TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Sitka, under the Muscovite, existed because of the fur trade, and every
energy and interest centered on the gathering of peltries from every
available quarter. Sailing ships moved in and out of the harbor, taken
to their moorings or out to sea by the harbor tug; some from Michaelovsk
with the beaver and martin from the Yukon, others _en route_ to
California or to the Sandwich Islands; the supply ships from Kronstadt
around Cape Horn or returning via Canton and the Cape of Good Hope laden
with furs; still others bound for the Kuril Islands or Okhotsk. The
steamer "Nikolai" plied along the passages of the Alexander Archipelago,
exploring the inlets, surveying the bays and rivers, gathering furs,
always furs, for that was the reason for their living on this distant
shore.[15]
[Illustration: Sitka in 1860, Near the Close of the Russian
Administration.]
Near the entrance to the Kolosh village was the market where the natives
were permitted to trade. There they brought their game and fish, their
furs and baskets, to trade for calico and beads, blankets and
ammunition.[16] This market was closed by a portcullised door which
permitted entrance through the stockaded wall, and was enclosed by a
railed yard. Armed guards stood on duty, and at the least dispute in the
market, down came the door and they proceeded to punish the delinquents.
The warehouses were stored with thousands on thousands of the richest
furs of the Northland; sea-otter, worth today from $800 to $1,000 per
skin, and not to be had at any price, were numbered by thousands in the
earlier years; sealskins by shiploads, some killed off the harbor, but
mainly from the Seal Islands; of land otter, the Hudson's Bay Company
paid them two thousand skins each year for the lease of the territory
from Portland Canal to Cape Spencer. The martin, the American sable,
with its fluffy pelage. Foxes, blue, white, black, silver gray, red and
cross, were there by thousands, brought from the Arctic, from the
Aleutian Islands, from the Valley of the Yukon; mink, ermine, muskrat,
beaver, land otter, pile on pile. Tons of ivory from the walrus herds of
Morzhovia and bearskins and wolfskins from Cook Inlet and the Copper
River. The right to the fur trade belonged exclusively to the Company by
Royal ukase, and any employe who was found attempting to infringe on
their rights was arrested and sent to Russia for punishment.[17]
From the top of the Castle, over 100 feet above the sea, a light burned
as a beacon to mariners entering the harbor, and this was the first
light-house to throw its beams over the waters of this northern ocean.
In the cupola which rose from the roof were four little square cups into
which seal oil was poured and wicks burned in grooves rising from them,
while back of the flame was a reflector that threw the light far out to
sea among the islands.
The stock of goods in the magazines was large and varied. It covered
almost every article carried in the general European trade as a
necessity, and many of the luxuries--sugar and sealing wax, tobacco,
both Virginia and Kirghis, silk and broadcloth, calico and Flemish
linen, ravens duck and frieze, arshins of blankets and poods of yarn;
vedras of rum, cognac and gin; butter from the Yakut, from California
and from Kodiak; salt beef from Ross Colony, from England and from
Kodiak; beaver hats and cotton socks.
In the arsenal were kept about a thousand muskets, three hundred
pistols, two hundred rifles, as well as sabres, cutlasses, etc., while
four fire engines provided against loss by conflagration. Some rare
weapons were also found there. A saber set with gems valued at 560
rubles; a Persian carbine of a value of 450 rubles; two Persian
yatighans, silver mounted; a Damascus saber, and two Persian pistols,
silver mounted.
The soldiers' guns were for a great part of French or English
workmanship; rockets and false-fire for signalling ships were made each
year.
Tallow for candles was brought from California, moulded at the port and
distributed so many candles to each employe according to their presumed
needs each month.
Liquors, generally rum, were served by the Company, a drink twice a
week, extra allowance being made on difficult work and also for
holidays. All kinds of devices were resorted to by individuals in order
to get rum, and one author says that a pair of boots for which the
makers would demand ten rubles might be secured in barter for a bottle
of rum worth three rubles.
The soldiers stationed at the fort when not on duty were employed by the
Company and given a special compensation for their labor. Some of the
soldiers and hunters by their industry and thrift accumulated
considerable money which the Company held to their account and either
paid to them on their discharge or sent home to Russia for them. Others
spent their earnings, were continually in debt to the Company, and as
their contract provided that they were not to be discharged while in
arrears of debt, some of them served the remainder of their lives with
no hope of return to Russia.
Around the hill ran a parapet and sentries walked their beat night and
day. On the stockade which enclosed the town from the beach at the edge
of the "Ranche" to the shore beyond the sawmill, making with the shore
line an irregular rectangle, also walked the sentinels on their vigil,
for the Thlingit at the gates was at all times an enemy to be feared.
