A Rate War Sinks the Farallon: Big Steamship Lines Squeeze Out an Independent
The steamer Farallon is pulled from the Seattle–San Francisco run after railroad-controlled steamship lines slash passenger and freight rates, forcing the independent operator to seek a new route to Yaquina Bay.
The Farallon, of the ... Steamship Company, has been taken off the Seattle–San Francisco run and chartered by the Yaquina Bay Steamship Company to ply between San Francisco and Yaquina Bay, Oregon. The big company forced the boat off by cutting passenger rates to $10 and freight to $1 per ton.
The claim that the Coast steamship ... is making a great amount of money is untrue. They took the boat off simply because no money could be made carrying passengers from San Francisco to this port for $10 and freight for $1 per ton, the rate made by the big company.
The traveling public will be sorry to learn of the turn in affairs. The boats left the Sound with over 800 people for California and Alaska. The Farallon has been chartered for a period by the Yaquina Bay Steamship Company. It was feared that the Great Northern, Northern Pacific and Southern Pacific companies would be drawn into the war. The Yaquina Bay company has no ... connections, and it is thought the three lines are interested in it.
Captain Roberts, part owner of the Farallon, said his company did not ... to carry passengers on the ... line. He said there is no money in handling freight for $2 a ton between the two ports. He said his company might in the future place a larger boat on the run if permitted.
“No money could be made carrying passengers from San Francisco to this port for $10 and carrying freight for $1 per ton, the rate made by the big company.”
The 1895 rate war on Puget Sound shipping shows how railroad-controlled steamship lines could squeeze out independent operators by slashing prices. Today, similar battles play out in freight and ferry service, where dominant carriers set rates that smaller competitors cannot match. The Farallon's fate is a reminder that transportation monopolies have long shaped who can afford to travel and ship goods in and out of Seattle.
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