The Wrangell sentinel., 1954-06-25
THROUGH THE SENTINEL PERISCOPE
No Passenger Ships 2

Within the next 10 days or two weeks there probably will be an announcement from the Alaska Steamship Company as to whether 1t will continue passenger ship ser vice to Alaska ports The picture isn't particularly bright. Some of the reasons why passenger ships are vanishing from the maritime scene were pointed out last Friday in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in it's Captain Barnac1e column. Ind CT the heading "Old Passenger Ships Hearing Death Knell," the Captain put it in these words:
 Lo, the grand old American pas senger ship.
 Everyone lOveth to dream of it and to talk of it and to wave at it as he wateheth it from shore or zoometh over it in an airplane.
 But dreaming won't keep a ship running. and the way things are going, the old domestic American passenger ship may soon be dead as a dodo. On international runs where American ships are subsi- dized to compete with low-cost foreign lines, the U. s. ships will keep rolling. On runs between U. S. ports, where Uncle Sam doesn't pick up part. of the tab, it looks like just a matter of time for the passenger ship.
 If Alaska Steamship Co., goes out of the passenger business that will mark just about the end of ocean passenger service between U. S. ports.
 Until the mid-1930's more than 50 passenger ships used to operate between U. s. ports. Today there are five. Four are operated out of Seat tie by Alaska Steam. The fifth is Watson Lines Lurline between San Francisco and Hawaii.
 The rest are gone.
 Coastwise passenger ships like Pacific7American's II. F. Alexander and the Ruth and Emma Alexan- der, of course, sailed their last late in the 1930s
 Grace Line suspended it's inter- coastal passenger service with con- scription of it's ships in World War II. After the war, Grace didn't try to resume it's passenger runs be- tween San Francisco and the East Coast. Ships which came back after the war were shifted to inter- national runs South America and the Caribbean) where it could qualify for federal subsidies
 So only a few are left, and they may not be here long.
 High American operating costs with emphasis on abor, are res. ponsible for much of the slump Mounting construction costs played a part. So did a handy little pas. senger bearing device called the airplane
 Now Alaska Steam is trying to find a way to keep it's passenger service in the face of all this. Al Shyman's Alaska Division of the Chamber of Commerce is trying to help mastermind way to keep the passenger ships sailing. Up North, lot of Alaskans are cudgel- ing their brains, too. Those Alaska passenger ships mean lot to the Territory and to the Pacific North west.
 Finding a way won't be easy The SS Lurline, sailing almost full every voyage between San Francis co and Hawaii just manages to nose into the profit column.
 Alaska Steam's summer cruises, too, sail chockablock full, but its off-season voyages don't pull. The customers all are staying at home in the family igloo or taking an airplane, thank you.
 So Alaska Steam's lost money the past five years on its passenger runs, $4OO.OO0 last year.
 In the next month the company probably will announce what it's
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