Puget Sound Navigation Company
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The Puget Sound Navigation Company (PSNC) operated a fleet of ferries on Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia and Washington as Black Ball Line.
PSNC began to struggle following World War II, as operating costs increased and its unions threatened strike action. Following a long series of court battles, PSNC's domestic operations assets were purchased by the state of Washington's Department of Transportation for the sum of $4.9 million in early 1951, creating Washington State Ferries on May 31.
PSNC retained the assets used in their Canadian operations and after the 1951 downsizing, operated a much-reduced fleet as Black Ball Ferries, Ltd. This company sold most of its assets to the provincial government of British Columbia in 1960, creating BC Ferries.
The current descendant of the Black Ball Line, Blackball Transport, Inc., was founded in 1936 from Black Ball Freight Service, a road transport subsidiary of PSNC. Blackball Transport owns and operates a single ferry, the M/V Coho between Victoria, British Columbia and Port Angeles, Washington.
