Kitsap County Transportation Company

The Kitsap County Transportation Company was an important steamboat and ferry company that operated on Puget Sound. The company was founded in 1898 as the Hansen Transportation Company.

Hansen Transportation

The Kitsap County Transportation Company grew out of a business known as the Hansen Transportation Company. The founder of Hansen Transportation was Capt John J. Hansen who moved to Tacoma from Minnesota in 1888. In Minnesota, and later in Boxton, North Dakota, J.J. Hansen had been in the business of selling farm equipment. John J. Hansen had two sons who joined him in the steamboat business, Captains Henry A. Hansen and Ole L. Hansen (1875–1940), as well as a son-in-law, Capt. Alf Hostmark. The business was formally organized in 1898, but started earlier.Kline and Bayless, ''Ferryboats'', at 107-108. Hansen Transportation initially acquired the steamer ''Quickstep'' and put it on the mail route between Port Madison and Poulsbo. Business proved good, and the business was able to acquire the '' Hattie Hansen'', trading the ''Quickstep'' for machinery to build another steamboat, the ''Sentinel''. The Hansens then become involved in a rate war with the Moe Brothers who were running the steamer ''Reliance'' on the Dogfish Bay route in against the Hansens' ''Sentinel''.

Formation

The rate war was settled when Kitsap County businessman Warren I. "Colonel" Gazzam (b. 1863) bought ''Reliance''. Gazzam also had some business allies acquire a major stake in the Hansen company. Gazzam arranged to have ''Reliance'' left on the Dogfish Bay route, while transferring ''Sentinel'' to a longer route, Harper – Colby – West Bainbridge Island – Brownsville. With Gazzam in charge as president, the company officially changed its name, in March 1905, to the Kitsap County Transportation Company. The company's official emblem as painted on the ships' smokestacks, was a white band (called a "collar") painted around the stack, with the letter "K" in black or red on each side. The company was capitalized at $200,000.

Acquisitions

The Kitsap County Transportation Company acquired a number of steamboats, including ''Kitsap'', ''Hyak'', ''Burton'', ''Falcon'', '' Vashon II'', ''Tolo'', and '' Kitsap II''.

In March 1905 KCTC bought ''Reliance'' for $20,000. In December 1906 the company purchased ''Burton'' for $11,225. In June 1909 the company bought ''Hyak'', paying $51,101.72. In April 1914 the company purchased ''Suquamish'' for $23,807.73. In November 1915, KCTC bought ''Camano'' from the Capt. H.B. Lovejoy's Island Transportation Company for $15,000 and renamed the vessel ''Tolo''.''Public Service Commission of Washington, Complainant, v. Kitsap County Transportation Company, Respondent'', Case No. 4274, published in State of Washington, Public Service Commission, ''Annual Report'' (1916), at page 150
(accessed 06-04-11)]

''Suquamish'', sometimes referred to at the time as "''Hyaks pup" was notable for being the first diesel-powered passenger vessel in the United States.Kline and Bayless, ''Ferryboats – Legend on Puget Sound'' at pages 111, 113, and 115.

Waterfront property

As of January 1, 1917, the company owned of waterfront property at Brownsville, Washington, valued for rate-paying purposes at $6,600, and a dock at Suquamish, valued at $1,800. In 1927, Kitsap County Transportation Companyand Puget Sound Freight Lines (PSFL) formed a joint venture company called the Ferry Dock Company, which took out a long-term lease on the Grand Trunk Pacific dock in Seattle, which was then in a rundown condition. The dock became the main terminal and for both lines.Kline and Bayless, ''Ferryboats – A Legend on Puget Sound'', at pages 181, 188, 196, and 200. In 1929, the stockholders of KCTC and PSFL reached agreement with Wilbur B. Foshay (b. 1887) to sell their companies, including the Ferry Dock Company, to Foshay, who was then assembling a utility and transportation business empire. Foshay however was financially ruined in the October 1929 stock market crash and the transaction never went through.

Routes

As of January 1, 1917, the company operated on the following routes originating from Pier 3 (now Pier 54) in Seattle:
* Port Madison-Suquamish-Poulsbo;
* Harper-Colby-Manchester;
* YWCA-Rolling Bay, and
* Fletcher-Bay-Brownsville-Manzanita.

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.

''Public Service Commission of Washington, Complainant, v. Kitsap County Transportation Company, Respondent'', Case No. 4274, published in State of Washington, Public Service Commission, ''Annual Report'' (1916), at page 150
(accessed 06-04-11)

{{Puget Sound steamboat lines

Defunct shipping companies based in Washington (state)
Ferry companies based in Washington (state)
History of Kitsap County, Washington