History | |
---|---|
Name | SS Princess Louise |
Owner | Hudson's Bay Company; Canadian Pacific Railway, others. |
Route | Vancouver, British Columbia; Puget Sound; coastal British Columbia; southeast Alaska |
Builder | Wallace Shipyard, North Vancouver, British Columbia |
Launched | 29 August 1921 |
In service | 1921 |
Out of service | 1964 (restaurant until 1989) |
Fate | Sunk 20 June 1990 |
Notes | Artificial reef at 900' |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Pocket Liner |
Tonnage | 4032 gross tons. |
Length | 317.2 ft (97 m) |
Beam | 48.1 ft (15 m) |
Draught | 34.6 ft (11 m) |
Installed power | Single reciprocating, triple expansion steam engine |
Propulsion | 4,500 horsepower |
Capacity | 1,000 day passengers, or 236 overnight passengers in 133 staterooms |
The SS Princess Louise was a 331-foot steamship, named in honor of Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife, Queen Victoria's granddaughter. [1] The ship was part of the Canadian Pacific Railway's "Princess" fleet, the coastal counterparts to CPR's "Empress" fleet of passenger liners which sailed on trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic routes. [2] The ships of the British Columbia Coast Steamships came to be called "pocket liners" because they offered on smaller vessels the superior class of service, splendid amenities and luxurious decor equal to great ocean liners. [3]
Princess Louise was built in 1921, North Vancouver, B.C., [4] for the tourist service to Alaska run by British Columbia Coast Steamships (BCCS). She was considered to be a luxury cruise ship of the era.
For BCCS, Princess Louise carried passengers on the 1,750-mile round-trip voyage between Vancouver and Alaska [1] until she was removed from service in 1964.
Purchased by Jerry Sutton, Princess Louise was moved to a permanent berth on Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor. She opened for business on September 25, 1966, as the largest floating restaurant in America, and was initially successful, drawing in nearly 2,000 guests per day. In 1979, she was towed to a new location at Berth 94 in San Pedro. By 1984, the restaurant was losing money, and was sold to Marion Perkov, who failed to save the business and filed for bankruptcy four years later. [1]
The SS Princess Louise forever closed her restaurant doors on January 15, 1989. The Bank of San Pedro seized the vessel, and had her repaired and made ready for resale, when on October 30, 1989, the ship capsized at her berth. [5] Lloyd's of London, the ship's insurers, suspected foul play, and refused to distribute the insured value to the beneficiaries. [1]
It was finally decided that Princess Louise would be sunk in 500 feet of water near Catalina Island as an artificial reef. However, while being towed toward Catalina on the morning of June 20, 1990, the ship took on water and sank prematurely in 900 feet of water. [1]
CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canada's largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships from Europe to Canada. In 1914 the sinking of the Canadian Pacific steamship RMS Empress of Ireland just before World War I became largest maritime disaster in Canadian history. The company provided Canadian Merchant Navy vessels in World Wars I and II. Twelve vessels were lost due to enemy action in World War II, including the RMS Empress of Britain, which was the largest ship ever sunk by a German U-boat.
SS Princess Sophia was a steel-built passenger liner in the coastal service fleet of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Along with SS Princess Adelaide, SS Princess Alice, and SS Princess Mary, Princess Sophia was one of four similar ships built for CPR during 1910-1911.
RMS Empress of Japan, also known as the "Queen of the Pacific", was an ocean liner built in 1890–1891 by Naval Construction & Armaments Co, Barrow-in-Furness, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship – the first of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan – regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1922. During the First World War she served as armed merchant cruiser, becoming HMS Empress of Japan for the period that she was a commissioned ship of the Royal Navy.
RMS Empress of Japan was an ocean liner built in 1929–1930 by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship was the second of two CP vessels to be named Empress of Japan – regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until 1942.
The Grand Trunk steamship Prince Rupert and her sister ship SS Prince George served the coast of British Columbia and Alaska. Prince Rupert had a 45-year career serving northern ports from Vancouver, British Columbia, from 1910 to 1955. The ship was considered "unlucky" and suffered several incidents during her career, including two significant ones that left large portions of the vessel underwater. The ship was broken up in 1956.
