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A Relic of the Tragic Sinking of the Passenger Ship S.S. Iroquois

by John MacFarlane 2017

The propeller recovered from the wreck of the S.S. Iroquois on display in Sidney BC. (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

A fine model of the S.S. Iroquois by Sidney model maker Bill Ballenger. (Photo courtesy of Bill Ballenger.)

In 1901 she was in service for the Sidney and Victoria Railway taking passengers and freight from Sidney to various Gulf Island ports on Mondays and Thursdays and returning to Sidney from Nanaimo via the Gulf Islands on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays and Saturdays the Iroquois made a round trip through the Gulf Islands. On the four weekdays that the Iroquois schedule terminated in Sidney her arrival connected with the departure of the evening train to Victoria. It made twice weekly trips to Vancouver and took Victoria residents on moonlight cruises.

The S.S. Iroquois (Photo courtesy of the MMBC. )

82.0’ x 20.0’ x 7.7’ steel hulled 195gt 94.38rt she was powered by a steam engine.

In 1901 she was owned by Thomas W. Paterson, Victoria BC under command of Captain A.A. Sears (1901).

The S.S. Iroquois (Photo courtesy of the MMBC. )

On April 10, 1911 she left Sidney for Nanaimo via the Gulf Islands carrying 32 passengers and crew and a cargo of general freight and tools which may have been overloaded and unstable. Between Shell Island and Roberts Point she headed for Canoe Channel when she suddenly listed and capsized. Within minutes the Iroquois had disappeared. Three First Nations men, William Tsouhalem, Bob Klulwhalem, Donat Charlie saved three lives, and were awarded gold medals for bravery The captain was charged with manslaughter for his failure to aid the women and children.

The S.S. Iroquois (Photo courtesy of the MMBC. )

To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John M. (2017) A Relic of the Tragic Sinking of the Passenger Ship S.S. Iroquois. Nauticapedia.ca 2017. Iroquois.php

Site News: December 16, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,774 vessel histories (with 16,266 images and 13,928 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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