James Carroll

James Carroll (c. 1840 – May 19, 1912) was an Irish American steamboat captain who brought the first large steamboat to Alaska.

Early years Born in Ireland, Carroll came to the U.S. when he was a year old, settling in Kendall County, Illinois with his parents. At age 16, he moved to Chicago and became a sailor. He commanded the Colorado, the Pelican, the Great Republic, the California (afterward known as the Eureka), the Idaho, and the Ancon. For a quarter of a century, he was with the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. While sailing to Alaska, he made the acquaintance of many prominent and wealthy men from the east and in 1891, appeared before Congress, representing a syndicate of moneyed men, with an offer of US$14,000,000 to buy Alaska. He was the first master of the Queen and was the first to take her through the Wrangell Narrows;

In 1898, Carroll retired from seafaring, becoming an agent for the Alaska Commercial Company and for the Northern Lakes & Rivers Navigation Company. Eventually, he returned to the Pacific Coast Steamship Company to command the new steamer, Spokane, but retired again about 1906. He was also a representative of the Rodman Bay mines on Baranof Island, where the company’ operated a sixty-stamp mill and seven miles of railroad. He ran outfitting businesses from Seattle, Skagway, and Nome, Alaska. The Carroll wharf was later renamed in his honor. He was also Alaska's first mailboat captain.

Personal life Carroll married Dorothy Bowington (died 1900), and of their children only one survived, John. In 1903, he wed Elizabeth A. Reid of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Carroll Way, a public stairway, is named posthumously after him.