PORT OF SEATTLE
MEMORANDUM
COMMISSION AGENDA
Item No.
4a
Date of Meeting
November 1, 2011
DATE: October 24, 2011
TO: Tay Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer
FROM: Jane Kilburn, Director, Public Affairs
SUBJECT: Special Order of Business: The Port Centennial 1911-2011
The relationship between Seattle and the cruise industry is long-standing, and the Port of Seattle
has been involved for much of its 100-plus-year history. Pacific Steamship and Alaskan
Steamship Companies were just two of the most successful operators of passenger cruises
originating in Seattle in the late 1800s. Regular boat service to Alaska began as early as 1867.
The steamship companies’ primary business was commerce, and in 1886, the ANCON brought
$35,000 in gold from Alaska. In 1917, the Port reported nearly 1.8 million passengers arrived
and 1.7 million passengers departed from the Seattle Harbor. The Jones Act of 1920 aided in the
success of the two steamship companies, as it prohibited foreign-flagged vessels from
transferring passengers and goods between two U.S. ports.
As the closest Port to Asia, Seattle was a natural fit for passenger service to the Far East. The
Pacific Steamship Company and the Admiral Oriental Line, which later became the American
Mail Line, took on the task. The plush interiors of the ships offered passengers luxurious homes
away from home. In 1926, the American Mail Line operated the principal passenger service to
Asia.
The Great Depression immensely affected the trade and passenger service through the Port of
Seattle. During the Second World War, most of the passenger ships were taken over by the War
Administration. A major change in the shipping industry occurred as a result of the fighting, and
the number of ships serving Alaska after the war, which included many of the passenger ships,
was reduced to only seven.
Passenger service was revived in 1946 with Alaska Steamship’s ALASKA, and the company
began its emphasis on tourism. Refreshed by the ending of the war, the Port of Seattle was
onboard to ensure the waterfront would have the proper facilities to accommodate the resurgence
in the cruise industry. During this time, Alaska Steamship Company operated out of the Port’s
Pier 42, now Terminal 46.
As the airline industry began to take off in the 1950s, steamship passenger numbers tapered. This
change in transportation mode, accompanied by labor issues and the termination of charter
privileges and subsidy payments, prompted an end to much of the travel by boat. In 1954,
Alaska Steamship sailed its last voyage to Alaska. It was also the year that the Port’s present
COMMISSION AGENDA
T. Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer
October 24, 2011
Page 2 of 2
CEO, Tay Yoshitani, arrived in Seattle as a child with his family from Yokohama, Japan aboard
the Hikawa-Maru.
The Port re-entered the cruise business in 1999 after signing a deal with the Norwegian Cruise
Lines effective for the 2000 cruise season and improving the facilities at Bell Street Pier Cruise
Terminal at Pier 66. Today, the Port of Seattle operates a total of three berths at the Smith Cove
Cruise Terminal at Terminal 91 and at Pier 66, with six cruise lines serving Seattle this year.
The 2011 cruise season finished stronger than expected, with 10 homeported vessels and nine
ports of call making up the 196 ship calls at the Port of Seattle. A total of 885,949 revenue
passengers moved through the two cruise terminals, maintaining the consistently high volumes
demonstrated over the past five years while solidifying Seattle as a preferred port of origin for
Alaska-bound cruises.
Today, each ship call leaves behind about $1.9 million in our local economy. The local cruise
industry is estimated to have generated $425 million in business revenue, $18.9 million in state
and local taxes and 4,447 jobs in 2011. Those numbers are expected to increase with the addition
of Disney Cruise Line home-porting in Seattle for the 2012 cruise season, which will feature the
Disney Wonder, scheduled for 15 voyages to the Alaska market.
OTHER DOCUMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SPECIAL ORDER:
PowerPoint presentation