SS Catala was a Canadian coastal passenger and cargo steamship built in Scotland in 1925, for service with the Union Steamship Company of British Columbia. In 1927 the ship became a total loss after stranding on reef, but was recovered and returned to service. Retired in 1958, Catala was later used as a floating hotel until wrecked on the Washington State coast in 1965.
RMS Empress of Canada was an ocean liner built in 1920 for the Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP) by Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland. This ship—the first of three CP vessels to be named Empress of Canada—regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Asian waters until 1939.
RMS Empress of China was an ocean liner built in 1890-1891 by Naval Construction & Armament Co., Barrow, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship—the first of three CP vessels to be named Empress of China—regularly traversed the trans-Pacific route between the west coast of Canada and the Far East until she struck an underwater reef and sank in Tokyo harbour in 1911.
RMS Empress of India was an ocean liner built in 1890-1891 by Naval Construction & Armaments Co, Barrow-in-Furness, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships. This ship would be the first of two CP vessels to be named Empress of India, and on 28 April 1891, she was the first of many ships named Empress arriving at Vancouver harbor.
For more than 35 years, from 1923 to 1958, the Union steamship Cardena sailed the British Columbia Coast, carrying passengers, groceries, dry goods, industrial cargo, mail and sundry other supplies to the 200 or so mining, logging and fishing communities that once dotted the province's coastline during the early years of the 20th century. On her return voyage, at the peak of the summer fishing season, Cardena routinely carried thousands of cases of canned salmon to the railheads at Prince Rupert and Vancouver for shipment across Canada and around the world. And so it went for the better part of half a century; a regular and reliable marine service that made Cardena a coastal institution, remembered with affection and regard by the countless men, women and children who inhabited those tiny outports in a bygone era.
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.
SS Princess Alice was a passenger vessel in the coastal service fleet of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) during the first half of the 20th century.
The Canadian Pacific Railway Coast Service, also known as the British Columbia Coast Steamships (BCCS), was a division of Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which began operating Pacific coastal shipping routes in the late 19th century. The development of coastal passenger and cargo shipping routes extended from British Columbia to Alaska and to Seattle, Washington in the United States.
SS Princess Mary was a passenger vessel in the coastal service fleet of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) during the first half of the 20th century.
Princess Norah was a steamship which operated in British Columbia and southeastern Alaska from 1929 to 1964. From 1955 to 1958, this ship was called Queen of the North. From 1958 to 1964, the ship was called Canadian Prince. This ship should not be confused with the later similarly named motor ferry MV Queen of the North.
Lady Alexandra was a steamship built in 1924 in Montrose, Scotland which served in British Columbia from 1924 to 1952, mostly on Howe Sound.
Princess Marguerite, Princess Marguerite II, and Princess Marguerite III was a series of Canadian coastal passenger vessels that operated along the west coast of British Columbia and into Puget Sound in Washington state almost continuously from 1925 to 1999. Known locally as "the Maggie", they saw the longest service of any vessel that carried passengers and freight between Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle. The vessels were owned and operated by a series of companies, primarily Canadian Pacific Railway Company (CPSS) and British Columbia Steamships Corporation. The first two were part of the CPR "Princess fleet," which was composed of ships having names which began with the title "Princess". These were named after Marguerite Kathleen Shaughnessy, who was not a princess but was the daughter of Baron Thomas Shaughnessy, then chairman of the board of CPSS's parent, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR).
SS Parthia (1870–1956) was an iron-hulled transatlantic ocean liner built for the Cunard Line by William Denny and Brothers in Dumbarton, Scotland. Her sister ships were the Abyssinia and Algeria. Unlike her two sisters, Parthia was smaller, built in a different shipyard and had a slightly different funnel arrangement. The Parthia was retired by Cunard in 1883 and sold to John Elder & Co., who subsequently transferred her to the Guion Line. After serving with the Guion Line and operating on trans-Pacific routes with the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, she was refitted and renamed Victoria.
Several vessels have been named Prince George: