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The Alaska Packers' Association (APA) was a San Francisco-based manufacturer of Alaska canned salmon founded in 1891 and sold in 1982. As the largest salmon packer in Alaska, the member canneries of APA were active in local affairs, and had considerable political influence. The Alaska Packers' Association is best known for operating the "Star Fleet," the last fleet of commercial sailing vessels on the West Coast of North America, as late as 1927.
The APA was formed in 1891 when the Alaska salmon industry was in its infancy but already produced more canned salmon than the market could bear. [1] The association was initially formed to sell off the surplus pack and it proved so successful that it incorporated in 1892 as the Alaska Packing Association to better manage canned salmon production to meet demand. Of the original 31 member canneries across Alaska, 9 were idled that year. With minor changes, the association reincorporated as the Alaska Packers Association in 1893. [2]
Henry Frederick Fortmann (1856–1946), owner of the Arctic Packing Company, one of the original member companies, served as APA president from its inception until 1922 and remained on the board until his death. Other presidents included William Timson and A.K. Tichenor.
As the industry later expanded, the APA emerged as the largest salmon packer in Alaska with canneries that stretched from Bristol Bay, Chignik, Karluk, Cook Inlet, and the Southeast Alaska panhandle. The company's various canneries were identified as "Diamonds" followed by an initial including: the Diamond NC was their Clark's Point, Alaska cannery (after its originator the Nushagak Canning Co.), the Diamond E (Egegik), Diamond J and X (Kvichak River) Diamond W (Wrangell). On their boats and frequently in company correspondence the word diamond was not used but a diamond was drawn around the cannery initial. The Diamond NC cannery in Clark's Point, built in 1888 is still in existence but has not been used as a cannery since 1950. The Diamond M and Diamond O cannery in South Naknek built in 1895 is still in operation today.
Canned salmon was then as the largest industry in Alaska and produced over 80% of the territory's tax revenues. The APA wielded considerable clout in the territorial capital Juneau and Washington DC, where the fishery was regulated by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries in the US Department of Commerce. The absentee control of a major industry and the APA's dominant role provoked resentment among many Alaskans who viewed the industry as greedy, selfish and ruthless. Alaska Territorial Rep. Dan Sutherland reviled the APA as "the great monopolists of Bristol Bay."
The APA used its clout to lessen the impacts of salmon regulations on the industry and reap other benefits. The company operated salmon hatcheries near Karluk and Loring and took tax credits for the salmon smolt that were released. In 1907, the APA canned over $3 million worth of salmon and thanks to credits for hatchery releases that totaled over $32,000, owed just 32 cents in taxes, a bill they paid for with stamps.
To its credit, the APA came to the aid of Alaskans when needed. [3] Its cannery hospitals provided medical care for neighboring Native residents and when the worldwide Spanish flu pandemic ravaged western Alaska in the spring of 1919, the APA helped bury the hundreds of dead, and provided care for the ill and orphaned children, even when the federal government did little to render aid. After a Navy Lieutenant inspected the situation in Bristol Bay and reported the conditions as "satisfactory," the APA's Kvichak cannery superintendent J. C. Bell retorted, "We have not been able to fathom whether the conditions are satisfactory for them or the natives who are dead and buried … and as usual the job is up to the Alaska Packers Association."
In 1916, Alaska Packers Association, Griffin & Skelley, Central California Canneries, J. K. Armsby Co., and California Fruit Canners Association [4] merged to form California Packing Corporation (CalPack), [5] a company involved in canned fruits and vegetables and Hawaiian pineapple, and later reorganized as Del Monte Foods after the name of its premier brand. [6] The APA later moved its headquarters to the Seattle area.
The company generally prospered through the 1930s as salmon production grew but many Alaska canneries were idled during World War II and never reopened. During World War II Alaska Packers' Association operated Merchant navy ships for the United States Shipping Board. During World War II Alaska Packers' Association was active with charter shipping with the Maritime Commission and War Shipping Administration. Alaska Packers' Association operated Liberty ships and other ships for the merchant navy. The ship was run by its Alaska Packers' Association and the US Navy supplied United States Navy Armed Guards to man the deck guns and radio. Example ships operated: USS Alkes, SS Louis A. Sengteller, and SS Joseph Smith, which sank in 1944. [7] [8]
After the war, salmon runs declined for a variety of reasons including past overfishing, lax management and a general downturn in salmon survival due to a change in long-term climate cycles known as the Pacific decadal oscillation.[ citation needed ] Many APA canneries were 50 years old and in need of major modernization but CalPack accountants questioned the investment in rebuilding canneries when salmon runs were in decline and consumers' tastes were turning from salmon to more cheap and abundant tuna.[ citation needed ]
Alaska salmon production remained generally poor throughout the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s, by which time the company sought out. In 1982, when salmon runs showed signs of resurgence, most of the APA's assets were sold to ConAgra of Omaha, Nebraska for an undisclosed amount. Many of these properties in Bristol Bay have since been acquired by Trident Seafoods.
