No Survivors

At 2:10 a.m. on October 24, 1918, the Princess Sophia ran aground on Vanderbilt Reef in Lynn Canal, which is part of Alaska's Inner Passage. The ship stayed there, firmly wedged in the rocks, for almost 40 hours before the wind and the waves changed course and sent the severely damaged ship to its death. During that time, the 278 passengers and 65 crew members watched other boats circling the wreck and waited to be rescued. And yet, there were no survivors.*

I've been doing research on maritime disasters, and I thought it would be interesting to blog on some of them. So this week and the next two I will talk about the sinking of three passenger ships that generated a lot of press at the time, but whose stories have been eclipsed by the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic.

The picture shows the Princess Sophia around 1912, shortly after she was built.** She was 245 feet long and could carry up to 500 passengers with special permission, although her normal capacity was 250.

The Princess Sophia made regular runs between Vancouver, Canada and Skagway, Alaska from late spring through early fall. In October, many residents of Alaska and the Yukon went "outside" for the winter, much as the Florida snowbirds head south today. In 1918, many felt lucky to have tickets on the Princess Sophia for one of the last trips out by water.

The passengers on that fateful trip ranged from gold miners and laborers to politicians and businessmen and their families. The passenger manifest included 37 women and 18 children.

Not long after the Princess Sophia left Skagway, it ran into a blinding snowstorm. Captain Locke had experienced white-out conditions before, and he did not slow down. So when he got off course and ran into Vanderbilt Reef, the ship went right up onto the rocks and stuck fast.

The Princess Sophia put out a distress call and was soon surrounded by would-be rescuers. But the reef and the gale conditions made it impossible for those boats to get close. Captain Locke considered putting his passengers into lifeboats but was concerned that they would capsize in the raging waves and the occupants would drown--something that had happened recently in another shipwreck. Since the Princess Sophia was firmly wedged in the rocks of the shallow reef, he decided to stay put until the weather calmed down. Several high tides passed without budging the ship, which seemed to confirm his judgment.

But late in the afternoon of October 25, the wind shifted and pushed the ship off the rocks. With the huge gashes cut into the hull by the original grounding, the Princess Sophia never had a chance. And because of the stormy conditions and the darkness, the would-be rescuers could only pray for the passengers' safety. A prayer that God answered in his own way, but not as the rescuers hoped.

The official inquiry concluded that the accident was nobody's fault and the decision to wait before evacuating the passengers was a judgment call that could have gone either way. But the politicians in Washington may share part of the blame. For years, Alaskan shipping interests had been asking for a light on Vanderbilt Reef, and their pleas had gone unanswered. After the Princess Sophia sank, they finally got their light.

Why do so few people remember the Princess Sophia? I think it is because there are no survivor stories to add to the romance.

But I would love to know what the passengers thought and did as they were trapped on the stranded ship.

_____

* If you want more information, I recommend The Sinking of the Princess Sophia: Taking the North Down With Her, by Ken Coates and Bill Morrison.

*** I got the picture from Wikipedia, which says the photographer is unknown. The photo is in the public domain.

Doing Customer Service Right

Did you ever have a customer service experience that was both embarrassing and pleasant? Let me tell you how Bed Bath & Beyond earned a loyal customer.

Shortly after moving into our condo, Roland and I took inventory to see what accessories we needed to make it a comfortable home. We are both avid readers and there are no ceiling lights like we had at the house, so our list included lamps.

That Saturday we made a shopping trip to Bed Bath & Beyond. We also went to Lowe's, which is just a little farther down the street. After buying two bedside lamps and a few other things, we returned home.

Roland's bedside lamp never did turn on easily, so he loosened the switch. Then I turned the light on while dusting and the switch fell apart. Since then, Roland has been after me to exchange the lamp.

I pass Bed Bath and Beyond every Saturday on my way to my writers' group, but I procrastinated over returning the lamp because I couldn't find the receipt. That puzzled me since I am very meticulous about keeping records of my expenditures. But I kept looking for a Bed Bath & Beyond receipt for the lamps without luck.

