The first “pleasure travelers” discovered the grandeur
of the Inside Passage by traveling on the few supply
ships that serviced the coast. But it was the 1897
Klondike gold strike that provided many steamship
companies with the opportunity to enter into service to
Alaska.
Most of these companies faded away by the end of the
gold rush. However, survivors such as the Alaska
Steamship Company kept busy with regular sailings up the
coast from Seattle through 1954.
During the First World War, tourism to Europe was cut
off. Many vacationers chose to stay closer to home and
Alaska was the logical choice. By the 1920s, steamship
lines and travel agents were promoting the journey along
the British Columbia and Alaska coasts as an ideal
holiday through the “Norway of North America”. Even
during the Great Depression of the ‘30s, steamship lines
maintained regular sailings to Alaska. However, the
Second World War disrupted service to the north and
ended tourist sailings for the duration of the conflict.
After World War II, tourism to Alaska began to boom. No
 longer a magnate for gold seekers, Skagway became a draw
for visitors, offering hotels, gift shops
and passage on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad. Some
tourists drove the wartime-built Alaska Highway up
through British Columbia. Others took floatplanes from
Juneau. But the time-honoured method of travel was still
by ship, although only a handful of vessels transited
the Inside Passage in the ‘50s.
One of the earliest companies was Chuck West’s Alaska
Cruise Line, operating the steamers Glacier Queen and
Yukon Star, and later Polar Star. A former bush pilot,
West founded his tour company in 1946 to introduce
tourists to Alaska’s wonders and wilderness. In 1957, he
helped inaugurate a new era of cruising, founding the
Alaska Cruise Line.
As tourism grew, so did the demand for more ships,
ultimately giving birth to the Alaska Marine Highway
System in 1960 and the addition of new ferries beginning
in 1963. The modern Alaska cruise ship industry was born
in 1960 and one of the first ships chartered was CPR’s
Princess Patricia. This would eventually lead to
the famous “Princess Cruises.”
From 1970 to 2002, cruise ship sailings along the Inside
Passage increased from 38 to 348 sailings per year.
Today cruising the Inside Passage to Alaska is one of
the world’s most popular cruises, after cruising in
Mexico and the Caribbean.
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