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Prince Henry at Taku Glacier |
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The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was the dream of Charles
Hays, who came to Canada to head up the Grand Trunk
Railway. His dream became the creation of the Grand
Trunk Pacific Railway, the western extension of an
alternate trans-continental Canadian railway that would
terminate at Prince Rupert, a new city that would be
created in northern British Columbia. In addition to
challenging the CPR trains, Hays was determined to
compete on the water, operating bigger and better
coastal steamers that would take passengers to bigger
and better Grand Trunk hotels.
While the hotels never really materialized, the coastal
fleet did and most ships used the prefix “Prince” as
part of their names. The company entered the Alaska
cruise scene in 1910, advertising seven day trips from
Vancouver to Prince Rupert and Stewart, BC. Charles
Hays’ great dream never materialized, in part because he
died in the sinking of Titanic, and in part
because of politics, economics, labour strife
and huge expenses. In 1919, the assets of the
Grand Trunk Pacific Railway were assumed |
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by the federal
government and by 1923 operations merged with
those of the nationalized Canadian Northern
Railway to become the Canadian National (CN)
Railway.
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A significant part of Hays’ dream was a fleet of
first-class coastal steamers offering passenger service
to the new port of Prince Rupert as well as the more
traditional Triangle Run between Vancouver, Victoria and
Seattle. The first of these was the new Prince Rupert
and the Prince George both of which arrived on the west
coast in 1909. These ships copied the highly successful
look of the CPR’s Princess fleet as well as their
routes. To prepare for their arrival, the Grand Trunk
Pacific built new wharves at Seattle, Vancouver,
Victoria and Prince Rupert. For the quarter century they
operated, the “Prince” ships were considered among the
finest short seas (inland and coastal waters) vessels in
the world.
Over the Grand Trunk years, the fleet expanded with the
purchase and conversion of several smaller ships, often
renamed with the Prince prefix. When the fleet was
assumed by the CNR in 1923, the “Prince” tradition
continued with three new, if unsuitable, vessels ordered
in 1929—Prince Henry, Prince David and Prince Robert.
The Henry entered the Alaska cruise service in 1930 but
all three ships consistently lost money. Robert was laid
up until the summer of 1935 when she made four 11-day
cruises to Alaska. World War II meant the end of luxury
cruising and Henry, David and Robert never rejoined the
fleet after wartime service. In 1940 the Prince ships on
the Queen Charlotte run were sold to the Union Steamship
Company and renamed, leaving only Prince Rupert and
Prince George in the CN passenger fleet.
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Over the years, Prince Rupert survived a number of
serious accidents and was considered the unluckier of
the two veteran sister ships, but it was Prince George
that had an unfortunate end in Ketchikan when a fuel
tank exploded in 1945; one crewmember died and the fire
eventually gutted the ship. Determined to remain in the
lucrative Alaska trade, the company built a handsome new
Prince George that was launched in 1947 and went into
Alaskan service in 1948. At that time the ship was the
largest commercial vessel built in Canada; Prince George
sailed for Canadian National Railways until 1974.
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