Captain John Laurentius Anderson was a preeminent figure in Washington state maritime industries in the first half of the twentieth century, particularly ferry service, shipbuilding, and ship-based tourism. He ran the largest ferry fleet on Lake Washington for three decades. He ran a large ferry fleet in Puget Sound. He built more than a dozen vessels at his shipyards, including the first ocean-going ship ever built on Lake Washington.
Early life
Anderson was born on November 11, 1868, in Gothenburg, Sweden. He was the eldest of four children in a seafaring family. Both his father, Anders Jacobson, and an uncle were mariners. At the age of 14, in 1882, he joined his uncle on one of his cargo vessels sailing across the Atlantic. On his second trip he was taken ill and was left in Quebec to recover. He made his way to Schrieber, Ontario, where he found a job with the Canadian Pacific Railway, managing a crew of painters.
Anderson arrived in Seattle at the age of 20 in 1888. He worked his way up in the maritime industry. He was a deckhand on George W. Elder, Olympian and Point Arena, on which he was promoted to fireman. He worked as fireman on the tug Rainier, owned by the Stetson and Post Lumber Company. He joined the crew of C.C. Calkins as a deckhand and rose to become captain after two years of service. His captain's pay was $100 per month. The economic problems caused by the Panic of 1893 resulted in C.C. Calkins''' owner taking her out of service. Captain Anderson lost his ship, but with the experience he gained and the money he saved, he was able to start his own steamboat business.
Steamboat operator (18921897) During this early phase of Anderson's career, he owned a single ferry and ran it as captain, a simple and common business model of the day.Winnifred was launched in 1892 from the shipyard of N. C. Peterson. Captain Anderson and James M. Colman owned the steamer as equal partners. She operated as a passenger ferry between Leschi Park in Seattle and Newcastle, on the east side of Lake Washington. The fare was 50 cents for a round trip. Winnifred burned at the dock at Leschi Park on September 12, 1894. Anderson blistered his feet trying to save her. While the ship was insured for $3,000, the partners had invested $4,500 in her.
Anderson made arrangements to replace Winnifred with Quickstep the day after the fire. He was quoted as saying that while they may be "slightly disfigured, they are still in the ring" and intended to keep the Leschi Park–Newcastle service running. Later that month, Anderson bought Quickstep and he recommenced the Newcastle service on September 27, 1894. Anderson ran three roundtrips per day for passengers and freight. He was an early and life-long proponent of excursion trips on Lake Washington, so Quickstep also ran an evening cruise around Mercer Island every day except Sunday. Early on Sunday January 3, 1897, Quickstep caught fire while tied to her dock at Leschi Park. She was cut loose and floated out into Lake Washington so that the flames would not spread. She burned to the waterline and was a complete loss. She was insured for $1,500.
Steamboat entrepreneur (18971904) As Anderson's skills, experience, and industry connections grew, he branched out to become a marine project manager, ship broker, and deal maker, as well as a ship captain. His projects were opportunistic, taking advantage of various commercial situations as he found them. Anderson bought and sold ships quickly, and reported that, "every time I sold I made money." In January 1897, Anderson let a contract to N. C. Peterson to build a replacement for Quickstep, which was christened Lady of the Lake. The new ship incorporated the engine from Quickstep, which was salvaged after the fire. By June, 1897, Anderson was sailing his old route from Leschi Park to Newcastle to East Seattle on Mercer Island with his new ship. By August 1897, however, he had sold his new ship to C. E. Curtis of Whatcom for $4,700, and bought Curtis' smaller ship, the steamer Effort, for $17. Captain Anderson ran Effort between Olympia, Shelton, and Tacoma, in south Puget Sound in 1897.
Anderson had the steamer Leschi built during the winter of 1897-1898. She was launched in March 1898. One source reports that Anderson intended to use the vessel as a passenger ferry on Lake Washington. In any case, he sold the vessel to the U.S. Government for $2,500 almost immediately upon her completion. Leschi became the steam launch Lillie, part of the Quartermaster's Department of the United States Army.
After the sale of Leschi, Anderson had the steamer Acme built by Gustavus V. Johnson at his Lake Washington Shipyard. She was completed in June 1899. She provided ferry service from Leschi Park to Madison Park. Acme was the flagship of a Lake Washington flotilla in honor of the Washington State Press Association on July 12, 1899. Anderson sold Acme in the fall of 1899, likely in October when press reports noted that he was replaced as master of the vessel. At about the same, he came into possession of City of Renton which he sold to Harrie E. Tompkins for $1,000 on August 21, 1900.
Anderson's next project was one of his most complex. The Inland Flyer was built in Portland for service on the Columbia River. Her sea trials began in September 1898 and mechanical problems arose immediately. Federal steamboat inspectors required changes in her equipment soon after her launch. Her machinery, built by the Marine Ironworks of Chicago, never gave satisfaction and was removed. Her hull was moored, awaiting a solution to her mechanical problems, when Anderson came upon her during a visit to Portland in 1900. Anderson arranged for the Dalles, Portland & Astoria Navigation Company to sell the hull to the La Connor Trading and Transportation Company in December 1900. He had the engine from Cyrene removed and then supervised its installation in Inland Flyer. In February 1901, he sailed her from Portland to Seattle in only two days, perhaps a record for a vessel of her size. Inland Flyer completed her fitting our in Seattle prior to beginning her service as a ferry in Puget Sound.
