News of Norway, issue 6, 1997
Using green and white paint, Thea Foss spruced up the boat and sold it for $10. But instead of pocketing her profits, Thea bought more rowboats to trade for bigger profits, and soon, laying the foundation for today’s Foss Maritime Company.
When she could afford to keep the rowboats, Thea rented them to people around Tacoma, Wash., for recreational use. She turned the little one-room floating home her husband Andrew had built into a business center for "boats for hire." On the roof she posted a sign reading, "Always ready," because at Thea Foss’ you could rent a boat any time, any day.
Andrew, born in Skirfoss, Norway, in 1855, was a days sail away on a carpenter job. After the couple and their three children Arthur(1885), Wedell(1887) and Lillian(1889) moved to Tacoma in 1889, Andrew started working at a shipyard, but money was scarce. When Thea came down with typhoid pneumonia right after her arrival in Tacoma, they couldn’t afford medical help. The generosity of a local doctor saved her life.
Coming back, Andrew found that Thea had made more money in two weeks than he had made in two months. Recognizing the potential in the business Thea had started, he began building more rowboats. He had learned the shipwright trade by going to sea at the age of 17. (The two met when Andrew docked in Christiania once.)
Thea’s ambition complimented Andrew’s adventurism, and the two shared a common dream of going to the "promised land." Andrew worked his way across the Atlantic, but before leaving promised to send Thea money for her fare. Settling and working as a carpenter in St. Paul, Andrew sent Thea money twice. But Thea never arrived. Instead, a brother and a sister came.
Determined to earn her own fare, Thea worked as a housekeeper and gave Andrew’s money to his family. She joined Andrew in St. Paul when she saved enough money and the two got married in 1881. But in 1889, the family moved to Tacoma, Wash., because the harsh Midwest weather was tearing at Andrew’s health.
By the time their fourth child, Henry, came in 1891, the rowboat business was prospering. With the invention of the automobile in the early 1900s, the rowboat business slowed down. Moving with the tide of time, the Foss family purchased launches. Instead of catering to people’s recreational needs, the business provided supplies for sailing ships and water-taxi transportation for crews.
Always looking ahead, the Foss family decided to enter the tug boat business in 1912. Experimenting with tug boat designs, Andrew eventually invented a tear drop tug boat design intended to cater to log towing. The FOSS-6 design is still in use today. Andrew never patented his discovery believing it should be used by all for the common good.
All three Foss sons were busy running the boating business with their father at an early age. Thea was busy running a general store, the adjoining boarding house for the company workers and the kitchen, and keeping their workers well fed and cared for. Thea and Andrew were also busy helping young immigrants from the old country get settled into their new home land.
Thea passed away in 1927. Andrew died in 1937. Over half a century later, the couple’s accomplishments finally reached the spotlight. In May 1990, the couple was inducted into the National Maritime Hall of Fame for their contribution to American marine heritage. Earlier the same year they were inducted into the Puget Sound Business Hall of Fame.
Since Thea traded rowboats at the Tacoma waterway, now called the Thea Foss Waterway, the business has moved several times. Today, the Foss Maritime Company has its headquarters in Seattle, but additional offices can be found in Tacoma, Everett, Port Angeles, Los Angeles/Long Beach, San Diego, Portland and ports on the Columbian River and the San Francisco Bay. It was renamed Foss Maritime Company after Totem Resources Corp., a local group of investors, purchased the company in 1987.
The green and white colors that Thea Foss used to renovate the company boat are still the company colors. All 114 tugs and 109 barges that offer marine transportation services and support in the Pacific Basin are named after Foss family members. The company motto is still ‘Always ready.’ "Overall the company has a do it attitude," said Tim Brewer, Vice President of Ship Assistance Services. "We operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, except for leap year when we add a day."
About the founder, Brewer said, "She must have been a wonderful lady with gumption and foresight and everybody’s friend."