© David Watts
Victoria winter 1996
In nineteen ten near Glasgow a ship came off the ways
A single-stacker packet built for half a world away
With sixty double cabins and berths for thirty more
Across the Georgia Strait and out along the western shore.
CHORUS
She’s the last and lone survivor of a coastal dynasty
Of Canadian Pacific princesses on the waters of BC
Calling at each cove and island, heading up each strait and arm
In the Princess Mary restaurant you’ll feel their warmth and charm.
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From Comox to Powell River, back to Nanaimo
Then through the islands of the Gulf of Georgia down below
Summers on the open Long Beach coast where the sea would swell and pound
And even up to Alaska to replace a ship that drowned.
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For forty years along the coast she sailed through thick and thin
And all of the town would go down to the dock on days when the ship came in
She was a water taxi, ferry, a flying doctor too
When the Princess Mary ran the route the mail would go through.
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Now some folks weren’t content to simply shuttle up and down
The longed to spend a week aboard and sail the Island around
Canadian Pacific heard them out and hearkened to their views
In the Princess Mary special Round Vancouver Island Cruise.
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Now the world after the War became a different place by far
As steamer runs and trains gave way to planes and motor cars
Yet with the changes all around she sailed through ‘fifty-one
Then with the season at an end, her seagoing days were done
Her hull became a freighter barge that sailed for three years more
Till under tow with all on board, it sank in fifty-four
Her after deck was salvaged, with the paneled dining room.
Enjoy your meal in the Upper Harbour shore in the ship’s saloon.