The Battle for the Alaska Route
A high-stakes power struggle involving the Northern Pacific railroad and the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company threatens to upend the shipping monopoly on the Alaska run.
The announcement made in a telegram from Port Townsend that John Irving, of the Canadian Pacific Navigation Company, had chartered the steamer City of Seattle for the Alaska route was confirmed by local steamboatmen. It was learned that Mr. Irving had been as far as St. Paul for several weeks trying to bring about the charter. The affairs of the Puget Sound & Alaska Steamship Company are mixed up with the Northern Pacific receivership. The stock is owned by the Northern Pacific, but the boats are not in the hands of the receivers. A steamboatman remarked: 'If it is true that the City of Seattle has been chartered to go on the Alaska route, you can count on cheap rates to Alaska this year. Anyone who goes in to fight Goodall, Perkins & Co. wants to be well loaded. They have enjoyed a monopoly of the Alaska business so long that they will not give it up without a struggle.'
“They have enjoyed a monopoly of the Alaska business so long that they will not give it up without a struggle.”
This reflects the early industrial era of PNW maritime transport, where shipping routes were often tied to the fortunes of big railroad monopolies. Just as then, Seattle serves as the primary gateway to Alaska, though the players have shifted from steamship trusts to modern logistics and cruise giants.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.