ABOUT THE INSIDE PASSAGE
To quote Robert H. Miller from his book Kayaking The Inside Passage:
To quote Robert H. Miller from his book Kayaking The Inside Passage:
"The 'Inside Passage' became the Inside Passage during the Klondike gold rush of 1898. The name was coined, through common usage, to differentiate it from the 'Outside Passage.' Alaska-bound steamers, carrying hordes of would-be prospectors, instinctively avoided the sinuous channels, strong currents, and largely uncharted shoals of the Inside Passage, opting instead for the navigationally simpler open Pacific. Although both James Cook and especially George Vancouver had definitively charted most of the Inside Passage, their focus had been on possible Northwest Passages, not so much a north-south thoroughfare.
"As the avalanche of demand for passage to the goldfields gathered momentum, smaller boats -- oftentimes little better than motorized coracles -- owned and run by skippers desperate for any source of income started plying the more protected waters. The onset of winter weather on the Outside Passage, with its low-pressure fronts goose -stepping across the Gulf of Alaska like waves of Soviet Army battalions on a May Day parade, pummeled the big boats, which were now, with the increased demand, freighting in the off-season. They too would turn inside.
"Thus was the Inside Passage invested. Seattle became the preferred port of departure; Skagway the nearest harbor to the Yukon River, the terminus." (Miller, 27)
"As the avalanche of demand for passage to the goldfields gathered momentum, smaller boats -- oftentimes little better than motorized coracles -- owned and run by skippers desperate for any source of income started plying the more protected waters. The onset of winter weather on the Outside Passage, with its low-pressure fronts goose -stepping across the Gulf of Alaska like waves of Soviet Army battalions on a May Day parade, pummeled the big boats, which were now, with the increased demand, freighting in the off-season. They too would turn inside.
"Thus was the Inside Passage invested. Seattle became the preferred port of departure; Skagway the nearest harbor to the Yukon River, the terminus." (Miller, 27)
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Last updated April 9, 2015
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