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People's Steamship Navigation Company
by John M. MacFarlane 2011
Incorporated in May 1884 their intended aim was to compete head-on with the Canadian Pacific Navigation Co. of which John Irving was the Manager since its inception. The People's Steamship Navigation Company was managed by John H. Turner and H. Beeton of Victoria and they held 27% of the shares sold in 1884. Some of the investors were Nanaimo and Chemainus business men who purchased shares. Half came from Nanaimo (46% of the shares). Another shareholder was Joseph Webb.
In 1885 the PSNC purchased the steamer Amelia and put her on the Nanaimo route in opposition to the CPN steamer R.P. Rithet. The Amelia was a sidewheeler built in San Francisco for the Sacramento River service. The company had to pay customs duty at the border of 10% on the value of the hull and 25% on the machinery.
The competition was good for passengers, as ticket prices dropped 25%. The CPN agreed to withdraw from competition in favour of a 25% share of the fares. When the E & N railway reached Nanaimo the sea route immediately became uneconomical. In 1889 Irving purchased the Amelia at auction. After a long and bitter battle between the two companies, with no assets, the company went out of business.
To quote from this article please cite:
MacFarlane, John M. (2011) People's Steamship Navigation Company. Nauticapedia.ca 2011. http://nauticapedia.ca/Articles/Peoples Steamship Navigation Co.php
Site News: November 20, 2024
The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,591 vessel histories (with 16,203 images and 13,900 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).
Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 40,000 processed so far this year.
The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).
Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.
My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.
Also my special thanks to my volunteer content accuracy checker, John Spivey of Irvine CA USA, who continues (almost every day for the last couple of years) to proof read thousands of Nauticapedia vessel histories and provided input to improve more than 14,000 entries. His attention to detail has been a huge unexpected bonus in improving and updating the vessel detail content.