It was the biggest disaster in Alaska, Yukon and British Columbia history, but remoteness and bad timing have meant that while everyone everywhere knows about the RMS Titanic, few even in Alaska have heard of the SS Princess Sophia.

Ninety-five years ago Friday Oct. 25, the Princess Sophia, operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway's steamship line, sank in a storm in Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage, in an area that is now part of the capital city of Juneau.

So how did such a devastating -- and stunning -- event become so lost to history?...