Sailing Ships

Sailing Ships. . , Port Townsend's strategic location at the entrance to Puget Sound won it the U.S. Customs Service headquarters in 1854, just three years after the town was established., Every vessel entering Puget Sound from any foreign port was required to stop in Port Townsend for inspection and to pay taxes on imported goods., By the 1880s, trade ships were arriving daily from all over the world, stopping to unload and reload passengers and merchandise, clearing customs, hiring new crews and refitting and resupplying for the next voyage., Fortunes were made on all aspects of maritime enterprises, legal or otherwise. At one point, there was a bar for every 75 residents and most of the city's income came from the sale of liquor licenses. Port Townsend was often a ship's first stop after months at sea. In 1888 alone, nearly a 1,000 vessels with more than 800,000 tons of cargo cleared customs in Port Townsend; ship owners and sailors spent an estimated $4 million., The entire region was covered in forest, right down to the water's edge and the California gold rush assured a booming market for lumber., Sawmills sprang up throughout the Puget Sound region. Lumber was moved to market on aging sailing ships. As steamships gained prominence, sailing craft were dismasted and pressed into service as lumber barges., Port Townsend went bust after the anticipated railroad failed to arrive and as steamships replaced wind-powered craft, eliminating the city's geographic advantage., In the mid-1890s the town's population fell from 8,000 to 2,000 almost overnight, leaving its grand new brick buildings empty and, in many cases, unfinished., In 1911 the federal government moved U.S. Customs Service operations to Seattle., [Photo captions, from top left to bottom right, read] , . Bustling with boats, Port Townsend Bay and town from the water, as depicted by itinerant painter Charles Christian Eisele (1854-1919)., . Steam-powered tugboats did a big business towing sailing ships through the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound. On the tug "Wanderer" Captain H.H. Morrison (center) and crew of the Puget Sound Tugboat Company tow (left to right) "Courtney Ford," "Eric," and "Portland.", . "USRS Grant," steam and sail powered revenue cutter; with the Customs House on the bluff. A black market flourished, keeping the Customs Collector's powerful revenue cutters busy trying to catch smugglers., . The town's bars, bordellos, theaters and boarding houses catered to emptying the pockets of recently-paid sailors., . A 1901 sailing regatta in Port Townsend Bay.