The Alaska Steamship Company was formed on August 3, 1894. Although initially set out to deliver passengers and fishery products, Alaska Steamship Company began to deliver mining equipment, dog sleds and cattle during the outbreak of war. Klondike Gold Rush 1897. The company was purchased by Alaska Syndicate and joined the Northwestern Steamship Company in 1909, but retained its name, and the fleet was expanded to 18 ships. During World War II, the government took over the company's vessel. When the war ended, the company struggled to compete with the new Alaska Highway for passengers and freight. It stopped passenger service altogether in 1954 and shut down operations in 1971.
Video Alaska Steamship Company
Origin and growth
The company was founded by Charles Peabody, Captain George Roberts, Captain Melville Nichols, George Lent, Frank E. Burns, and Walter Oakes. The six-man group began to collect $ 30,000 by selling 300 shares of $ 100 each. Peabody served as president of the company from his creation until 1912. The first vessel they bought was a 140-foot-tall steamship Willapa .
A railway to serve a mine in the interior encourages mining activity and brings more seekers of luck and tourists. In 1905, the service was diverted from Juneau and Skagway to Valdez-Cordova, then finally to Nome, where the Alaska Shipbuilding was ready to take advantage of the gold mines by diverting its ships. Their ships are supplying more and more religious missions under construction and a growing canned fish industry.
When the Klondike Gold Strike took place in 1897, Charles Peabody reorganized the company and quickly expanded its fleet to meet sudden demand for services. In 1898, the shareholders formed the Puget Sound Navigation Company as a subsidiary. The new company is legally organized in Nevada where company law is more lenient. The Sound Puget route allows the company to continue using some smaller and older vessels as they become unsuitable for heavy Alaska routes.
In 1902, Puget Sound Navigation Co. started a steamboat route from Port Townsend and Port Angeles, Washington to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, carrying cargo and passengers. Their competitors The Pacific Steamship Company has been doing their entire fleet of vessels to the Walking Clondike and is not ready to switch to alternatives when the gold rush subsides. The Canadian Pacific Railway, another of their potential competitors, decided initially that they would not compete on Victoria's route, and chose to concentrate on their ocean-drenched elegant steamers feeding passengers onto their rail routes across the Canadian Rockies and into the Empress Hotels in Victoria and Vancouver. On May 2, 1903, Peabody and his associates purchased controlling shares of La Conner Trading and the Transport Company. They were originally named the joint company Inland Navigation Co. but then re-use Puget Sound Navigation Co. The new company is the largest land shipping company in Puget Sound.
Merge
In 1907, Alaska Syndicate, funded by Morgan & amp; Co. and Daniel Guggenheim, bought the company to serve its copper mining operation growing in the Wrangell Mountains. They combine operations with the Northwest Steamship Company, which has 12 canning factories, and a retail store, but retains the Alaska Steamer Company's name. The merged companies started operations with 12 vessels, and they added to their fleets until they had 18 vessels. They expanded the service from Ketchikan to Kotzebue. They serve all southwestern Alaska, southeast of Alaska, Seward Peninsula, Bering Sea, St. Michael and Nome. The resulting company has a virtual monopoly on the Alaskan shipping industry.
Charles Peabody retired in 1912 and S.W. Eccles from the Guggenheim Company.
In 1915, Kennecott Copper Company, also owned by Morgan & amp; Co. and M. Guggenheim Sons, acquired the interests of Alaska Syndicate in Alaska Steamship Company with stock transactions.
The company greatly benefited from the 1920 Marine Merchant Act, which required ships connecting two US ports to fly the United States flag. The law forced two Canadian shipping companies out of the Alaska market. Alaskan Steamship Company finally enjoys a monopoly near freight and passenger services to Alaska.
In the 1930s the company bought its long-term rival, Pacific Steamship Company. Many Alaskans are starting to complain about irregular services and high tariffs. As a result, the US Congress passed the Intercoastal Shipping Act of 1933. A special schedule and cargo tariff were approved and published.
