Name Prince Rupert In service 4 June 1910 Fate Scrapped Launched 13 December 1909 Builder Swan Hunter | Port of registry Prince Rupert Out of service 1956 Type Passenger ship Length 94 m | |
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Island tug raising the ss prince rupert
The Grand Trunk Steamship Prince Rupert and her sister ship SS Prince George served the coast of British Columbia and Alaska. Prince Rupert had a 46-year career serving northern ports from Vancouver, British Columbia, from 1910 to 1956.
Originally, the two ships served on regular runs from Seattle, Washington, to Victoria, Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Stewart, British Columbia. Seattle and Victoria were dropped from the route after a few years and Skagway, Alaska, was added. From 1925, ownership of both Prince Rupert and Prince George was transferred along with the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway system to the Government of Canada to be operated as part of the Canadian National Railway.
On 22 August 1927, Prince Rupert went aground on Ripple Rock. Captain Andy Johnstone of the competing Union Steamship Company of British Columbia manoeuvred his ship Cardena alongside and pulled Prince Rupert off the reef, saving her from almost certain disaster.
Prince Rupert was sold for scrap in 1956. A Japanese scrap company bought her, renamed her SS Prince Maru, and took her on her final voyage from Vancouver to Japan, where she was broken up later in the year.