Princess Beatrice was a steamship built for and owned by the marine division of the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway Coast Service

The Canadian Pacific Railway Coast Service, also known as the British Columbia Coast Steamships , was a division of Canadian Pacific Railway which began operating Pacific coastal shipping routes in the late 19th century...

. The ship served from 1903 to 1928 in the coastal waters of British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. The ship also operated on Puget Sound

Puget Sound

Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...

 on a route from Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

 to Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

. Princess Beatrice was the first ship to operate in the year-round steamship service between Seattle and Victoria that was run by CPR from 1904 to 1959. This ship should not be confused with an earlier Princess Beatrice, built in Scotland in 1874, which served on the Atlantic coast of Canada.

Design and construction

Princess Beatrice was built in 1903 at Esquimalt, British Columbia

Esquimalt, British Columbia

The Township of Esquimalt is a municipality at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. It is bordered to the east by the provincial capital, Victoria, to the south by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, to the west by Esquimalt Harbour and Royal Roads, to the northwest by the...

 by the B.C. Marine Railway Co., Ltd. The Beatrice was the first Princess ship built for the Canadian Pacific Railway

Canadian Pacific Railway

The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

.

The dimensions of the ship were 197 feet (60 m) in length, 37 feet (11.3 m) beam, and 15 feet (4.6 m) depth of hold, 1290 gross tons. The power plant was a triple expansion steam engine

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

, manufactured by Bow, McLachlan & Co. of Paisley, Scotland, producing 1,392 horsepower

Horsepower

Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...

. The engine had three cylinders, with diameters ranging from high pressure to low pressure of 18, 30 and 50 inches (1,270 mm), with a bore stroke on all three cylinders of 36 inches (914.4 mm). The ship had design speed of 13 knots (25.5 km/h) and was driven by a single propeller. The ship was built of wood. Beatrice was one of the largest vessels to have been constructed in British Columbia up to that time. The cost of construction was $200,000.

The ship was launched on September 10, 1903. Trial runs were completed in November, 1903. The Canadian registration number was 116405. The ship was licensed for 350 day passengers. There were 40 staterooms which could accommodate 86 overnight passengers. The ship's accommodations were considered to be luxurious, and they included, consistent with the practices of the times, a separate cabin for women and children.

Operations

Capt. James W. Troup, the superintendent of the CPR coast steamship division

Canadian Pacific Railway Coast Service

The Canadian Pacific Railway Coast Service, also known as the British Columbia Coast Steamships , was a division of Canadian Pacific Railway which began operating Pacific coastal shipping routes in the late 19th century...

, intended that Beatrice be operated on the run between Victoria

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

 and New Westminister until the spring of 1904, when the ship was to be transferred to a route to the Nass River

Nass River

The Nass River is a river in northern British Columbia, Canada. It flows from the Coast Mountains southwest to Nass Bay, a sidewater of Portland Inlet, which connects to the North Pacific Ocean via the Dixon Entrance...

 and southeastern Alaska. However, with the sinking of the American steamship Clallam

Clallam (steamboat)

The steamboat Clallam operated for about six months from July 1903 to January 1904 in Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. She was sunk in a storm on what should have been an ordinary voyage to Victoria, British Columbia.-Construction:...

 en route from Seattle to Victoria on January 7, 1904, the citizens of Victoria asked that the CPR put a replacement steamer on the Victoria-Seattle run. In response Troup assigned the Beatrice to the route, with the ship making its first trip to Seattle on January 20, 1904. This marked the beginning of a year-round daily passenger service that was maintained between Seattle and Victoria by the CPR Coast Service until 1959. This became part of the “Triangle Route” of steamships running between Seattle, Victoria, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Beatrice docked at Pier 2

Pier 2, Seattle

-Location:Pier 2 was located at the foot of Yesler Way. Pier 2 was immediately to the north of Pier 1 and immediately to the south of Colman Dock.-History:...

 in Seattle. While in this service, Beatrice was drawn into a rate war on the Victoria route that broke out between the CPR Coast Service and its American rival, the Puget Sound Navigation Company.

When the Princess Royal

Princess Royal (steamship)

Princess Royal was a wooden steamship built in 1907 for the Canadian Pacific Railway Coast Service. The ship operated on the coasts of British Columbia, south east Alaska, and northern Puget Sound until 1933, when the ship was sold for scrapping....

 was brought into service in 1907, the plan became to relieve the Beatrice on the Seattle-Victoria round in the winter, and use the Beatrice on the Prince Rupert run. Beatrice served on the North Coast of British Columbia, making stops at the mining, logging and cannery ports along the northern coast.

Economic dislocation in November 1914, caused by World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 forced CPR to idle half of its fleet, including Princess Beatrice.

Capt. Thomas Rippon (1882–1939), later appointed superintendent of the CPR Coast Service, was in command of Beatrice from 1916 to 1920.

Grounding

In October 1911 Princess Beatrice ran aground on Noble Island.

Disposition

In 1928 the CPR brought a new vessel, the Princess Norah

Princess Norah (steamship)

Princess Norah was a steamship which operated in British Columbia and southeastern Alaska from 1929 to 1964. From 1955 to 1958, this ship was called Queen of the North...

 into service, and was able to retire the Beatrice. Beatrice was sold to B.L. Johnson, Walton & Co., a Vancouver concern, who removed the ship's machinery and converted the hulk to a floating cannery. The ex-Beatrice, now a cannery, was then towed to the west coast of Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...

.

Further reading

• Hacking, Norman R., and Lamb, W. Kaye, The Princess Story -- A Century and A Half of West Coast Shipping, Mitchell Press, Vancouver BC 1974