Black Ball Line
Black Ball Line or
Blackball Line can refer to several different things:
The
Black Ball Line was a fleet of
clipper ships running between
Liverpool and
New York, the first scheduled
trans-Atlantic service, founded in
1817. In operation for some 60 years, it took its name from its flag, a black ball on a red background. The line was founded by a group of
New York Quaker merchants headed by Jeremiah Thompson, and included Isaac Wright & Son, Francis Thompson and Benjamin Marshall.
The
Black Ball Line was the name chosen in
1928 by a descendant of the Marshall family for the
Puget Sound Navigation Company (PSNC), which operated a fleet of ferries on
Puget Sound and the
Strait of Georgia in
British Columbia and
Washington.
PSNC began to struggle following
World War II, as operating costs increased and its unions threatened strike action. Following a long series of court battles, PSNC's domestic operations assets were purchased by the state of Washington's Department of Transportation for the sum of $4.9 million in early
1951, creating
Washington State Ferries on
May 31.
PSNC retained the assets used in their Canadian operations and after the
1951 downsizing, operated a much-reduced fleet as
Black Ball Ferries, Ltd. This company sold most of its assets to the provincial government of British Columbia in
1960, creating
BC Ferries.
The current descendant of the Black Ball Line,
Blackball Transport, Inc., was founded in
1936 from
Black Ball Freight Service, a road transport subsidiary of PSNC. Blackball Transport owns and operates a single ferry, the M/V
Coho between
Victoria, British Columbia and
Port Angeles, Washington. Built in
1959, the
Coho is 341 ft. (approx. 104 m) long, and can carry 1000 passengers and 110 vehicles.
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Black Ball Transport Inc