Anderson found a profitable niche purchasing large yachts. He purchased Elsinore from Seattle jeweler Albert Hansen. On March 28, 1903, he sold her for $3,000 to George A. Jenkins for use on Lake Whatcom. In March 1900, Anderson bought the steam yacht Cyrene from Lawrence J. Colman, son of his partner in Winnifred, James M. Colman. After installing her original engine in Inland Flyer, he had a new one built for Cyrene. Instead of selling her and moving on to the next project, Anderson sailed her from Puget Sound to Lake Washington and ran passenger ferry and excursion trips. On February 21, 1903, Anderson took over James M. Colman's yacht Xanthus and moved her to Lake Washington as well. By July 1903, Anderson was providing scheduled passenger ferry service with Cyrene and Xanthus running between Madison Park, Madrona Park, and Leschi Park every half hour. After the busy 1903 summer season on the lake, Anderson had Cyrene lengthened from to at a cost of $4,000.
In June 1904 the sternwheel steamboat Mercer was launched in Lake Washington. Anderson had the ship built for the ferry run between Leschi Park, East Seattle on Mercer Island, and various points on Mercer Slough. Mercer also ran daily excursion trips around Mercer Island from Leschi Park. On October 30, 1905, Captain Anderson contracted for the construction of Fortuna. He was quoted at the time saying, "travel on Lake Washington has increased to such an extent that this new steamer has become a necessity. It has been my ambition to have a fast steamer for excursion purposes."
Lake Washington Operations
Anderson Steamboat Company (1905–1917) Rather than buying and selling vessels, or overseeing their construction for others, as he had been doing since 1897, by 1902 Anderson was building his own fleet. In this phase of his career, he was managing a large and growing company of increasing complexity. In 1905 he began advertising as the Anderson Steamboat Company for the first time.
In late 1906 the Anderson Steamboat Company was incorporated in Washington State with a capital stock of $200,000. The directors included John L. Anderson, Captain Harrie E. Tompkins, and bankers Jacob Furth and J. F. Lane. On November 27, 1906, Anderson announced a merger between Anderson Steamboat Company and B. & T. Transportation Company, owned by Captains George Bartsch and Harrie E. Tompkins. The merger was executed on December 31, 1906. The combined company had a near-monopoly on ferry service on Lake Washington, including King County, which was owned by King County, but leased to Bartsch and Tompkins. Anderson Steamboat Company contributed the steamers Cyrene, Xanthus, Fortuna, and Mercer, the launch Ramona, and the tug Hornet. In addition to the King County charter, B. & T. Transportation contributed steamers Gazelle, and Dorothy, the launch Avis, and the tug Success. Bartsch and Tompkins received stock in Anderson Steamboat Company in return for their ships. Anderson was president, and Tompkins was manager of the merged organization.
The shipping business on Lake Washington boomed. There were so many customers that Anderson Steamboat Company was fined in 1907 for overloading both Cyrene and Xanthus. Anderson ordered two new ships, Urania, and Atlanta, to meet the demand. In discussing the expansion of his fleet, Anderson said, "I believe business on Lake Washington will this year be double that of any previous year".
In March 1907 King County was taken out of service. Federal marine inspectors found rot throughout her decks and planking. As if to underline the seriousness of her deficiencies, she sank at her dock on May 20, 1907. She had been running between Kirkland and Madison Park, one of the longer routes on Lake Washington. The loss of King County was an emergency for people and businesses in the Kirkland area. Public pressure caused the county commissioners to act. When King County was operated by Anderson Steamboat Company, the county provided a subsidy of $200 per month. In March 1908, Captain Anderson secured a $300 per month subsidy from King County in return for running his own ships on the route until the county's new ferry, Washington, could be launched and put into service later that year. Since the county had only one ship, whenever Washington was taken off her route for repairs, it came to Anderson to fill the gap. There was often wrangling over a fair rate of reimbursement for this temporary work. Anderson's fleet had become so important to the area that he spent the rest of his career financially and politically involved, and often in conflict, with local governments.
The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition was planned for the summer of 1909. Importantly for John Anderson, the "water gate" of the Exposition grounds was a pier on Union Bay in Lake Washington. Anderson secured exclusive access to this pier, the only one on the Exposition grounds. Two competitors, the Interlaken and Laurelhurst Steamship Companies, arranged to use a dock nearby. Transporting tourists to the Exposition and lake excursions by visitors at the Exposition were business opportunities that exceeded the capacity of the Anderson Steamboat Company fleet. Captain Anderson built two more ships, Triton and Aquilo, both of which launched in May 1909, just in time for the Exposition's opening in June. The crowds were huge, over 3 million visitors before the end of the event. Anderson's ships were packed. In fact, Aquilo was fined for exceeding her licensed passenger capacity on opening day.