Robert Dollar

Called the “Grand Old Man” of the Pacific, Captain Robert Dollar was born in Falkirk, Scotland. By the age of 11 he was earning his own living as a shore boy in a lumber camp in Canada, where he endured many hardships. Dollar’s difficult childhood likely shaped his stringent attitude toward life and work. In the years to come, Dollar developed a set of rules to which he adhered all his life:

1. Do not cheat.
2. Do not be lazy.
3. Do not abuse.
4. Do not drink.

In 1893, Dollar purchased a sawmill on the Pacific Coast, and his lumber business flourished. Unfortunately, shipping schedules at the time were erratic, and Dollar, like many in the lumber business at the time, soon found that he had little control over the transportation of his goods. So, in 1895 he acquired his first vessel, a single steam schooner called Newsboy, to move his lumber from the Pacific Northwest to markets down the coast. This foray into shipping resulted in the founding of Dollar Line in 1900, when Dollar was nearly 60 years old.

Click on image to see a larger version.

When Dollar made a test run to the Orient with another of his ships, he was the first to bring the lumber business to a new continent. Soon, the familiar Dollar Line smokestack, with its distinctive dollar symbol, was a familiar sight throughout Asia. As the result of his success, he encouraged leaders from different industries in the U.S. to explore Asia as a potential new market for their businesses. Clearly, he was one of the first to gauge the importance of trans-Pacific trade in the 20th century.

Click on image to see a larger version.

By World War I, Dollar was such an institution in Asia that his word alone was enough “collateral” to begin the construction of ships in China that cost $30 million. In 1923, the purchase of seven “president” ships owned by the U.S. government allowed Dollar, then age 80, to pioneer his successful round-the-world passenger service. In 1925, Dollar Line acquired the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and its trans-Pacific routes. Ultimately, Robert Dollar made eight circumnavigations of the world and over 40 trips to the Orient. By the late 1920s Dollar passed the reins of management along to his son Stanley, although he kept true to his work ethic and remained involved in the business right up to the end.

In 1932, at the age of 88, Robert Dollar died. Perhaps the best testament to his life can be repeated in his own words, written in a letter to a friend. “In this world all we leave behind us that is worth anything is that we can be well regarded and spoken of after we are gone, and that we can say that we left the world just a little better than we found it. If we can’t accomplish these two things then life, according to my view, has been a failure. Many people erroneously speak of a man when he is gone as having left so much money. That, according to my view, amounts to very little.”