Puget Sound & Alaska Steamship Co. - 1890's circa Unissued Gorgeous Brown Stock Certificate - Part of the Northern Pacific Railroad Archive

Brown Unissued Variety. Operating from 1889-1904 as a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the company ran a steamship line from Tacoma servicing Puget Sound and Alaska. A number of prominent investors owned shares in the company such as John D. Rockefeller and William Rockefeller.

In relation to the Puget Sound and Alaska Steamship Co, the Alaska Steamship Company was formed on August 3, 1894. While it originally set out to ship passengers and fishing products, the Alaska Steamship Company began shipping mining equipment, dog sleds, and cattle at the outbreak of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897. The company was purchased by the Alaska Syndicate and merged with the Northwestern Steamship Company in 1909, but retained its name, and the fleet was expanded to 18 ships. During World War II, the government took over the company's ships. When the war ended, the company struggled to compete with the new Alaska Highway for passengers and freight. It discontinued passenger service altogether in 1954 and shut down operations in 1971. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Steamship_Company