PACIFIC COD FISHERIES. , 35 
In 1897 the company sent to Bering Sea the brigantine Blakeley 
and the schooner Swan. ‘The vessels returned with full cargoes, and 
these were prepared for market at a plant the company had built in 
West Seattle. 
The Klondike rush had begun in 1897, and in 1898 the company 
became interested in the transportation business and diverted its ves- 
sels into this industry, in the course of which the schooner Swan was 
wrecked. In 1899 and 1900 the brigantine Blakeley was sent to the 
Bering Sea banks by the company, and returned each season with 
full cargoes. The business had not proved very profitable, however, 
and the company ceased operations in the latter year. 
In 1898 Mr. Fay, a Seattle lawyer, sent the schooner Lizzie S. Sor- 
renson (89 tons) to Bering Sea. She returned with a full cargo and 
the fish were worked up at a plant built at Richmond Beach. The 
venture could not have been very profitable, as only the one trip was 
made. The Lizzie S. Sorrenson was a comparatively small.schooner 
and her chief title to fame rests upon the unusual fate she eventually 
met. In 1909 the Tyee Co., which then operated a shore whaling 
station at Tyee, southeast Alaska, purchased the schooner, which was 
thereupon fitted with a gasoline engine and turned into a whaler. 
On May 10, 1910, a whale was sighted in the ocean about 8 miles 
southwest of Cape Addington. The vessel was cautiously worked 
to within gunshot and a harpoon driven into the animal. The 
weapon jailed to reach a vital spot, and after an effort to escape the 
gigantic mammal turned suddenly, and charging the vessel, struck 
her full in the stern. The impact knocked out a portion of the ves- 
sel’s bottom and she sank in a few minutes. 
The Seattle-Alaska Fish Co. began business in Seattle in 1902, 
using for its home station the old West Seattle plant of the Oceanic 
Packing Co. The first year the schooner Carrier Dove was the only 
vessel outfitted, but in 1903 the schooner Nellie Colman was added. 
In 1906 the latter vessel was sold, her place being taken by the 
schooner Maid of Orleans. Only the Carrier Dove was outfitted in 
1907, but in 1908 she was sold and the Maid of Orleans outfitted. In 
1910 the company was absorbed by the King & Winge Codfish Co., of 
Seattle. 
In 1904 the late Mr. W. F. Robinson, who had been connected with 
the New England fisheries for a number of years, and others bought 
the schooner Alice and, under the name of the Schooner Alice Co. 
(Inc.), sent her north. In 1905 the corporate name was changed to 
the Robinson Codfish Co., the schooner Joseph Russ purchased, and 
a large plant constructed at Anacortes, Wash. In 1911 the original 
plant was sold and another erected at once on the company’s prop- 
erty in connection with a by-products plant which they owned. In 
1912 the name of the company was changed to the Robinson Fisheries 
