Setting Sail: The First Trip on the Sidney-Anacortes Ferry

^{An Anacortes-Victoria Float at Bellingham Tulip Festival}

On April 26th, 1922, our town’s history was changed forever when the MV GLEANER and MV HARVESTER KING took to the seas from Ocean Wharf on Q Avenue; the two converted steamers, together carrying a load of 23 automobiles and 175 eager passengers, voyaged first through the San Juan Islands, before landing at their destination of Sidney, B.C. There the two different countries celebrated their new maritime connection; Canadians sang along to America The Beautiful and the Americans in turn sang God Save The King. This was the beginning of the Sidney-Anacortes auto ferry, an institution and friendship that has lasted a century. In that time it has come to define much of Anacortes’ tourist economy and identity, placing Anacortes directly on the international highway and giving it the title of the “Gateway to the San Juans.” 

“After fighting for many years for a place on a principal highway, Anacortes has secured an important position on an international road and waterway that will give her a big place in the eyes of thousands of tourists.”

Anacortes American – March 9th, 1922

The inaugural trip was the result of years of planning in Anacortes and Sidney, both fighting to establish their smaller, less assuming communities as must see spots for those traveling to the Pacific Northwest. Access to Vancouver Island was at this point severely limited. Boats in the Mosquito Fleet that had long served the ferrying needs of the area were small, uncomfortable, and ran mainly on request. More importantly they often could not carry automobiles, much less multiple of them at a time. As the automobile emerged as America’s go to form of transportation, the Mosquito Fleet seemed destined for the boneyard. There were auto ferries that operated out of Vancouver and Port Angeles, but their accommodations were less than stellar. A large car could not be taken to the island at all, and a medium sized car would have to have its top and windshield removed, or its tires deflated in order to fit – all to the tune of $42 for a round trip with a car driver and four passengers, a small fortune to pay back then. Large scale visitation and tourism of the San Juans and Vancouver Island was not really an option, the bodies of water that separated the islands were simply too much of an obstacle.

Residents of both Vancouver Island and Anacortes knew that if they could just give people the means and reason to visit their communities they would be hooked. The beauty was there, as was the adventure, but that didn’t mean anything if you couldn’t take your car to it. Few understood this better than Captain Harry Crosby, who would be the first owner of the Anacortes-Sidney ferry system. Crosby was a young entrepreneur that saw great promise in Anacortes as a ferry capital in the Northwest, and an Anacortes-Sidney route was the perfect start. The route was simple but featured beautiful views of the San Juan Islands, making it ideal not only for practical trips across the water but for pleasure cruises as well. Anacortes and Sidney both were quick to jump on board with the idea, as was the larger city of Victoria, B.C., which, being a quick half hour drive south of Sidney, was to be the main destination for most international travelers. 

An international team was assembled to make the project a reality which included organizations both governmental and maritime from each of the three communities. Captains Crosby and William H. Kasch raised money to buy the first ferry that would be put on the route, a refurbished kelp dredger called the HARVESTER. George I. Warren of the Victoria and Islands Publicity Bureau followed up by buying the popular excursion steamer GLEANER that ran from Mt. Vernon to Seattle on the Skagit River. While neither was an ideal candidate for the new ferry route, both were small and not originally built to host cars, the two would work well as a test of the Anacortes-Sidney concept.