Admiral Knight (1919)

The Admiral Knight was originally launched by the Westward Navigation Company of Seattle in 1916 as the Kuskokwim River, a diesel-engine powered vessel built to provide freight service between Puget Sound and Alaska. It was re-powered with steam engines in 1917 and renamed the SS Portland, and then renamed the SS Admiral Knight in 1919 after purchase by Alaska Pacific Fisheries who may have used it to supply their canneries in Alaska.

On July 26, 1919 a fire broke out in the Admiral Knight’s engine room while the freighter was underway from Seattle to Ketchikan. The crew of 21 barely made it off the ship before it was engulfed in flames; the last 6 men leaped off the foredeck onto a boat dispatched by the local steam ferry just in time to be saved. Three days later, mariners were still being warned of the burning hulk drifting between Vancouver and Vancouver Island, but there was no sign of the ship by July 30.

The wreck site was dived once in the 1950s, then again in 2022 by divers from the UASBC. The wreck site lies in 57 m of water, where the propellers, prop shafts, engine, boilers, cargo and forecastle all lie intact. The intact water-tube boilers, which stand 2-3 m above the seafloor are the most impressive features of the wreck site.

Note: British Columbia’s Heritage Conservation Act automatically protects all heritage wrecks, including the remains of all wrecked vessels and aircraft once two or more years have passed since the date of loss. It is illegal to damage, alter or remove a heritage object from a heritage wreck except under a permit issued by the Archaeology Branch.