Vanderbilt Reef

In October of 1918 the Canadian Pacific steamship Princess Sophiahit a reef in the Lynn Canal near Juneau, Alaska.  All 343 aboard perished although the actual number of people is uncertain due to questionable record keeping.  This tragedy was the worst in Alaska/British Columbia waters.

            Thirty years later an elderly Kansas City woman hires investigator Alex Bodine to find as much information as possible about her only relative Daniel Summers who perished on the Sophia.  Daniel went to the Yukon after Gold was discovered in the Klondike shortly before the turn of the century and eventually settled in Alaska as the Gold Rush moved on.  His letters to his aunt over the twenty years were often vague or mysterious.  Now she wants to reach closure on Daniel’s story before the end of her life.  Bodine finds, surprisingly, that Daniel’s story goes far beyond the wreck of the Sophia.