World War II and beyond
When World War II broke out, the Federal Government took over most of the registered vessels in the US to support the war effort, including a fleet of 15 corporate ships. The company became an agent for the War Administration and was assigned to manage its own ship along with sixty others. During the war, five ships were lost. Before World War II, 42 ships had served Alaska, but after the war, only seven were in operation. The Alaska Steamship Company was purchased in August 1944 for $ 4,290,000 by Skinner and Eddy Corporation of Seattle.
The business of the company is slowly eroded by the end of federal warfare subsidies, rising fuel and labor costs, and new competition from trucking industries and cargo airlines. In an effort to reduce costs, Alaska Steamship companies add tugs, barges, and container ships to their fleets. This is allowed for smaller crew, faster loading and unloading, and less damage to cargo.
Switch to tourism
After World War II, as the freight forwarding business slowed, the company decided to focus on tourism and introduced their vessel in Alaska in January 1946. Then joined Aleutian, Baranof, Yukon and Denali. The ships are called in Ketchikan (two-day trip), Juneau (three-day trip) and Seward (five-day trip). Intermediate call ports include Wrangell, Petersburg, Skagway, Sitka, Cordova, Valdez, Kodiak and Seldovia. All steamers can accommodate more than 200 passengers in classes ranging from the classroom to the luxurious cabin with a private bath.
Maps Alaska Steamship Company
End of service
Unable to compete with faster and cheaper air services, the company stopped passenger service altogether in 1954, although by then it had established itself in the container vessel industry. Despite this effort, Alaska Steamship Company closed in January 1971.
Shipwrecks
The water on the inside is often unfriendly and the jagged coastline is dangerous. While most of the vessels in Alaska Steamship's fleet are sold, disposed of, or diverted, some of their ships end their careers as shipwrecks.
- Ohio , purchased in 1898, was destroyed on the coast of British Columbia in 1909.
- Olympia , was acquired by merger in 1909, ran aground on Bligh Reef on December 10, 1910.
- Admiral Clark , a steamboat was obtained in November 1915 from Rutland Transit Company, from Rutland, VA. While traveling to the West Indies he ran aground in the Caribbean Sea in southwestern Cuba on August 16, 1916, in a possible storm. Only 6 survivors lost 20.
- Seward , acquired by merger in 1909, was captured and drowned by SMÃ, U-52 on April 7, 1917.
- Mariposa , purchased in 1912, sank after crashing into Straits Island Reef on December 18, 1917.
- Dirigo , built in 1898, sank on November 16, 1918 on a voyage from Cordova to Seattle.
- Alaska , built in 1889, washed ashore and drowned in Blunt's Reef off of California on August 6, 1921.
- Kennecott , built in 1921, was destroyed at Hunters Point in 1923.
- Aleutian , built in 1898, drowned on Kodiak Island on May 26, 1929.
- Alameda , acquired in 1920, was damaged by a fire at the Seattle Pier on November 28, 1931 and later removed.
- CuraÃÆ'§ao , built in 1895, caught fire and then sank on July 13, 1940.
- Latouche , built in 1910, was captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy in 1942 and drowned by a US airstrike on October 21, 1944.
- Yukon , purchased in 1923, ran aground at Johnstone Bay 10 miles (16 km) south of Seward, Alaska on February 4, 1946. Three passengers were killed.
- Redondo , purchased in 1915, drowned in Richmond, California in 1948.
- Oduna , purchased in 1964, was destroyed on Unimak Island on 26 November 1965.
References
Archive
- Alaska Steamboat Company Photo Collection. 1940s. 13 photo prints, 30 stereo slides.
- Alaska Steamship Company Photos of Wharves and Ports. 1939-1971. 978 photo prints.
- Collection of Historical Menu. 1884-2003. 740 items (10 boxes). Contains menus from Alaska Steamship Company: Alaska SS, Aleutian SS, Baranoff SS, SS Northwest, Polar Star MS, Victoria SS, and Yukon SS from 1931-1954.
- Navy Data Records and Stewards Union. 1954. 3 items.
- Robert Hitchman Papers. 1836-1986. Contains a route map of steamers and railroads in Alaska from the Alaska Steamship Company during 1917.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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