The SS Princess May was a steamship built in 1888. The ship is best known for grounding in 1910, which had unfortunately left the ship completely out of the water. This is one of the most famous shipwreck photographs.
August 5th, 1910
Before her Canadian service in 1901 and name Princess May, Cass served in the China coast trade from 1888 to 1901 under a number of different owners and names, including Arthur, Cass, Ningchow, and Hating, the ship’s name in 1901. During the ship’s service on the China coast there was a mutiny on board and the ship was attacked by pirates.
The arrival of Cass and Smith at Taiwan was called the “shipping event of the year” for the China coast. The Formosa Trading Company had been organized by the modernizing governor of Taiwan, Liu Mingchuan, based on the advice of a former manager of the China Merchant Steam Navigation Company.
A contemporary source states that the ostensible purpose of ordering the two steamers was modernization of Taiwan, but the actual goal was to compete with the China Merchant Steam Navigation Company and its two allied English companies for the passenger traffic on the Yangtze River and between Shanghai and Tientsin.
The China Merchant Steam Navigation Company was able to defeat this challenge, and the Formosa Trading Company became defunct. Cass and Smithwere then run by Taiwan’s governor, Liu Mingchuan but in an unprofitable manner. Cass and Smith were said to have cost £59,000 and were not expected to be profitable in service.
In 1919 the ship was sold to the Princess May (Steam ship) Company and transferred to the Caribbean. In the early 1930s the ship was deliberately sunk.