The Nome Nugget

C.P. Flagship Princess Kathleen Sinks Near Juneau

JUNEAU, (AP) -- The relentless waters of a Southeastern Alaska "ships graveyard" claimed another Canadian Pacific lines vessel yesterday -- its flagship, the Princess Kathleen -- but not a person of 425 aboard was lost.

A mile and a half off course, the 5,908-ton Kathleen crunched aground with her bow almost underneath a cliff at 3:15 a.m., PST.

Earthquake-conscious Californians aboard said the blow felt like a shock.

Within four hours, the Coast Guard-aided rescue efforts, the 305 passengers aboard were gotten ashore, many of the younger ones climbing down ladders to the beach. Near mid-day, when the rising tide began to fill the hull, Capt. Graham O. Hughes ordered "abandon ship" and the 118 officers and crew were also put ashore.

The ship slipped from its rocky berth and sank, with its bow going high into the air, in 90 feet of water at 1:40 p.m. PST. The spot was 18 miles north of here.

The Kathleen had sailed from Juneau for Skagway.

Ship's Position Unexplained

First Officer Charles W. Savage was on the bridge when the ship hit, Captain Hughes reported. The lookout sighted the reef and cliff looming up in the darkness and light rain but there was no time to change course.

The first officer was unable to explain the ship's position, Captain Hughes said. He was near collapse after the ship was abandoned.

Through a mix-up, Ensign Richard Lacey, commander of the

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C. P. FLAGSHIP SINKS NEAR JUNEAU
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Coast Guard 83-footer which reached the scene reported later, an SOS was sent on the wrong frequency. It was not until two hours later that the Kathleen connected an Alaska Communications System station on ship-to-shore telephone to find out why the distress message had not been answered.

On arrival of the cutter, lifeboats brought passengers ashore, fires were built on the beach and a path was cut through brush and rocks half a mile to a road.

Coast Guard Rescue
The Coast Guard took 10 of the older passengers to the harbor and returned and took between 30 and 40 to Auk Bay, both points within easy access to the road to Juneau. One of the survivors suffered a heart attack in the lobby of the Baranof Hotel, presumably from over-exertion.

All the survivors were high in their praise of the crew's calm efficiency.

Three other Canadian Pacific Lines ships have been lost in the immediate area. One of the North Pacific's worst marine disasters took the lives of 343 persons, everyone aboard, when the Princess Sophia sank on Oct. 18, 1918, only eight miles away.

Twenty six were lost when the Islander hit a Douglas Island rock in the area in September 1901.

The Clutch sank in 1900, only five miles away, but with no loss of life.

Ship Wrecks Haunt San Francisco Tourists

VANCOUVER, (AP)—Their holidays dumped 15 fathoms into Alaska's Inland Passage, 19 tourists arrived here today carrying memories of shipwreck and very little else.

And for many of the glad-to-be-alive Americans, who figure loss of luggage a small matter when the ocean was playing for keeps, the story of shipwreck had its beginning more than a year ago. The bedraggled band—most of them residents of San Francisco—arrived on the first flight of an airlift set up after the sinking.

The most bizarre part of the saga was related by 23-year-old Lorraine Shaylor, a clerk with a San Francisco insurance firm.

Lorraine, her sister Gladys, and their father were members of a tour group sponsored by the Catholic Young Men's Institute of San Francisco.

The tour was scheduled to go to Alaska last year but plans had to be cancelled when the Kathleen was damaged in a collision with the steamship Prince Rupert.

So the group made plans to take in Alaska, this year and the spectre of shipwreck caught up with them on the rocky shoreline of Alaska.

"The Kathleen must have had something against us," Lorraine said. When she was asked where the tour planned to visit next year, she replied:

"They haven't said yet. I hope its not Alaska because if it is I don't think anybody will go."