Alaska Packers' Association

The Alaska Packers Association (APA) was an American manufacturer of canned salmon founded in 1891 and sold in 1982.

Based in San Francisco, the APA was formed in 1891 as the Alaska salmon industry was growing and produced more canned salmon than the market could bear. The association was initially formed to sell off the surplus pack and it proved so successful that it incorporated in 1892 as the Alaska Packing (correct) Association to better manage canned salmon production to meet market demand. Of the original 31 member canneries across Alaska, 9 were idled that year. With minor changes, the association reincorporated as the Alaska Packers Association in 1893.

Henry Frederick Fortmann (1856-1946), owner of the Arctic Packing Company – one of the original member companies, served as APA president from its inception until 1922 and remained on the board until his death. Other presidents included William Timson and A.K. Tichnor.

As the industry later expanded, the APA emerged as the largest salmon packer in Alaska with canneries that stretched from Bristol Bay, Chignik, Karluk, Cook Inlet, and the Southeastern panhandle. The company’s various canneries were identified as “Diamonds” followed by an initial. The Diamond NC was their Clarks Point cannery (after its originator the Nushagak Canning Co.), the Diamond E (Egegik), Diamond J and X (Kvichak) Diamond W (Wrangell) and etc. On their boats and frequently in company correspondence the word diamond was omitted and a diamond was drawn around the cannery initial. The Diamond NN cannery in South Naknek built in 1894 is still in operation today.

Canned salmon was then as the largest industry in Alaska and produced over 80% of the territory’s tax revenues. The APA wielded considerable clout in the state capital and Washington DC, where the fishery was regulated by the Department of Commerce. That provoked resentment among many Alaskans who viewed the industry as selfish, ruthless and controlled by absentee landlords. Alaska Territorial Rep. Dan Sutherland reviled the APA as “the great monopolists of Bristol Bay.”

The APA used its clout to lessen the impacts of salmon regulations on the industry and reap other benefits. The company operated salmon hatcheries near Karluk and Ketchikan and took tax credits for the salmon smolt that were released. In 1907, the APA canned over $3 million worth of salmon and thanks to credits for hatchery releases that totaled over $32,000, owed just 32 cents in taxes, a bill they paid for with stamps.

To its credit, the APA came to the aid of Alaskans when needed. Its cannery hospitals provided medical care for neighboring Native residents and when the wold-wide influenza pandemic ravaged western Alaska in 1919, the APA helped bury the hundreds of dead, and provided care for the ill and orphaned children, even when the federal government did little to render aid. After a Navy Lieutenant inspected the situation in Bristol Bay and reported the conditions as “satisfactory,” the APA's Kvichak cannery superintendent J. C. Bell retorted, “We have not been able to fathom whether the conditions are satisfactory for them or the natives who are dead and buried … and as usual the job is up to the Alaska Packers Association.”

The APA merged with California Packing Corporation in 1916 (CalPack), a company involved in canned fruits and vegetables and Hawaiian pineapple and later reorganized under its premier brand name Del Monte. The APA later moved its headquarters to the Seattle area.

The company generally prospered through the 1930s as salmon production grew but many Alaska canneries were idled during World War II and never reopened. After the war, salmon runs declined for a variety of reasons including past overfishing, lax management and a general downturn in salmon survival due to a change in long-term climate cycles known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. Many APA canneries were 50 years old and in need of major modernization but CalPack accountants questioned the investment in rebuilding canneries when salmon runs were in decline and consumers’ tastes were turning from salmon to more cheap and abundant tuna.

Alaska salmon production remained generally poor throughout the 1950s, 60s, and early 70s by which time the company sought out. In 1982, when salmon runs showed signs of resurgence, most of the APA’s assets were sold to ConAgra of Omaha, Nebraska for an undisclosed amount. Many of these properties in Bristol Bay have since been acquired by Trident Seafoods.

The APA is perhaps best remembered for operating one of the last fleet of tall ships. Although this invoked the romance of the days of sail, reliance on wind rather than steam was a way for the company to economize. The salmon packing industry was a very seasonal business and old sailing ships were relatively cheap and available. Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, the APA began to replace its wooden ships with iron hulled vessels and bought a number of ships built by Harland & Wolff Co. in Belfast for J. P. Corry and the Indian jute trade. Corry called his vessels the “Star fleet” and named them after countries. The first of these vessels bought by the APA was the Star of Russia and they liked the name so much they incorporated this pattern with their other vessels, including the Star of Alaska, Star of Kodiak and etc.

Alaska’s notorious weather resulted in a number of accidents involving the sailing ships, most notably the sinking of the Star of Bengal on September 20, 1908. The vessel was towed out of Wrangell with the full cannery crew and over 50,000 cases of salmon. Upon reaching the outer coast, a gale blew up. The towboats cut their lines and the vessel’s anchors dragged. The 262 foot ship broke up on the rocks of Coronation Island and 111 people died, mostly Chinese and Japanese cannery workers. By 1930, most of the sailing ships were replaced with steam or diesel powered ships.

The initials APA are now used by the Seattle based At-Sea Processors Association, a trade association representing seven companies that own and operate 19 US flag catcher/processor vessels that principally operate in the Alaska pollock fishery and west coast Pacific whiting fishery, and has no connection to the earlier salmon cannery association.

The APA owned several ships, perhaps all renamed to have a name that starts with "Star of".

The Star of India is now ported in San Diego.

The Star of Alaska was originally named the Balclutha and has been given that name again and is ported in San Francisco.

The Star of Russia now lies in 40 metres of water in Port Vila harbour, Vanuatu and is a popular dive site.

Other ships, no longer afloat, of this series are:

* Star of Bengal
* Star of Alaska
* Star of England
* Star of Russia
* Star of France
* Star of Italy
* Star of Holland
* Star of Iceland
* Star of Scotland
* Star of Lapland
* Star of Finland
* Star of Greenland
* Star of Zealand
* Star of Poland
* Star of Falkland
* Star of Shetland