AH-WR-1171

SS Capilano

Coastal Freight And Passenger Steamer · Canada · Lost 1915 · The British Columbia Coast

A Union Steamship Company coastal freighter, once the first Vancouver ship to join the Klondike gold rush, sank after striking a submerged rock in the Strait of Georgia in 1915.

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Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Historically Reconstructed. Drawn from partial documentation of this vessel together with her known class and configuration. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

SS Capilano, a small steel steamer built in Scotland in 1891 for the Union Steamship Company, spent decades carrying freight and passengers along the British Columbia coast, including a 1897 voyage that made her the first Vancouver steamer to join the Klondike Gold Rush. On September 29, 1915, she struck a submerged rock in the northern Strait of Georgia; taking on water unnoticed for hours, she was abandoned and sank early on October 1. All 18 crew survived. The wreck went undiscovered for nearly 60 years before a fisherman found it in 1975, and it is now a designated provincial heritage site and popular dive.

Vessel

Built: 1891
Builder: Not established
Yard: Glasgow, Scotland
Material: Steel
Length: 120 ft
Beam: 22 ft
Tonnage: 157
Propulsion: Steam, single screw
Owners: Union Steamship Company

Loss

Date: October 1, 1915
Cause: Grounding
Location: South side of Grant Reefs, between Savary and Harwood Islands, Strait of Georgia, British Columbia
Water: Strait of Georgia
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: 18
Lives lost: 0
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: 121 ft
Condition: Sits upright and largely intact on a flat sand and shell bottom
Orientation: Upright
Discovered: 1975
Protection: Provincial Heritage Site under British Columbia's Heritage Conservation Act.