A section of a Canadian Pacific Railway tourist brochure map. Image from 93-7330 Earl Marsh...
Introduction
In the early 1920s, people seeking adventure and a unique travel experience could take a cruise up and down the west coast of Vancouver Island on the “Good Ship”
SS Princess Maquinna, visiting...
Chapter 1: Casting Off
In the summer of 1924, as the 11 p.m. departure time of the SS Princess Maquinna nears, the new and imposing Canadian Pacific Steamship terminal on Belleville Street in Victoria bustles with...
Chapter 2: BC Built
When Captain James Troup moved to Victoria in 1901 to become the CPR’s West Coast shipping superintendent, he launched a shipbuilding program concentrating on the most profitable CPR routes...
Chapter 3: First Stop
Returning to our imagined summer cruise in 1924, once the ship sails past the entrance to Esquimalt Harbour, she continues offshore of the Esquimalt Lagoon and Royal Roads. If it was daytime...
Chapter 4: The Trail
In the twenty-first century, thousands of hikers lace up their boots every summer and set forth on the rugged hike along what is now known as the West Coast Trail. For this 47-mile (75-km) hike,...
Chapter 5: Boat Landings
Steaming northward from Port Renfrew, after an hour and a half the Maquinna reaches the first of the three most tricky and perilous stops on the vessel’s entire journey. Carmanah Lighthouse,...
Chapter 6: Seeing the Sights
By mid- to late morning, depending on the quantity of goods and the number of passengers landed and loaded at Clo-oose, Captain Gillam charts a course northward, a safe distance off-shore. With any...
Chapter 7: Bamfield
In 1879 renowned inventor and chief engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway Sir Sandford Fleming put forward an extraordinary plan. He proposed that the British Empire should connect its...
Chapter 8: Sheltered Waters
In 1917 millions of pilchards (Sardinops caeruleus, a member of the sardine family) mysteriously appeared off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Although their usual range is the waters off...
Chapter 9: Barkley Sound
When the Good Ship Princess Maquinna reaches Chup Point, 2 nautical miles (3.6 km) past the entrance to Uchucklesit Inlet on the north side of the Alberni Canal, she rounds the point and steams...
Chapter 10: Shipwreck and Safe Harbour
In October 1915, only two years after the Princess Maquinna began her regular runs up and down the west coast of Vancouver Island, she ran into a particularly powerful storm. Fatefully, so did the...
Chapter 11: Clayoquot Sound
The next leg of the Princess Maquinna’s northward journey takes her through some 27 nautical miles (50 km) of Clayoquot Sound. This proves to be relatively easy travel because two large islands,...
Chapter 12: Hesquiaht and Estevan
After clearing Stewardson Inlet and the Indian Chief Copper Mine the Princess Maquinna steams back down Stewardson Inlet, then southeast and south down Sydney Inlet until she reaches open water...
Chapter 13: Nootka Sound
As the Princess Maquinna steams toward Yuquot she crosses the mouth of Nootka Sound. For passengers who know their British Columbia history, these are highly significant waters, for on March 29,...
Chapter 14: Zeballos and Esperanza
In 1791, Captain Alejandro Malaspina of the Spanish navy sailed to the northern end of what would become Zeballos Inlet. He named it in honour of a lieutenant on his ship, Ciriaco Cevallos. Few...
Chapter 15: Quatsino Sound
Brooks Peninsula sticks out the side of Vancouver Island’s west coast like a large fist. If passengers have avoided sea-sickness so far, they’ll certainly be challenged here. Should they still...
Chapter 16: Heading South
Leaving the confined and relatively calm waters of Quatsino Sound, the Maquinna often faced a more challenging trip heading south to Victoria than she did on her way north—especially in winter...
Chapter 17: Tourism and Tragedy
Many may think of west coast tourism as a fairly recent phenomenon. Visitors have flocked to the west coast of Vancouver Island since the road to Tofino was punched through from Port Alberni in...
Chapter 18: Wartime on the West Coast
In August 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, the PrincessMaquinna carried many west coast volunteers to Victoria on the first leg of their journey to the battlefields of Europe. Many were...
Chapter 19: The Final Years
With the war years behind her the Maquinna continued her faithful service up and down the west coast of Vancouver Island. By 1945 she had been on this route for thirty-two years, and like her...
Chapter 20: Tributes
Westcoasters in the many outposts served by the Maquinna felt betrayed by the CPR. Some argued that the company had deliberately allowed the ship to deteriorate in order to remove her from service....
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Margaret Horsfield for her help with this book. The research material she provided proved invaluable, as were her editing skills.Thanks also to Captain David Young, author and former...
Notes
Chapter 11 Phillips, 111.2 Henry, 96.3 Daily Colonist, November 2, 1913.4 Francis, 67.5 Horsfield 2008, 215.6 Greene, 165.7 Daily Colonist, January 12, 1901.8 Hacking and Lamb, 186.9 Turner...
Bibliography
Abraham, Dorothy. Lone Cone: Life on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Victoria: self-published, 1945.Bloom, A. “The Fabulous West Coast,” Raincoast Chronicles 11 (1987), 10–15.Bossin, Bob....
