The Canadian Pacific Line's 6.000-ton Princess Kathleen, queen of alaskan liners, was 18 miles from Juneau on the last trip of the season from Vancouver, B.C. to Skagway, Alaska. It was 3:15 a.m. Most of the 425 passengers and crewmen, including Captain Graham Hughes, were sleeping. A light rain was falling, but the lookout reported fair visibility.
Suddenly there was a violent shock and the frightening screech of tearing metal. Dazed men and women, thrown out of their bunks, rushed on deck in confusion. Unbelievably, for the Kathleen was supposed to have been following a well-charted and well-traveled channel, she had steamed right into the shore onto a high ledge on the alaskan mainland. Over the Kathleen's loudspeaking system the purser told the passengers to abandon ship. One by one they went over the ship's side, down ladders and onto the rocky beach. They were luckier than the passengers of the Princess Sophia, which, 34 years ago near this same spot, had struck a shoal and gone down with 328 aboard.
As the Princess Kathleen's passengers waited in the mist for help, Captain Hughes pondered what to do about his wrecked $4 million liner. A hole had been ripped in the ship's bottom almost amidships, as if it had been hacked by a giant can opener. Hughes had two alternatives: to back the Kathleen off or to let high tide to take her off and hope she would stay afloat. He tried to back her off and failed. Day broke and even the wet disconsolate passengers forgot their plight as they stood about, sharing captain's foreboding and waiting for the tide to come in.
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