Page 255 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

I was content to join Princess Patricia and to meet Captain Pendry Harris.
Needless to say, CPR was a component of the vast Canadian Pacific Empire of
railways, passenger shipping, hotel ownership, real estate management and all
manner of other commercial endeavours. The ships, of which one could probably
call Patricia the flagship, had their own traditions that arose from many decades
of operating passenger and cargo vessels on this prosperous coast. The ship, of
6,062 gross tons, was a fine example of old British shipbuilding. Built in Glasgow,
as was her sister Princess Marguerite, in 1949, she was originally destined for the
triangular passenger ferry service in the Strait of Georgia and was in 1963 refitted
extensively in order to serve the Alaska cruise trade. A very attractive ship, she
was riveted, solid in appearance with twin funnels, painted a prim white, and
with a speed of seventeen knots, in many respects she operated much as West Star
could have done had its owners been a company of more solid standing.

As seemed usual on this coast, watches were six on/six off, thereby again
being ‘day-for-day’, much to my advantage, and I again learned much about
this coast. There were substantial differences, however, between the two ship-
going experiences. The primary one was that we needed no pilots, all of the
officers being qualified to handle this tricky coast. And I was glad to see that
with a steamship, as expected, there was no need to worry about ‘starts’; not that
that was a concern, for in all my time at sea, I had never seen such an excellent
ship-handler as Captain Harris. He was the permanent Captain of the ship and

Princess Patricia in Skagway

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