Before the Storm
A Year in the Pribilof Islands, 1941-1942
On October 23, 1918, a storm rose and the Canadian Pacific steamer Princess Sophia ran aground on Vanderbilt Reef, northwest of Juneau, Alaska. Tragically, there were no survivors. The 353 aboard represented a significant cross-section of the population of the Yukon and Alaska, and their loss was a heavy blow to a society that, with the end of the gold rush, was already in decline. This book tells the dramatic stories of many of the passengers, how they had gone to the north, what they did there, and why they were leaving that fall, and sheds light on a little-known aspect of Alaska's history.
