef it ran aground on.
I normally enjoy your videos a lot, but this one actually made me cry.
It’s Lynn canal to be exact, not just the Inland Passage. The canal is very wide and rough and no one could swim away. The dog that was found was a miracle, if it was indeed from the Sophia.
Your way of telling is just so unbelievable good 👌🏻 A tragic story.
Thank you. Skagway is in Alaska. Some of the unfortunate passengers were notable residents of the once booming gold towns of the North.
I live here. At night, its eerie to see the navigation light on the rock in the middle of the fjord, knowing what happened there. There is a maker on Eagle Beach in remembrance
I’m from Haines, Alaska - Haines is just up the Lynn Canal (not channel) from where this happened. If you guys could see the shoreline in the Lynn Canal, you might appreciate some of that captains apprehension about abandoning ship right there. It’s pretty much cliffs going straight up at the water’s edge. No place to land any kind of lifeboat. I always think of the Princess Sophia every time we round that corner on the ferry nowadays.
What an awful way to go, with rescue so close and yet so far. God bless the man who left his will, that’s so heartbreaking. I hope his fiancé was able to find joy in her life again.
What a tragic irony to die with so many rescue vessels nearby.
Another good video. I had never heard of this story before. Good job.
One of my Stuart ancestors was a crewman on this ship. His son came back from WW1 shortly after the sinking to find that his father had died.
1:35 - Skagway's in Alaska. Just inside the state from the border. Visited it as a kid back in '86.
Minor correction at 1:39 … Skagway is in Alaska, not BC.
I really enjoy your videos. You tell a story with fine delivery.
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I was waiting 😊. Thank-you.
Another night of no sleep..bet it's time for FH lol
30 hrs...cool that gives them time
Oh no!
1:35 correction: Skagway is not in British Columbia, but in Alaska, which is part of the US.
Glad the dog was ok! ❤
Hey, I'm glad you did this! I'd considered sending it in as a recommendation but now I don't have to.
I live in Whitehorse, Yukon and we know this story quite well, as most of the passengers were wealthy Yukoners heading south for the winter (this was the last steamer of the season).
The sinking was devastating here, as many of our business and political leaders were on the Sophia. Even though thr Klondike Gold Rush had been 20 years before, there was still considerable mining and business taking place in the Yukon.
(And one small correction: Skagway is at the northern end of the Alaskan panhandle... it's not in British Columbia)
Small correction: Skagway is not a part of British Columbia. While it is on the border, it's on the American side. It's the Al part of the AlCan.
I find the music at the start of your videos strangely addictive 😅
Man I love having your videos on the background as I do chores
Maybe you could do one on the sinking on MS Estonia one day
I’m honestly just glad the dog survived.
I was literally on your channel looking for a new video. Lol I must have been right before you posted what fate. Love it. You should do the failed antarctic venture of explorer Scott. Hw failed dramatically
I agree
Maritime Horror also covered this and included a significant detail you neglected to mention at around 16 minutes in... that the captain may have been thinking of the sinking of the Clallam in 1904, where the captain was too eager to launch the lifeboats, they all capsized, all the women and children drowned, and then all the men who stayed on the ship ended up getting rescued.
"They were running late and trying to make up time..." How many tragedies start this way?
Thanks for this video I very much enjoy the content you bring us FH
Hey! Love your videos, would love to see a playlist made some point down the line putting all the events in chronological order, It's interesting to hear how the world responds to something depending on the time period.
"waiting for conditions to improve",
a serious lesson to be learned here...
I was just about to give up looking for something to watch before bed. Way to show up just in the nick of time.
Skagway is in Alaska, USA. It’s North of Juneau.
It's Amazing that a Dog survived this without a life jacket too! But terrified of saltwater makes perfect sense 😢
Its pretty neat seeing the Vancouver coastline outside of looking at a map.. princess sophia wasn’t the only ship to go down in that area, BC ferry also sank there
All those potential rescuers near you and you can't be saved. What despair! Thanks, FH.
World class documentary as usual.
I took a stormy trip down this same “Inner Passage” in the 1990’s. At night the waves were truly wild and the ferry was rocking so much I refused to look out the window because I knew it would scare me. I preferred to die with my ignorance firmly intact. I simply kept my eyes closed and calmly prayed to God to live through it. 😂 My husband, however, looked out the window and immediately regretted it. He said the only thing that kept him from panicking was that the crew appeared calm. There had been dark grey skies and intense wind all day, and yeah it was terrifying at night. So it’s a moody area prone to unpredictable weather and, oh yeah, seasick passengers! My husband was seasick and never gets seasick. I wasn’t seasick and I always get seasick! Why? “Seabands”. Sold at drugstores, they put pressure on the main vein in your wrists which for some reason prevents seasickness? After that trip I could have done commercials for them. As I laid there, praying, first my feet rose skyward and then my head, over and over again, and I wasn’t nauseous at all. ☺️
The fact that the Princess Sophia broke apart and went down at night is true horror. It would be bad enough during the day.
1:37: Skagway is a city in Alaska, not British Columbia.
What is it with people thinking they can predict the weather? You don't know whether it's going to get better or worse. Even with a forecast. My dad pulls the same shit too and then complains when it rains when it wasn't supposed to. Just go when conditions are good, Jesus.