The APA is perhaps best remembered for operating one of the last fleets of tall ships. Although this invoked the romance of the days of sail, reliance on wind rather than steam was a way for the company to economize. The salmon packing industry was a very seasonal business and old sailing ships were relatively cheap and available. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, the APA began to replace its wooden ships with iron-hulled vessels by purchasing a number of ships built by Harland & Wolff Co. for James P. Corry and Co.'s Star Line. APA purchased the following ships (in order of build) from others who had purchased from James P. Corry and Co. - Star of Italy, Star of Russia, Star of Bengal and Star of France. [9] The first of these vessels bought by the APA was the Star of Russia. The company liked the naming pattern used for the Star Line's ships so much that it used this pattern for the naming of its other vessels, naming them Star of Alaska, Star of Finland, etc. By 1930, most of the sailing ships were replaced with steam or diesel powered ships.
Alaska's notorious weather resulted in a number of accidents involving the sailing ships, most notably the sinking of the Star of Bengal on September 20, 1908. The vessel was towed from Wrangell, Alaska with the full cannery crew and over 52,000 cases or 2.5 million 1-pound cans of salmon on board. Upon reaching the outer coast, a gale blew up. The towboats cut their lines and the vessel's anchors dragged. The 262 foot ship broke up on the rocks of Coronation Island and 111 people died, mostly Chinese and Japanese cannery workers.
In 1927, the APA still owned fourteen square-rigged sailing vessels in its "Star Fleet" of which only two remain. The Star of India is now ported at the San Diego Maritime Museum. The Star of Alaska, originally named the Balclutha, was given back its original name and is ported in San Francisco as part of the Maritime National Historical Park. [5]
The Star of Russia now lies in 40 metres of water in Port Vila harbor, Vanuatu and is a popular dive site. Other ships in this series that are no longer afloat include the Star of Bengal, Star of England, Star of Falkland, Star of Finland, Star of France, Star of Greenland, Star of Holland, Star of Iceland, Star of Italy, Star of Lapland, Star of Poland, Star of Scotland, Star of Shetland, and Star of Zealand.
The name APA is now used by the Seattle-based At-Sea Processors Association. This trade association represents seven companies that own and operate 19 US flag catcher/processor vessels active in the Alaska pollock and West Coast Pacific whiting fisheries. At-Sea Processors Association has no connection to the earlier Alaska Packers' Association.
Star of India is an iron-hulled sailing ship, built in 1863 in Ramsey, Isle of Man as the full-rigged ship Euterpe. After a career sailing from Great Britain to India and New Zealand, she was renamed, re-rigged as a barque, and became a salmon hauler on the Alaska to California route. Retired in 1926, she was restored as a seaworthy museum ship in 1962–3 and home-ported at the Maritime Museum of San Diego in San Diego, California. She is the oldest ship still sailing regularly and also the oldest iron-hulled merchant ship still afloat. The ship is both a California Historical Landmark and United States National Historic Landmark.
The settlement of Steveston, founded in the 1880s, is a neighbourhood of Richmond in Metro Vancouver. On the southwest tip of Lulu Island, the village is a historic port and salmon canning centre at the mouth of the South Arm of the Fraser River. The early 1900s style architecture attracts both the film and tourism industries.
Balclutha, also known as Star of Alaska, Pacific Queen, or Sailing Ship Balclutha, is a steel-hulled full-rigged ship that was built in 1886. She is representative of several different commercial ventures, including lumber, salmon, and grain. She is a U.S. National Historic Landmark and is currently preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California. She was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 7 November 1976.
The Egegik River is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska. A biological survey was conducted at the base of the Alaska Peninsula in 1902 by Wilfred Hudson Osgood, which included the Egegik River.
The Gulf of Georgia Cannery is a National Historic Site of Canada located in Steveston village in Richmond, British Columbia.
Metha Nelson was built as a wooden‑hulled merchant schooner which was later used in historic movies as a full-rigged ship. During World War II, she served the United States Navy.
The Kake Cannery is a historic fish processing facility near Kake, Alaska. Operated by a variety of companies between 1912 and 1977, the cannery was one of many which operated in Southeast Alaska, an area historically rich in salmon. The cannery's surviving buildings are among the best-preserved of the period, and provide a window into the labor practices of the cannery operators, which emphasized production over working conditions, and made significant use of immigrant contract workers. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.
Crescent Porter Hale (1872–1937) was an American industrialist who was involved in the canned salmon industry in Bristol Bay, Alaska throughout his adult life.
