page_title: SS Princess Sophia
section_title: Navigation aids
hierarchical_section_title: SS Princess Sophia / Last voyage / Navigation aids
caption_attribution_description: English: Princess Sophia (steamship) on Vanderbilt Reef. This photograph appears to have been housed in an album, causing it to fade where not protected by the album paper. It would have been set in the album to "correct" the angled horizon (this probably having been caused by the original photo being taken from a small boat in the waves.
context_page_description: SS Princess Sophia was a steel-built passenger liner in the coastal service fleet of the Canadian Pacific Railway. 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.
  On 25 October 1918, Princess Sophia sank with the loss of all aboard after grounding on Vanderbilt Reef in Lynn Canal near Juneau, Territory of Alaska. All 364 persons on the ship died, making the wreck of Princess Sophia the worst maritime accident in the history of British Columbia and Alaska.
context_section_description: Vanderbilt Reef itself was marked with an unlit buoy, which of course would have been invisible at night.  There was a manned lighthouse at Sentinel Island about 4 miles (6.4 km) to the south.  The light station on Sentinel Island had an area of sheltered water that was used for the station's wharf.  Princess Sophia passed another manned light station at Eldred Rock, the Eldred Rock Light, 30 miles south of Skagway.  Keepers at both light stations kept weather logs, which became useful later in reconstructing the events of the next two days.  The dock at Sentinel Island was used as a staging point by the vessels attempting rescue of the Princess Sophia on 24 and 25 October 1918.
caption: Princess Sophia on Vanderbilt Reef, Thursday, 24 October 1918. This photograph should be compared with the modern color image of the warning light on Vanderbilt Reef above in this article.  The same small island appears in the distance in both images
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