Yukon who is who

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Edward Barrington Jr. (1857 – 1897)
	
Ed Barrington was born in Oak Harbor, Puget Sound to parents Christina (McCrohan) and Captain Edward Barrington. All of the Barrington sons became sea captains, helping to run the Mosquito Fleet line of sternwheelers and steamers around Puget Sound. Ed, Harry, and Sydney (Syd) all earned their unlimited master’s licenses when they were twenty-one and could operate a ship of any size with an unlimited number of passengers. Both Ed and Syd had work running passengers and freight on the //Aquila// between Tacoma and Seattle. Ed made good money working in the Puget Sound and was able to buy a small boat.  Jobs were scarce during the depression in the 1890s. Ed’s boat burned, and Ed and Syd used the insurance money to go north to prospect at Cook Inlet in 1896. They returned to Oak Harbor in the fall with wages over their expenses. Ed took a position on two Seattle fire boats before word arrived on the steamer //Portland// about the Klondike strike. Syd contacted Hill and the brothers, along with a cousin, George Nunan, headed north on the steamer //Al-ki//. It was the first boat to set off the day after the //Portland// arrived in July 1897.((Nancy Warren Ferrell, //White Water Skippers of the North: The Barringtons.// Hancock House, 2008: 9-36.))
	
The party landed in Dawson before freeze-up. They staked claims on Bonanza Creek and dug up about $70,000 worth of gold. They refused an offer to purchase but then ran out of good ground. Food was scarce that winter in Dawson and the brothers left for Seattle in December 1897. Ed saw the possibilities for a transportation business on the Yukon River. Both he and Syd could pilot in both Canadian and American inland waters with a Canadian pilot on board in Canada. In February 1898 Ed was hired by a New York firm to supervise the building of two boats in Seattle and take charge of their interests in Alaska. After three profitable runs on the Yukon River the Alaska Commercial Company (AC Co.) offered Ed steady employment. While in Seattle, Ed had arranged to get the //Aquila// knocked down and shipped into the Yukon. All of the Barringtons worked for the AC Co. in the spring of 1898 and they were assigned the little sternwheeler //Victoria// birthed at Circle, Alaska. The spring breakup pushed the boat up on shore, but she was repaired and started on the run to Fort Yukon.((Nancy Warren Ferrell, //White Water Skippers of the North: The Barringtons.// Hancock House, 2008: 9-36.))
	
In June 1898, Ed learned that his //Aquila// would not make the trip over the mountains and he arranged for the boat to be taken from Dyea to St. Michael and then up the Yukon River. At the end of June, Syd and Ed bought the sternwheeler //Willie Irving// for $20,000. The boat was powerful for the day and Ed advertised that the trip from Dawson to saltwater could be made in 14 days with a connection to saddle horses at Rink Rapids. The boat paid for itself in three trips. Ed then bought the sternwheeler //Clifford Sifton// for $21,000 and was doing well with the two boats. He contracted typhoid fever in August while running the //Willie Irving// and he died in Dawson within a month. His boat, the //Aquila//, arrived in Dawson the day his body was shipped to Seattle.((Nancy Warren Ferrell, //White Water Skippers of the North: The Barringtons.// Hancock House, 2008: 9-36.))