The La Conner Trading and Transportation Company was founded in the early 1900s by Joshua Green and others, to engage in the shipping business on

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

Formation

The La Conner Trading and Transportation Company was formed in the early 1890s by four officers of the steamer Henry Bailey, Joshua Green, purser, Sam Denny, master, Peter Falk, mate, and Frank Zickmund, second engineer. Green persuaded the others to leave the ''Henry Bailey'' and go into business for themselves, by purchasing the freight steamer '' Fannie Lake'' and a scow, for a total investment of about $5000. Green at the time had savings of only about $250 and the others had very little. However they were able to secure loans of $1,250 each, secured by the steamer and the scow, from banker Jacob Furth and the Puget Sound National Bank.Klein and Bayless, ''Ferry Boats'', at 36, 39-41.

Operations

Running in the freight business, the company was not competing for passenger fares. Instead the new firm's main competition came from George T. Willey, a Seattle hay and

grain merchant The grain trade refers to the local and international trade in cereals and other food grains such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice. Grain is an important trade item because it is easily stored and transported with limited spoilage, unlike other ...

. As business increased, the four partners bought another steamer, the '' Annie M. Pence''. Willey then joined with the four original partners and they incorporated the business as the La Conner Trading and Transportation Company. The company suffered business reverses. In April 1893, ''Fannie Lake'' was destroyed by a fire that started in a cargo of hay. The vessel was valued at $5,000 and insured for only $4,000.Wright, E.W., ''Lewis & Dryden's Marine history of the Pacific Northwest'', Lewis & Dryden Printing Co., Portland, OR (1995)
at page 411. An economic depression called the Panic of 1893 hit the company hard, and things got worse when the company's other hay steamer, the uninsurable ''Anna M. Pence'', was also destroyed by fire. Green had the idea to purchase a new boat, which he would name after the builder, which he concluded would save up to $2,000 off the price of the boat. Builders were willing to build for less if the completed vessel were to be named after the builder, as it would function as a floating advertisement. In this way, the company acquired the '' T.W. Lake'' built by the shipbuilder of the same name. The ''Lake'' was purpose-built to move freight, and included a winch to lift cargo up to piers, regardless of the state of the tide.

Expansion of business

Following the purchase of the Lake, the company continued to expand, adding the steamers ''E.D. Smith'', ''Utopia'', ''George E. Starr'', and the sternwheelers ''State of Washington'', ''Fairhaven'' and ''La Conner'' to the roster. The company also built the ''City of Denver'' for Colorado investors. When the Colorado interests defaulted on payment, the company took over the boat and added to their fleet. The company had also expanded into the passenger business, buying the fast steamer ''

Inland Flyer ''Inland Flyer'' was a passenger steamboat that ran on Puget Sound from 1898 to 1916. From 1910 to 1916 this vessel was known as the ''Mohawk''. The vessel is notable as the first steamer on Puget Sound to use oil fuel. ''Inland Flyer'' was one ...

'' and putting that vessel on the lucrative

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

–

Bremerton Bremerton is a city in Kitsap County, Washington. The population was 37,729 at the 2010 census and an estimated 41,405 in 2019, making it the largest city on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton is home to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the Bremer ...

run in opposition to the ''Athlon'', owned by H.B. Kennedy.

Corporate changes

By 1902, Joshua Green had bought out Sam Denny's shares, and some of the stock of George T. Willey. Willey then sold the rest of his shares to the

Alaska Steamship Company The Alaska Steamship Company was formed on August 3, 1894. While it originally set out to ship passengers and fishing products, the Alaska Steamship Company began shipping mining equipment, dog sleds, and cattle at the outbreak of the Klondike G ...

, of which Charles E. Peabody was president. This gave Peabody and Alaska Steam a controlling interest in La Conner Trading. Alaska Steam ran ships to Alaska and also had a large fleet of inland vessels operating on Puget Sound. The Puget Sound operations were conducted under the name of the

Puget Sound Navigation Company The Puget Sound Navigation Company (PSNC) was founded by Charles E. Peabody in 1898. Today the company operates an international passenger and vehicle ferry service between Port Angeles, WA and Victoria, BC on the Coho. History In the past, t ...

. With the acquisition of La Conner Trading, PSN was almost doubled in the size of its fleet. After a period of transition, the La Conner company was effectively merged into the reorganized

, which in later years came to dominate Puget Sound passenger and ferry business as a near-monopoly.

Notes

References

* Kline, Mary S., and Bayless, G.A., ''Ferryboats -- A Legend on Puget Sound'', Bayless Books, Seattle, WA 1983 * Newell, Gordon, R., ed. ''H.W. McCurdy Maritime History of the Pacific Northwest'', Superior Publishing 1966. * Newell, Gordon R., ''Ships of the Inland Sea -- The Story of the Puget Sound Steamboats'', Binford & Mort (2d Ed. 1960)
Wright, E.W., ''Lewis & Dryden's Marine history of the Pacific Northwest'', Lewis & Dryden Printing Co., Portland, OR (1995)
{{Mosquito Fleet Ferry companies based in Washington (state) Defunct shipping companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Washington (state) History of transportation in Washington (state)