SS Princess Louise (1921)

class="infobox" style="width:315px;float:right;clear:right;border-spacing:2px;font-size:90%;"

Career
Name: SS Princess Louise
Owner: Hudson's Bay Company; Canadian Pacific Railway, others.
Route: Vancouver, BC, Puget Sound, coastal British Columbia and southeast Alaska
Builder: Wallace Shipyard, North Vancouver, British Columbia
In service: 1921
Out of service: 1964 (restaurant until 1989)
Fate: Restaurant conversion at Los Angeles Harbor
Status: Sunk
Notes: Artificial reef at 900'
General characteristics
Class and type:Pocket Liner
Tonnage:4032 gross tons.
Length:317.2 ft (97 m)
Beam:48.1 ft (15 m)
Draught:34.6 ft (11 m)
Installed power:Single reciprocating, triple expansionsteam engine
Propulsion:4,500 horsepower
Capacity:1,000 day passengers, or 236 overnight passengers in 133 staterooms

The 331 foot SS Princess Louise was named to honor Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife, Queen Victoria's sister. The CPR "Princess" fleet were the coastal counterparts to CPR's "Empress" fleet of passenger liners which sailed on trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic routes.[1] The ships of the British Columbia Coast Steamships came to be called "pocket liners" because they offered on smaller vessels the superior class of service, splendid amenities and luxurious decor equal to great ocean liners.[2]

Design and construction

She was built in 1921, North Vancouver, BC for British Columbia Coast Steamships coastal British Columbia tourist service to Alaska. She was considered to be a Luxury cruise ship of the era.

Operations

British Columbia Coast Steamships

She shuttled vacationers on the 1,750 mile round-trip voyage between Vancouver and Alaska.

End of Canadian service

She was removed from service in 1964.

Transfer of ownership

Purchased by Jerry Sutton, she was moved to a permanent berth on Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor. She opened for business on Sept. 25, 1966 as the largest floating restaurant in America. Tremendously successful at first, she served upwards of 2,000 guests per day with an affordable deluxe menu accompanied by featured dance bands and performers. By the 1980s, the Louise had lost her luster and original owner, a second owner struggled for several years before declaring bankruptcy in April 1988.

The SS Princess Louise forever closed her restaurant doors Jan. 15, 1989. The Bank of San Pedro seized the vessel, had her repaired and made ready for resale, when on Oct. 30, 1989, the ship capsized at her berth. Lloyd's of London suspected this "accident" as foul play, then refused to distribute the insured value to the beneficiaries.

Disposition

Intended to be sunk in 500 feet of water near Catalina as an artificial reef, while being towed toward Catalina on the morning of June 20, 1990 the ship sank unintentionally in 900 feet of water.

Notes

  1. ↑ Southall, A.E. (1907). Imperial year book for Dominion of Canada, p. 202, p. 202, at Google Books; excerpt, "... in 1891, the far-famed "Empress" fleet was inaugurated."
  2. ↑ Steamship Historical Society of America. (1940). Steamboat Bill (US), Vol. 54, p. 206.

See also

Media related to SS Princess Louise (1921) at Wikimedia Commons