The Steamship 'Ancon' and the Boom of the Alaska Trade
Captain Carroll discusses the rapid growth of the Alaska route, dismisses critics of his ship, and reveals his plans for a revolutionary glass-walled excursion steamer.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Captain Carroll, speaking on the growth of the Alaska route: 'When I started on the Alaska route as master of the little California, she was the only vessel on the route and made but twelve trips a year. She was only 400 tons burden and seldom ever had a load. We then made but two landings in Alaska, one at Sitka and one at Wrangell, and a tourist was unknown. Now the company is running three large steamers on that route, the Idaho, Elder and Ancon, and they all are crowded every trip, and each steamer makes 18 landings in Alaska. That will give you an idea of how that trade has grown.' Regarding criticism of the Ancon, he noted: 'If the editorials of the Tacoma paper were as sound as the timbers of the Ancon, it would rank much higher in the scale of journalism than it does to-day.' Carroll also spoke of his future: 'I have large interests on the Sound which require my attention, and this fall I shall build me a house on the Sound, perhaps at Seattle, and locate here permanently. I am one of the principal members of the Puget Sound Stevedoring Company. We employ hundreds of men.' Looking ahead to the future of Alaska, he stated: 'I have just finished the plans for the finest excursion steamer ever built. The upper deck will be a glass-roofed hall 230 feet long and at least 30 feet wide. You will see such a boat on the Alaska route within the next three years.'
“If the editorials of that paper were as sound as the timbers of the Ancon, it would rank much higher in the scale of journalism than it does to-day.”
Captain Carroll’s vision of Seattle as a permanent hub for Alaska trade foreshadowed the city’s transformation into a logistics and tourism gateway. His struggle to balance maritime operations with real estate interests and civic building echoes the classic tension in Seattle's growth: the constant pull between resource extraction and the city's ambition to become a permanent, sophisticated urban center.
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