Kitsap County Transportation Company
| Predecessor | Hansen Transportation Company |
|---|---|
| Founded | Poulsbo, Washington, U.S. (1898) |
|
Area served
|
Puget Sound |
|
Key people
|
J.J. Hansen, A. Hostmark, Warren I. Gazzam, John L. Anderson |
The Kitsap County Transportation Company was an important steamboat and ferry company that operated on Puget Sound. The company was founded in 1898 as the Hansen Transportation Company.
The Kitsap County Transportation Company grew out of a business known as the Hansen Transportation Company. The founder of Hansen Transportation was Capt J.J. Hansen who moved to Tacoma from Minnesota in 1888. In Minnesota, and later in Boxton, North Dakota, J.J. Hansen had been in the business of selling farm equipment. J.J. Hansen had two sons who joined him in the steamboat business, Captains Henry A. Hansen and Ole L. Hansen (1875-1940), as well as a son-in-law, Capt. Alf Hostmark. The business was formally organized in 1898, but started earlier. Hansen Transportation initially acquired the steamer Quickstep and put it on the mail route between Port Madison and Poulsbo. Business proved good, and the business was able to acquire the Hattie Hansen, trading the Quickstep for machinery to build another steamboat, the Sentinel. The Hansens then become involved in a rate war with the Moe Brothers who were running the steamer Reliance on the Dogfish Bay route in against the Hansens' Sentinel.
The rate war was settled when Kitsap County businessman Warren I. "Colonel" Gazzam (b. 1863) bought Reliance. Gazzam also had some business allies acquire a major stake in the Hansen company. Gazzam arranged to have Reliance left on the Dogfish Bay route, while transferring Sentinel to a longer route, Harper – Colby – West Bainbridge Island – Brownsville. With Gazzam in charge as president, the company officially changed its name, in March 1905, to the Kitsap County Transportation Company. The company's official emblem as painted on the ships' smokestacks, was a white band (called a “collar”) painted around the stack, with the letter “K” in black or red on each side. The company was capitalized at $200,000.
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