A salmon cannery is a factory that commercially cans salmon. It is a fish-processing industry that became established on the Pacific coast of North America during the 19th century, and subsequently expanded to other parts of the world that had easy access to salmon.
The Star Line was a fleet of ships owned by timber merchants, Messrs. James P Corry and Co Ltd. of Belfast, Ireland. The shipping company was formed by Robert Corry in 1826 to import timber from Canada to Ireland. The company began to diversify in 1859 when trade with Calcutta began and the company relocated its offices from Belfast to London. This was followed by services to Australia and New Zealand in 1888, South America in 1903 and a joint emigrant service to Australia with Royden and Tyser Lines started in 1912. The company became a constituent part of the Commonwealth & Dominion Line in 1914, which was renamed Port Line in 1937.
Canned or tinned fish are food fish which have been processed, sealed in an airtight container such as a sealed tin can, and subjected to heat. Canning is a method of preserving food, and provides a typical shelf life ranging from one to five years. They are usually opened via a can opener, but sometimes have a pull-tab so that they can be opened by hand. In the past it was common for many cans to have a key that would be turned to peel the lid of the tin off; most predominately sardines, among others.
The Marshall J. Kinney Cannery, located in Uniontown, Astoria, Oregon, United States, between Fifth and Seventh streets, was constructed in 1879 and became one of the city's longest-running salmon canneries. Run by the Astoria Packing Company, of which Marshall J. Kinney was president, the complex quickly became the "largest and most extensive salmon-packing establishment on the Pacific Coast". In 1894, the cannery was completely rebuilt after being burned to the ground. Five years later Kinney became part of the Columbia River Packers Association, joining several other canneries and packing companies. By 1904, the complex supported three production lines; Kinney continued cannery operations until the 1920s when it was primarily used as a central machine shop and warehouse for the Columbia River Packers Association. In 1954, a cargo ship ran into the complex, part of which was lost. Intact portions were used for storage until 1980 and today house shops and small businesses. The cannery was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 30, 1989, but was delisted on September 8, 1997.
The Cannery Workers and Farm Laborers Union, Local 7 was the first Filipino-led union in the United States.
Kildonan is an unincorporated community in the Alberni Inlet-Barkley Sound region of the west coast of southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The former steamboat landing and ferry dock is on the east shore of Uchuchklesit Inlet, which branches northwest of the lower reaches of Alberni Inlet. Adjacent to Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, the locality is by road and ferry about 120 kilometres (75 mi) southwest of Port Alberni.
Pacific Packing and Navigation Company is a defunct salmon-canning company which operated in the U.S. state of Alaska. Incorporated under the laws of New Jersey and backed by eastern capitalists, it was formed during the spring of 1901, the idea of Roland B. Onnfroy. It consolidate into one corporation the properties and privileges of other Alaska companies and firms. It proposed to capitalize the new corporation as follows: 6 per cent debentures, $7,000,000; 7 per cent cumulative preferred stock, $12,500,000; common stock, $12,500,000.
The Star of Bengal was an iron three-masted 1,877 GRT merchant sailing vessel built in Belfast in 1874 by Harland and Wolff Industries. Though built towards the end of the Age of Sail, she was successfully operated for 24 years by the British trading company J.P. Corry & Co. The ship mainly travelled on the London-Calcutta trading route, but made a few voyages to Australian and American ports.
The steamship General Frisbie was a wooden two-deck passenger ship built in 1900, named after John B. Frisbie. She was designed for use as a ferry between Vallejo and San Francisco. The steamer was successful in that role and was the fastest ship on the route when she began service. Improved roads, bridges, and automobiles reduced demand for ferry service in the Bay Area, and newer ships were optimized for transporting cars, so General Frisbie was retired in the late 1920s.
USFS Osprey was an American steamer that served as a fishery patrol vessel in the waters of the Territory of Alaska. She was in commission in the United States Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) from 1913 to 1921, and was the first vessel the BOF ever operated on fishery patrols in Alaska. Before the BOF purchased her, she was the commercial cannery tender Wigwam from 1895 to 1912. After her BOF career ended, she operated as a commercial motor tug with the name Foss No. 19 from 1922 to 1965 and with the name Kiowa from 1965 until she sank in 1978.
Nikola Bezmalinović, known as Nick Bez, was the founder of fishing, canning, and shipping companies in Juneau, Alaska. He operated the largest fishing ship at the time, the 423 ft. Pacific Explorer. He also owned and operated the Nornek cannery, two gold mines, Alaska Southern Packing Company, Peter Pan Seafoods, Alaska Southern Airways, Pacific Exploration Company and the Intercoastal Packing Company, as well as West Coast Airlines, which became part of Air West. He became known as a "rags to riches" entrepreneur. In 1919, Nikola Bezmalinović changed his name to Nick Bez. Bez died in 1969.