Roland assured me that the store could find the transaction in its computer, so this past Saturday I gave in. Since I didn't want to wander around Bed Bath & Beyond with a lamp I had already paid for, I took it straight to the service desk. Unfortunately, the customer service representative said she couldn't locate the transaction without an item number, which I didn't have. She then asked another employee for help, and he went to see if he could find the same lamp. He couldn't, and neither of them recognized the lamp as one they sold. Still, Roland had been positive we bought it there, and so was I.

When the male employee couldn't find the lamp online, either, he offered me a store credit for the price of the closest thing he could find. I declined because I needed two matching lamps and already had one working one. So I walked out of the store with the lamp and hoped that Lowe's would have a replacement switch to solve the problem.

Even though I was positive we bought the lamp at Bed Bath & Beyond, when I arrived at Lowe's I decided to look at its lamp collection just in case. And there it was. I felt like a total idiot.

I appreciate the way the Bed Bath & Beyond employees handled the situation. I had no evidence of the purchase and could have been trying to rip off the store by returning a defective item I hadn't bought there. But I probably sounded as sincere as I was--I really did believe I had bought the lamp there--and store personnel made the decision to keep a customer happy. By doing so, they turned a now-and-then customer into a long-term one.

The Lowe's employees also deserve a thank-you for their friendly service in exchanging the lamp without the receipt I probably had at home.

Because sometimes stores do customer service right.

The End of an Era

Yesterday my church voted to call a new music director. She graduated from one of the denomination's colleges with a degree in church music, so I'm sure she'll do fine. But it won't be easy.

It never is when you follow a legend.

When I became a member of St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church 33 years ago, David Brandt was already well-established as the head of its music program and director of the Senior Choir. In 1954, right out of college, he was hired by the church's day school as a second-grade teacher, and it didn't take him long to organize a children's choir. I don't know when he took over the Senior (adult) Choir, but this picture was taken sometime around 1966. Dave is in the back row on the right, wearing a suit and tie instead of a choir robe. He never did wear a robe that I can recall.

I joined the Senior Choir as soon as I married and joined the church, and I have sung in the choir for most of those 33 years (taking a short hiatus while I was working on an advanced degree). So Dave has been a significant part of my life. He has also been a significant part of my husband and children's lives, all of whom had him as a teacher during their elementary or middle school years and sang in the Children's Choir under his direction.

David Brandt isn't retiring as a teacher yet and will continue to be a force at the church and school. And he deserves to actually sit in the congregation and go up to communion with his wife and children and grandchildren. Still, when he announced to the choir that he would be stepping down as director, we were all in shock. We still are.

Thank you, Dave, for your many years of dedicated service to St. Paul's music program.

It won't be the same without you.

Keeping Our Freedoms Alive

The NATO summit was in Chicago a week ago. With temporary road closings as dignitaries drove through and protesters blocking other streets as they marched by, many people decided to stay out of the city. Some businesses even closed on Monday so their employees wouldn't have to worry about getting to work.

Still, the summit demonstrated this country's greatest strength.

Freedom.

Several thousand people marched through the streets of Chicago protesting everything from the war in Afghanistan to economic conditions here at home, and the protests were mostly nonviolent. A small group of individuals did challenge police on Sunday after most of the marchers had disbursed, and 40 plus people were arrested. Those arrests were for throwing bottles and other objects at the police, not for marching or protesting.

That's because the police were there to protect the protestors' right to free speech, not to quash it. The United States does not ban protests, as many countries do. Instead, our government facilitates peaceful protests.

On Memorial Day, we honor the men and women who died to keep our freedoms alive.

The protesters should thank them for it.

I do.

A Forgotten Anniversary

May 12 was my 33rd wedding anniversary. With all the excitement over moving and then going to Missouri for Mothers Day, I forgot all about it.

We took Mom Camp out to dinner that Saturday night. As we sat there waiting for our food, Roland looked at me and said, "Happy Anniversary."

