We’ve seen this menu cover before in a 1964 edition. Today’s is dated July 5, 1971, but both are identified as “gala dinners.” I’m still a bit ignorant about steamship cruises, so all I really know about gala dinners is that people dressed up just a little fancier than at regular steamship dinners, which in this case apparently meant silly hats. For some reason, the circle on the back where a photo would normally be shown, is blank on both gala menus.

Click image to download a 726-KB PDF of this menu.

On July 5, the Prince George was scheduled to arrive at Prince Rupert at 1:00 pm, departing at 4:30 pm. Prince Rupert is the one city on this cruise that I’ve never visited. While it is mainly a transshipment point for Canadian National freight trains and ocean freighters, I’m sure it has its share of shops designed to separate tourists from their money.

Instead of Robert Service, this menu features a portion of a poem by Edmund Symington Ironside. Though he was once a resident of Dawson City, Yukon Territory, he otherwise isn’t as well remembered as Service. The full text of the poem is below.

To the North night
Where the winds of the Arctic
Whisper in winter their message of death.

To the North,
Where the sunshine in summer
Scarce an hour or two pauses in rest.

To the North,
Where the Frost King for centuries
Barred the door with a great glacial lock
And left as a token for ages
The gravels sheer frost to bedrock.

To the North,
Where the Goddess of Fortune
Spilt her golden tears long ago,
Where somewhere her pay-streaks lie hidden
In frost-shackled gravels below.

To all those I’ve mentioned I drink not,
Though dear is the lure of their call;
But I pledge in this toast that I give you
The finest and best of it all.

‘Tis the friends that we’ve made in this Northland.
Ah, where can their equal you find,
So, I give you this pledge as a token,
Your memory is dear to my mind.

So long as the sun shines in summer,
Or the Northern Lights dance in their glee,
You are dearer than the gold of the Klondike,