Floating Households
Canadian Pacific steamships
The Canadian Pacific steamship terminal was located on the south side of Victoria’s Inner Harbour along Belleville Street. Vessels docking here were operated by the British Columbia Coast Service of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), which maintained regular passenger and freight connections between Victoria, Vancouver, and Seattle.
CPR steamship terminal in Victoria, 1910
Image courtesy of City of Victoria Archives, M00830
Eight steamships were enumerated at the CPR wharves in June 1911. In order of visitation by the census enumerator, they were:
Princess Victoria (1902) - Capt. Patrick J. Hickey + 90 crew
Princess May (1888) - Capt. J. D. McLeod + 52 crew
Princess Adelaide (1910) - Capt. Robert A. Hunter + 91 crew
Princess Charlotte (1908) - Capt. Thomas O. Griffin + 92 crew
Princess Ena (1907) - Capt. Charles Campbell + 28 crew
Princess Beatrice (1903) - Capt. W. H. Whiteley + 41 crew
Princess Royal (1907) - Capt. C. D. Neroutsos + 53 crew
Joan (1892) - Capt. P. Ritchie + 19 crew
The largest vessels in the fleet, Princess Victoria and Princess Charlotte, each carried more than three hundred passengers and were deployed on the “Triangle Route” linking Victoria, Seattle, and Vancouver. With multiple daily sailings, these ships formed the core of a highly regularized coastal transport system.
The census reveals the internal structure of these vessels in unusual detail. Each ship functioned as a large, tightly organized household, with clearly defined ranks and responsibilities. Officers, engineers, deckhands, and service staff were all enumerated in sequence, reflecting a hierarchy that extended from the bridge to the galley. Compared to smaller vessels in the harbour, CPR steamships displayed the most complex and stratified labour organization.
The crew of Princess Victoria included twenty-one seamen, seventeen firemen (stokers), twenty stewards and waiters, a barber and newsagent. Nine cooks and pantrymen, all Chinese, manned the ship's galley. The crew of her sister steamer, Princess Charlotte, was similar in numbers of seamen, firemen, stewards, waiters and cooks. The Princess Charlotte's crew also included a fourteen-year old bootblack.
Princess Royal on ways in Victoria Machinery Depot shipyard, Victoria harbour, 1911
Image courtesy of BC Archives, A-06308
Women constituted a very small portion of Victoria’s maritime workforce. Only seven women were recorded on the 1911 shipping list, with five serving on CPR vessels—one as a cashier aboard the Princess Adelaide and the others as stewardesses on the Princess Charlotte, Princess May, Princess Royal, and Princess Victoria. This limited representation reflects the gendered organization of shipboard labour, particularly within passenger service positions.
The CPR steamships represent one of the most visible and familiar segments of Victoria’s maritime world. Their regular arrivals and departures in the Inner Harbour – announced by distinctive whistles and easily recognized profiles – made them a constant presence in the daily life of the city.
Passengers aboard these vessels would have been well aware of the shipboard hierarchy that served them as they travelled in comfort to Seattle, Vancouver, and Alaska. What they likely knew far less about was the makeup of the workforce itself. A glimpse of that hidden world emerges in June 1911, when a census enumerator stepped aboard the Princess Royal and recorded the structured floating household of a typical CPR “Princess” steamer.