On January 22, 1905, the steamship Minnesota sails for Asia with 300 passengers and the largest cargo to that point ever to cross the Pacific Ocean. Shipments range from "a paper of pins to a hogshead of tobacco to a bale of cotton to the heaviest architectural steel as well as engines and railroad cars" (Seattle P-I). The Minnesota and her sister ship the Dakota are owned by the Great Northern Steamship Company. The ship will call at Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, Shanghai, Manila, and Hong Kong.
The Minnesota sailed from the Great Northern's Smith Cove dock with 28,000 tons. The ship was the largest passenger ship operating in the Pacific at the time. It was 622 feet long and 73.5 feet across the beam, and had 11 decks. The Minnesota was launched in 1903 in Groton, Connecticut, and sailed the Pacific until 1917, when she was sold to the British government for service in World War I.
Sources:
"Minnesota Sails Sunday For Orient," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 21, 1905, p. 9; "Maritime Memories," Marine Digest, August 17, 1985, p. 6.
Licensing: This essay is licensed under a Creative Commons license that
encourages reproduction with attribution. Credit should be given to both
HistoryLink.org and to the author, and sources must be included with any
reproduction. Click the icon for more info. Please note that this
Creative Commons license applies to text only, and not to images. For
more information regarding individual photos or images, please contact
the source noted in the image credit.
Major Support for HistoryLink.org Provided
By:
The State of Washington | Patsy Bullitt Collins
| Paul G. Allen Family Foundation | Museum Of History & Industry
| 4Culture (King County Lodging Tax Revenue) | City of Seattle
| City of Bellevue | City of Tacoma | King County | The Peach
Foundation | Microsoft Corporation, Other Public and Private
Sponsors and Visitors Like You