Merchants Transportation Company
Encyclopedia
The Merchants Transportation Company was a shipping firm that operated on Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...

 from 1905 to 1929. This company should not be confused with the similarly named Merchants Transportation Company of Olympia, formed in 1874 and a completely separate firm.

Organization

Merchants Transportation Company was formed in 1905 by F.H. Marvin, A.W. Sterrett, F.H. Wilhelmi, and Capt. Robert McCullough, of Tacoma, and in that year purchased the steam freighter T.W. Lake
T.W. Lake
T.W. Lake was a steamboat that ran on Puget Sound in the early 1900s. This vessel was lost with all hands on December 5, 1923 in one of the worst disasters of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.- Career:...

 from Puget Sound Navigation Co.
Puget Sound Navigation Company
The Puget Sound Navigation Company was founded by Joshua Green in 1913. It operated a fleet of steamboats and ferries on Puget Sound in Washington and the Georgia Strait in British Columbia...

. The company later acquired the passenger steamboat Sentinel
Sentinel (steamboat)
Sentinel was a small wooden propeller-driven steamship of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.-Career:Sentinel was built in 1898 for the Hunt Brothers, who ran a family steamboat business on Puget Sound. The Hunts ran the vessel to stops on Bay Island in southern Puget Sound, and also on a run to...

 and Anna E. Fay, a former Yukon River
Yukon River
The Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. The source of the river is located in British Columbia, Canada. The next portion lies in, and gives its name to Yukon Territory. The lower half of the river lies in the U.S. state of Alaska. The river is long and empties into...

 steam tug which the company had rebuilt into the freighter A.W. Sterrett.

Course of business

The company was an early rival of the West Pass Transportation Company in competition for business along the route that ran from Tacoma to Seattle along a strait
Strait
A strait or straits is a narrow, typically navigable channel of water that connects two larger, navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not...

 the west side of Vashon Island
Vashon Island
Vashon is a census-designated place in King County, Washington, United States. It covers an island alternately called Vashon Island or Vashon-Maury Island, the largest island in Puget Sound south of Admiralty Inlet. The population was 10,624 at the 2010 census. At , it is about 60 percent larger...

 which was called the West Pass or Colvos Passage
Colvos Passage
The Colvos Passage is a tidal strait within Puget Sound in the American state of Washington running west of Vashon Island between the island and the Kitsap Peninsula. It lies just north of the Tacoma Narrows. One of the more interesting things about the Colvos Passage is that it has a permanent...

. This was called the West Pass route.

Labor unrest

In 1907 a union movement was growing among the crews of Puget Sound steam vessels, particularly among the engineers, who had formed the Marine Engineers Beneficial Organization. The shipping companies had scheduled a pay decrease to go into effect on January 10, 1907. The engineering association determined to fight this, and threated to strike. In response, the shipping companies formed a formal association to negotiate with the engineers. F.H. Marvin was the delegate from the Merchants Transportation Company, and was on the board of the directors of the company association and also on the committee to negotiate with the engineers. Two days before the strike was to go into effect, an agreement was reached with the engineers to receive a 10% raise rather than a pay cut.

Ships owned by company

Vessels reported to have been owned by the company include A.W. Sterrett, Albion
Albion (steamboat)
Albion was a steamboat which ran on Puget Sound from 1898 to 1924. The vessel is perhaps best remembered for its service as beer delivery vessel and for a 1910 collision with the steamship Chippewa.- Career:...

, Sentinel
Sentinel (steamboat)
Sentinel was a small wooden propeller-driven steamship of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.-Career:Sentinel was built in 1898 for the Hunt Brothers, who ran a family steamboat business on Puget Sound. The Hunts ran the vessel to stops on Bay Island in southern Puget Sound, and also on a run to...

and T.W. Lake
T.W. Lake
T.W. Lake was a steamboat that ran on Puget Sound in the early 1900s. This vessel was lost with all hands on December 5, 1923 in one of the worst disasters of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet.- Career:...


Close of business

In 1929, all Merchants Transportation Company boats went to Puget Sound Freight Lines.
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