James William Troup

James William Troup (February 5, 1855 – November 30, 1931) was an American steamship captain, Canadian Pacific Railway administrator and shipping pioneer.

[1] Together with his father, Captain Troup built many of the early steamboats of the Columbia River and he went to work on the steamer Vancouver in 1872 at the age of 17.

Troup went to work on the Columbia river above the Cascades, for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company holding first a position as a purser and later as master.

Irving also gave Troup command of the huge and difficult to manage sidewheeler Yosemite on the route from Victoria to New Westminster.

Mara persuaded Troup to return to Canada and supervise his company's operations on the large inland lakes of British Columbia.

[3] As Professor Turner, a leading historian of British Columbia, states: Captain James W. Troup was not one for taking half measures in steamship design although he was far from being an impractical man.

Indeed his career was highlighted by a succession of ships that demonstrated his instinctive ability to understand the qualities needed in steamships to best capitalize on the traffic conditions.

[5]One of Troup's most successful designs was the steamer Rossland, which Professor Turner described as the most beautiful vessel ever to run on the Arrow Lakes.

Like many prestigious steamers in the Pacific Northwest, such as the Wide West and the Bailey Gatzert, Rossland's saloon deck extended clear forward to her bow, and her pilot house was placed high above the water on top of the Texas.

[1] When the Klondike Gold Rush generated a huge demand for shipping in 1898, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) put Troup in charge of supervising steamboat construction.

to assume charge of the operation that his former employer John Irving had established:[1] For James Troup, the new British Columbia Coast Steamship Service was to be an all-consuming challenge for the remainder of his working life.

The loss of the Sophia with so many people was the worst disaster in the history of the Canadian west coast and Inside Passage shipping.

By this time the CPR had a fleet of profitable modern steamers serving the west coast of Canada, Alaska, and running down Puget Sound, all due in great part to the work of Captain Troup.

[10] Perhaps Captain Troup's only equal in achievement and esteem was his good friend and old employer, John Irving, who lived on until 1936.

Like Troup, Captain Irving had led a life of adventure and challenge, but he was an improvident man who gave away or gambled through his fortune.

His only son had been killed in World War I, and the broken-hearted Irving, well over military age, had offered to take his place in Canada's armed forces.