of Puget Sound Navigation Company (1898–1927) In the past, the company operated an entire fleet of steamboats and
ferries on
Puget Sound in
Washington and the
Georgia Strait in
British Columbia. Known colloquially as the
Black Ball Line, the PSNC achieved a "virtual monopoly" on cross-sound traffic in the 1930s and competed with the
Canadian Pacific Railway's steamships on several routes. The company's trade name was inspired by the
Black Ball Line which began scheduled passenger and freight service in 1818 with four sailing ships between New York and Liverpool. In 1884, the grandson of one of the founders, Charles Peabody, moved to Port Townsend Washington. Under modified Black Ball flag, he began the Alaska Steamship Company. PSNC began to struggle following
World War II, as operating costs increased. PSNC petitioned the State Utilities Commission for permission to raise its fares, but was rebuffed. Following a long series of court battles, PSNC's unionized employees finally called a strike. The company responded not by hiring strike breakers, but by halting operations, hoping public pressure would convince the State to permit a fare increase. The State declined to intervene, and PSNC eventually sold its domestic operations assets to the state of Washington's Department of Transportation for the sum of $4.9 million in early 1951, creating
Washington State Ferries on May 31. PSNC retained the assets used in their Canadian operations and, after the 1951 downsizing, operated a much-reduced fleet of five ships as Black Ball Ferries, Ltd. on routes between
Vancouver and
Nanaimo, and across
Howe Sound and
Jervis Inlet. The first all-Canadian route began on August 11, 1951 and was between Horseshoe Bay (in West Vancouver) and Gibsons Landing on BC's Sunshine Coast. In November 1961, this company sold most of its assets to
BC Ferries, which had commenced operations in June 1960 as a division of the British Columbia Toll Highways and Bridges Authority, a
Crown corporation of the British Columbia provincial government. The current descendant of the Black Ball Line is Black Ball Ferry Line, which currently operates only one route across the
Strait of Juan de Fuca, between
Port Angeles and
Victoria, using the
MV Coho, built in 1959. Originally Black Ball Line had a second service known as Black Ball Freight Service which was a subsidiary of the Puget Sound Navigation. It is unclear when the subsidiary was created. In 1936 R.J. Acheson purchased the subsidiary. In 1952, Acheson and his wife organized a new subsidiary of Black Ball Freight Service, naming it Black Ball Transport, Inc. By 2008 Black Ball Transport was renamed to its current name. Black Ball Freight Service ended in 2008. ==Acquisitions ==