Just six years after the Titanic disaster, the steamship Princess Sophia left Skagway bound for Vancouver with over 350 passengers and crew. In the early morning hours of October 24, 1918, amid blinding snow and gale-force winds, the vessel struck Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska. For 40 hours, the Sophia sat stranded in worsening seas before finally slipping beneath the surface on October 25, taking all aboard to their deaths.

This tragedy remains the worst shipwreck in the history of the West Coast, made even more poignant by its timing—just days before the end of World War I and during the growing fear of the Spanish influenza pandemic. This course explores the historian’s account of the disaster and presents rare underwater footage of the wreck, uncovering the haunting legacy of a maritime tragedy often forgotten by history.