Whistle up the Inlet: The Union Steamship Story

Between 1889 and 1959, the vessels of the Union Steamship Company of BC bound the coast from north to south as firmly as the steel tracks of the Canadian Pacific Railway bound the nation from east to west. The Union's black and red funnelled steamers and their trademark whistle were a fixture of weekly life at virtually every logging camp and settlement between Vancouver and the Alaska Panhandle. Based on years of painstaking archival research, as well as hundreds of hours of interviews. The Good Company: An Affectionate History of the Union Steamships is a fascinating "from-the-deck" account of this important institutions ships and crews. Meet "Wee" Angus McNeill, the most superstitious of all Union officers; Captain Bob Wilson, who refused to consult his charts while he was on watch; Arthur Jarvis, the "Black Mate" who wrestled obstinate loggers and pigs from the decks of the infamous Cassiar; and the Cheslakee, the ill-fated vessel whose final death toll from its 1913 capsizing is still debated. Writer Tom Henry won the Lieutenant Governor's Medal for historical writing for this lively and entertaining history. With over a hundred photographs, many of them never published before, The Good Company captures the spirit of this bygone west coast institution, and brings to life a legend.