Strict military discipline was maintained at all times. At the foot of
the hill were clustered barracks, storehouses, bakeries, warehouses,
etc., for the use of the garrison and workmen. The old structure which
was used as a bakery, and for shops, was later known as the Sitka
Trading Company's building, and has recently been removed. The barracks
are at present the jail, and the Russian counting house is today the
postoffice of the United States. The fur warehouse stood to the west of
the hill and was torn down in 1897-8, while the landing warehouse on the
wharf was burned in 1916. These were all built about the time of the
incumbency of Etolin, and that time might be termed the Golden Age of
the Colony. Ships were being built, the fur trade was still prosperous,
new explorations were being made into the interior of the country, trade
was being extended into the Yukon Valley and there was an active
interest in all the industries of the settlement. There were men of many
trades, engineers, cabinet makers, jewelers, tailors, builders, etc.,
and an efficient machine shop constructed engines to equip the vessels
constructed in the shipyard. Plowshares and spades for the Spanish
farmers in California were forged and bells for the Franciscan missions
were cast here. The first steam vessel to be built on the shore of the
North Pacific Ocean was constructed at Sitka, for, before 1840 the whole
of the machinery for a tug of seven horsepower, as well as of two
pleasure boats had been constructed here. The steamer "Nikolai" of 70
horsepower was built and equipped with the exception of the boilers
which were brought from New York. The ship ways at Sitka was the
repairing place for many a vessel in the days of the gold seekers in the
valleys of California.
Two sawmills, one near the site of the present mill, the other on
Kirenski River, now called Sawmill Creek,[18] cut the lumber for the
settlement and for export. Two flouring mills, one in Sitka, the other
at the Ozerskoe Redoubt on Globokoe[19] (Deep) Lake, ground the
breadstuffs. A tannery furnished the leather for shoes, made from
California hides, and also prepared the _lavtaks_ for the bidarkas
for the seal and sea-otter hunters. The burrs for the Sitka mill were of
the finest French stone but those at the Redoubt were cut from the
granite found on the lake shore.[20]
A hospital of forty beds provided for the comfort of the sick, of which
Governor Simpson said: "The institution in question would do no disgrace
to England."
Brickyards were maintained, ice was cut on the lakes and at times
shipped to California. The ice-houses were near the outlet of Swan Lake
and were of a capacity of 3,000 tons.
One day in the spring of 1852 the American ship "Bacchus" came into
Sitka to purchase a cargo of ice. All the ice for San Francisco had to
this time been brought in the hold of sailing ships around Cape Horn
from Boston and the idea of getting the supply from Sitka was conceived.
From the Company's icehouses was laden on the ship 250 tons, and this
was the beginning of a trade during the year of not less than 1800 tons
at an average price of about $25.00 per ton. A Company was organized in
San Francisco for carrying on the trade and it was known as "the Ice
Company." The ice on the lake was not of sufficient thickness owing to
the fact that four degrees below zero is the coldest record ever made in
Sitka during a hundred years, consequently the Ice Company later
transferred their chief place of operation to Wood Island, near Kodiak.
Cows were kept for milk, and the hay for their provender was cut on the
Katleanski Plains on Squashanski Bay.
Sir George Simpson, Governor-in-Chief of the Honourable, the Hudson's
Bay Company, visited Sitka in 1841 and in 1842. He describes the
settlement, the natives, and the fur trade, and was entertained at the
Castle by Chief Manager Etolin. During his stay he indulged in a Russian
steam bath. His humorous description of the details ends with a promise
never again to undergo such a castigation. The account of his stay at
the Hot Springs is enlivened by a story of how a rosy cheeked Russian
damsel, each time she passed his chair, made a profound obeisance, which
he attributed to his personal attraction until he discovered her doing
the same when the chair was empty, and then saw that a saintly ikon
occupied a place on the wall directly over it, which dispelled the
illusion. Thirteen ships were in the harbor, and he remarks that the
bustle was sufficient to have done credit to a third rate port in the
civilized world. Sir George sailed for Okhotsk on the Russian ship
"Alexander," then crossed Siberia overland on his return to England from
a journey round the earth.
There were eighty cannon mounted in the batteries which commanded the
bay or which looked down on the Kolosh village. These cannon were of
different make, some being cast in Sitka, others purchased of English or
Americans, which were purchased on the ships on which they were mounted,
as on the "Juno" and the "Brutus;" and other ordnance was brought from
Kronstadt, Russia, as in 1804 on the "Neva," and in 1820 on the
"Borodino."
Teahouses were situated on the little knoll in the center of the town
where the public Gardens were located; the museum, and the library
offered instruction to the workers who occupied this lonely post halfway
round the world from the Russian Fatherland.
There were fourteen chief managers who directed the affairs of the
Company at Sitka between the date of the founding in 1804 and the
surrender to the United States in 1867.[21]
Many of the officers resided long in the colonies and their record would
establish their right to be denominated as "Sourdoughs." Baranof was
manager 28 years; Zarembo was rewarded in 1844 for 25 years' service;
Krukof, the manager at Unalaska, was rewarded in 1821 for 40 years'
service; Banner remained at Kodiak for at least ten years, and he and
his wife both died there; while Kuskof came with Baranof in 1790 and
returned to Russia in 1821.
[Illustration: Sitka in 1869--During the Time of the Military Occupation.]