SS Princess Kathleen was a passenger and freight steamship owned and operated by Canadian Pacific Steamships. She served the coastal communities of British Columbia, Alaska and Washington.
The Princess Kathleen, along with the SS Princess Marguerite, was built to replace the SS Princess Irene (1914) and SS Princess Margaret (1913), which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty during World War I.
Princess Kathleen was built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank and launched in 1924. She sailed from Glasgow to Vancouver via the Panama Canal on her maiden voyage in 1925.[1] The Princess Kathleen and Princess Marguerite relieved the SS Princess Charlotte (1908) and SS Princess Victoria (1902) on the "triangle service" between Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle, for which she was built. With a capacity of 1,500 passengers, 290 berths, 136 staterooms, a 168-seat dining room and the ability to carry 30 automobiles, the Princess Kathleen and Princess Marguerite quickly became the preferred ships on this service, successfully competing against the Black Ball Line. Both ships were later modified to carry 1,800 passengers by reducing the number of staterooms to 123.