Captain Prince lived a long and adventurous life which took him from Seal Cove on the east coast of Newfoundland, to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada. He was the son of James and Rebecca Prince and the grandson of Samuel and Sarah Prince. During his later years in BC he told many stories of his adventures. His niece Gwen, who was the daughter of Captain Prince’s brother Samuel, also lived in BC with her husband Leslie. They were very close to Gwen’s Uncle Charles and heard first hand many of his stories. Today Gwen and her husband look back and wish they had recorded all the many stories told by Captain Prince.

At the time of his death it was Leslie Atkinson who wrote the obituary of Captain Charles E. Prince and this obituary briefly tell the story of his life.

Passed away March 3, 1969 in the Peace Arch Hospital, White Rock, B. C. At the age of 89 years after a brief illness. Captain Prince was born August 4, 1879, in what is now known as Princeton, Bonavista Bay, but then known as Seal Cove, the son of James and Rebecca Prince.

He was an adventurous spirit, and stowed away on his father’s schooner the "Royal Prince" at the age of eight and worked at a man’s job and earned a man’s share of the catch, the first season out.

His education was very limited by the fact that he was more anxious to work then learn from books, but did get the rudiments at least. Like many more Newfoundlander’s he went to the sealing as soon as he was old enough and in fact it was sealing and its hazards that finally determined his leaving Newfoundland for good.

He was on the ice the year of the Greenland Disaster and was among the men searching for their lost mates. He found one of his best friends huddled behind a mound of ice and when they attempted to move him they knocked of his nose for the poor man was frozen stiff.

Captain Prince then made up his mind after this incident that this life was too hard for what you made in cash and set of to Boston, Mass. where he worked on the Tea Docks for a period of time.

Eventually heeding the lure of gold in the Klondike he headed west to B.C. and eventually to the Yukon. His knowledge of boats led to his working on river boats to get to the gold fields. He worked in a few diggings but never made a strike of any kind. He made more money as a carpenter and a woodsman (a natural ability) then he ever made in gold.

Returning to Vancouver he once again took up carpentering for a living. In 1905 he married Mary Jane Brown of King’s Cove who had also come west. The call of the sea was too great for him and he went back to fishing off the B.C. coast in the old steamboats, using dories to fish during the day and to return to the ships at night.

Eventually he decided to take up navigation, and finally got his papers as captain. He was the captain of the "Anyox" a big tow boat which carried copper concentrates from the town of Axyox, then a booming town but now a ghost town to Tacoma. When this ended he decided to become a boat owner and bought his own vessel and spent the rest of his career at sea, halibut fishing, packing fish etc.

During part of WWII he was in the fishermen’s navy, eventually retiring from the sea in 1944. The rest of his life he spent in retirement at his home in White Rock, if retirement can be counted as building a house and improving your own property. He always raised a good crop of vegetables and various fruit, such as apples, raspberries, etc.

Captain Prince had three sisters and two brothers of whom the only survivor is Samuel J. Prince who still resides in Princeton. Survived by his widow (they had been married sixty-four years on the first of March), and many nephews and nieces in all parts of Canada and USA.

Funeral services were held March 5, 1969 under the auspices of the Orange Lodge No 2543, White Rock, to which organization Captain Prince had been a member all his adult life. Dr. Uriah Lane was the officiating minister, also a distinguished Newfoundlander.

Obituary Written By: Leslie Atkinson in 1969

Published: In B.C newspaper 1969

Copy Made Available By: Deb Frazer Mass. USA, Taken from her family records

Submitted By: Geraldine Prince