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The Steamer Princess Victoria

by John MacFarlane 2019

Princess Victoria

The steamer Princess Victoria (Photo by Cyril Tweedale.)

Cyril Tweedale, took photographs and saved them in family albums which were recently sent to me. They each tell short stories of the British Columbia coast.

In 1903 she was built as the Princess Victoria in 1903 by C.S. Swan & Hunter Ltd. at Wallsend–on–Tyne UK. She was 300’ x 40.5’ x 15.4’ with a steel hull 3167gt 1538rt. She was powered by 2 sets 4–cylinder triple screw surface condensing engines by R. & W. Hawthorne, Leslie & Co. Ltd. Newcastle UK. In 1903 she departed Tyne without superstructure which was built by Robertson & Hackett, Vancouver. In 1929 she was rebuilt at Esquimalt BC as a car ferry carrying 50 vehicles, beam increased by 17’ to 300’ x 57.6’ x 15.4’ 3167gt.

In 1903 she was owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Steamship Services, Montreal QC and arrived at Vancouver BC. In 1903 she entered Victoria – Vancouver service. In 1934 used as a floating hotel at Newcastle Island, Nanaimo BC. In 1950 she was laid up in Victoria BC. In 1952 she was sold to the Tahsis Lumber Company as a fuel barge and renamed as Tahsis No. 3. In 1952 she was hulked.

Princess Victoria

Princess Victoria (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

On November 18, 1911 she was sponsored by Mrs. Archer Baker (wife of the European Traffic Manager, CPR London UK). In 1906 she collided with and sank tug Chehalis in Burrard Inlet. In October 1906 she ran onto a reef off Oak Bay BC. The Salvor arrived from Esquimalt BC and pulled her off and towed her to Bullen’s Shipyard. In 1914 she collided in fog with Alaska S.S. Co vessel Admiral Sampson (which sank). On August 26, 1914 the Admiral Sampson collided with the Princess Victoria inbound to Seattle WA in fog. The Admiral Sampson sank within five minutes with the loss of 16 persons. On March 10, 1953 she sank after striking a rock in Welcome Pass (10 miles north of Sechelt) while under tow by the tug Sea Giant from Tahsis to Powell River. She sank in deep water.

Darren Rieberger was once an avid postcard collector who has shared some images from cards he once owned. Two of them were of the Princess Victoria.

Princess Victoria

Princess Victoria in Victoria Harbour (Photo from the Darren Rieberger collection.)

Princess Victoria

Princess Victoria stern view (Photo from the Darren Rieberger collection.)


To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2019) The Steamer Princess Victoria. Nauticapedia.ca 2019. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Pr_Victoria.php

Nauticapedia

Site News: December 21, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,824 vessel histories (with 16,274 images and 13,929 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 45,000 processed so far this year (2024).

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).

Thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of vessel histories in the database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.

My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

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