The steamer Neibāde did not return from Riga to Neibāde that evening. On 9 September 1926, the little ship that since 1907 had carried holidaymakers and locals across the Gulf of Riga set out on its final voyage; later accounts say that, after it reached open water, hatch covers had been left open, water poured in, and it sank about three kilometres off Vecāķi. The National Encyclopaedia calls the disaster the largest maritime catastrophe in prewar Latvia.

The resort of Neibāde was not yet Saulkrasti: the name Saulkrasti was given to the merged villages of Pēterupe and Neibāde in 1933. The steamer was a practical link with Riga at a time when coastal roads were poor, so its loss was more than just a newspaper story for local people.