This booklet is from the era when Canadian Pacific’s graphics artists hadn’t figured out how to use the four-color process to print more than four colors for things other than photographs. As a result, all of the print and many of the graphics in this booklet that aren’t black are cyan, yellow, or magenta. CP issued other booklets like this from about 1948 through 1953; this one is dated 1952.
Click image to download a 7.6-MB PDF of this 16-page booklet.
In that year, CP cruises from Vancouver to Skagway went aboard the Princess Kathleen, a ship that (the booklet promises) “is as modern as she is sleek in appearance.” In fact, the Kathleen had been built in 1924 and made her maiden voyage in 1925. Though she had been refitted at least once since then, calling her “modern” was something of a stretch.
It probably was unrelated to her age, but the Princess Kathleen‘s last voyage of the 1952 season would turn out to be her last voyage ever. On September 7, heading toward Juneau in a heavy rain that reduced visibility, she ran aground at low tide. By the time the rising tide floated her again the stern had filled with water and she sank, but fortunately not before all passengers and crew had been taken ashore.
The sinking of the Kathleen. Turn your audio off as the only sound is a buzz.
She had a radar system that might have warned the crew in time to prevent the accident but it wasn’t operating despite the poor visibility. A disturbing footnote is that passengers sued CP for the loss of their luggage, cameras, and other belongings, but CP attorneys argued that admiralty law limited compensation to the value of the ship at the end of the voyage. Since the ship had sunk, that value was zero. Passengers eventually got their fares refunded plus $200 each, which was supposedly less than a fifth of their estimated losses.
In 1953, the Princess Louise replaced the Kathleen in Alaska service. She wasn’t any more modern, having been built in 1921, but apparently her crew remembered to turn on the radar in rainy weather as she survived until 1964 when she was sold by CP and turned into a floating restaurant.