I'm not proud that I forgot it, but I am proud that my marriage is strong enough to survive forgotten anniversaries.

Roland and I have grown closer over the years, but our relationship still feels very much like it did in this poem I wrote to Roland three months before we got married:

For many years I walked along,
Rich in the love of friends and family,
But never feeling love for a lover.

Then I met you, and gradually
I knew that kind of love;
Not as a raging sea that tears at my soul,
But as a quiet, gentle warmth,
And a smile that appears upon my face
When I think of you,
And a comfortable feeling whenever we're together;
And now I know,
I love you.

Happy belated anniversary, Roland.

A Tale of Two Mothers

My mother-in-law and my mother lived two very different lives.

Mom Camp was born in Youngstown, Ohio but moved to "The Region" in Northwest Indiana as a child. She married a region native and continued to live there until she and Dad retired to Missouri.

My mother was born and raised on a farm in Iowa, but she moved frequently during her years as a minister's wife. It was only after Daddy retired that Mama got to settle down again.

Mom rarely traveled and never needed a passport. In her later years she and Dad took vacations to Hawaii and Puerto Rico, but those were the only times she crossed an ocean.

Mama knew she had married a man who loved to travel, and getting a new passport became as common as getting a new driver's license. When I was a child we started counting the number of states and countries we visited, but at some point we lost track. We even lived in Amman, Jordan and Edinburgh, Scotland, traveling around the Middle East and Europe during vacations. After my parents retired, they often wintered in a small town on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, where they volunteered their time and talents at a Presbyterian school.

So Mom and Mama lived two very different lives.

On the surface.

Where it matters most, however, the two mothers could be twins.

Both are strong Christian women. Both were active in their churches until age and circumstances intervened. Both worked hard all their lives and taught their children good Christian values.

And both have children and grandchildren who appreciate what the family matriarch did for them.

The first picture shows Mom Camp with some of her children and grandchildren at Christmas 2010.

The second shows my mother with two of her grandchildren (my niece and my son) at Christmas 2011.

So here is my Mothers Day message to Mom and Mama.

Thank you.

Did you thank yours?

Assembly Required

What do my new desk, my condo, and my life have in common? Assembly required.

According to the fourth edition of The American Heritage Dictionary, one definition of assemble is "to fit together the parts or pieces of." And I'm in the middle of that process.

When the movers couldn't get my old desk into my new office, I knew I would have to buy one unassembled. Because I didn't want to increase our already escalating expenses by hiring someone to put the desk together, it had to be simple enough for me to assemble. That meant a smaller L-desk without a file drawer or a hutch. I made up for those deficiencies by purchasing a matching printer stand (with a file drawer) and an expensive Levenger book carousel (which I had been lusting after for years). Each of these pieces required some assembly.

The desk was easy. I put it together in about two hours without help. The book carousel was also easy. All I had to do was drop in the hardware and stack the pre-assembled units.

The printing stand was the hardest, and it didn't help that one of the parts was mislabeled. I asked Roland to lend his muscles a couple of times, but I could have put it together on my own if I had to.

The picture shows the three pieces of my new desk unit. Although the walls look bare now, they will eventually hold a bulletin board, a poster of today's cliches that originated with Shakespeare, and some examples of my photography.

The condo is taking longer to assemble. We ordered new bookshelves for the living room, but two of the bases are on back order. That means only one of the three bookcases is currently usable.

On Thursday, we went to our neighborhood furniture store and ordered a dining table with chairs and a buffet. Now we have to wait four to six weeks for delivery. The same is true for the narrower reading chair, with footstool, that we ordered to replace the one that wouldn't fit into my office. And we can't finish unpacking boxes until we have the other two bookcases and the buffet to put stuff in.

I'm also finding it hard to fit together the parts or pieces of my life. With all the time and energy spent moving, I haven't done any writing lately.

Yes, I need more time to assemble the condo and my life. Still, I know they will come together eventually.

But right now I need to assemble a laundry cart.