We take for granted that Seattle is homeport to a large Alaska fishing fleet and a related multimillion-dollar fish and maritime industry. But that industry wouldn’t have happened if not for the purchase of Alaska from Russia — and that transaction might not have occurred without a big nudge from Washington’s pioneers.
It is little remembered today, but Seward’s Folly, as the Alaska annexation was called, happened when it did because of a prod from the legislature in Olympia. Yes, sometimes they get it right.
Let’s dial back to the mid-19th century. West Coast settlers fed on an abundance of seafood, like salmon, clams and oysters. Seafaring Indigenous peoples had been fishing and hunting sea mammals for generations. There was little incentive to go far afield for fish.
However, when New England whalers plied the waters of the North Pacific, reports filtered back that the region might be good fishing grounds too. Russian explorers as far back as 1765 had noticed lots of cod and other fish up there — so too had other 18th-century voyagers such as Captain James Cook, who reported his crew catching abundant cod and a 250-pound halibut.
Could the waters off Alaska be the Grand Banks of the Pacific? That didn’t start to hit home until San Francisco-based vessels began venturing forth. In the 1850s, they found cod in Puget Sound and off Vancouver Island and what were then known as the Queen Charlotte Islands off British Columbia. A few venturesome U.S. ships started to go as far as the Sea of Okhotsk between Japan and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Gold Rush San Francisco had a hearty appetite for cod, a staple fish back east. Cod has been credited with being “the fish that changed the world,” and if it turned out to be plentiful in the Pacific, that would be big news.
The Seattle Weekly Gazette carried a report from San Francisco that in 1863 “a single vessel wandered off to the then unknown bank, on an uncertain adventure, and in a round voyage of three months brought in a cargo of codfish which opened the eyes of some of our incredulous merchants.” This is reportedly the first instance of Pacific salt cod being landed on the West Coast. That same year, an American vessel, the Alert, visited Bristol Bay and returned with nine tons of cod in its hold.
In March 1865, a San Francisco schooner set off to fish off in the Aleutians. It sailed back with 30 tons of cod. The scale was eye-popping. Fishy gold had been struck!
But the Alaska fishing industry was slow to develop: It was remote, and there were good fish closer to home. Still, its potential was seized upon by an Irishman named Joseph Lane McDonald. He was an unsuccessful sailor, fisherman and ship’s carpenter who came west to California in the 1850s looking for commercial fishing and other opportunities. He eventually traveled north to Alaska and saw the possibilities. The problem he identified was the lack of a treaty arrangement giving American fishermen access to Russia’s Alaskan waters.
In 1859, McDonald began pushing President James Buchanan’s administration for such access through political channels. He also tried partnering with Russians in Sitka to arrange access, but that failed. McDonald settled in the young Washington Territory and served as a clerk in the territorial assembly. But his fish-inspired entrepreneurial dreams continued.
After the Civil War, which had put notions of buying Alaska on hold, he convinced the Washington Territorial legislature to write a formal request to the new president, Andrew Johnson, to assist in gaining legal access to Alaskan fish. Washington had the advantage of American proximity.
The document petitioned the president to “obtain such rights and privileges of the government of Russia, as will enable our fishing vessels to visit the harbors of its possessions … together with the privilege of taking and curing fish and repairing vessels.” The memo hit the desk of Secretary of State William Henry Seward, who had longingly looked at the possibility of acquiring Alaska. America was in a much better position than Russia to take advantage of Alaska’s resources. And Seward now had a document that offered proof of its value: The politicians of the Washington Territory were urging action.
In the era of Manifest Destiny, such things often did the trick. Seward, a sharp lawyer, knew how to make the most of Washington’s request. Shortly after receiving it in February 1866, Seward reopened communications with the Russians, saying that it was now time to make some “comprehensive arrangement” regarding Alaska, and negotiations began. Washington’s petition was used to make the case for Alaska’s commercial potential to skeptical members of Congress.
Getting Alaska wasn’t just a pipe dream, but a potential economic boon. Neither Washington nor Alaska had much of a commercial fishing industry at the time; it was based on McDonald’s belief in what could be. The truth is, Alaska was purchased not for gold, but for fish.
On April 1, 1867, The New York Times announced that a treaty with Russia had been signed to annex Alaska for $7.2 million, noting that it doubled the size of the U.S. West Coast. It also reprinted in full the request from Washington Territory, which Seward acknowledged as being the “foundation” of the Alaska purchase treaty.
Alaska’s fisheries were said to offer “imperishable riches,” and its purchase helped secure the financial future of the Pacific Northwest. The abundance of fish from the north is no longer considered imperishable, but it has been extraordinary. It has proved to be quite a catch.
