Those Beautiful Coastal Liners

Gordon Turner is the author of Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific’s
Greatest Ship and the editor of SeaFare, a quarterly newsletter on sea
travel.

Robert Turner has earned an enviable reputation as a chronicler of the
Canadian Pacific ships of British Columbia. His latest book,
attractively designed and featuring well-reproduced illustrations, is a
worthy companion to his The Pacific Princesses (1977).

For a century, Canadian Pacific’s ships were always highly important
to the major cities of British Columbia, and for much of that time were
absolutely essential to the more remote villages that had no other
communication with the outside world. Humorous and dramatic anecdotes of
crews and passengers form a major component of the book. The ships
themselves form another. These were ships with style and personality.
Many were built in Britain, others locally. They served in peacetime and
wartime and, often enough, generated affection from crews and passengers
alike.

It is hard to read about the graceful Princess Victoria or the elegant
Princess Kathleen without feeling envious of those who were fortunate
enough to travel in these distinguished miniature liners. For this
reviewer, though, stories of the sturdy Princess Maquinna, which served
the isolated communities of Vancouver Island’s rugged west coast for
40 years, are one highlight of the book. Another is the account of the
work of Captain James W. Troup, who virtually created the fleet and ran
it for more than 25 years.

The ships have all gone, but many excellent photographs have survived,
and they, together with reproductions of menus and timetables, add
greatly to the enjoyment of the book. Turner is a thorough researcher
and an able writer. Some sloppy proofreading is evident, but Those
Beautiful Coastal Liners is an outstanding achievement nevertheless.