10
It was a cold night in Oslo, 
Norway, in 1985. Fledgling Seattle 
entrepreneurs Merideth Tall and 
Phil Lepley huddled inside a 
payphone booth, just twelve hours 
away from abandoning their dream 
of launching an international 
catamaran service between Seattle 
and Victoria. If they couldn’t secure 
one final piece of financing, they 
would board their flight home 
empty-handed.
Some might say Tall was born 
into travel. Her grandfather, Harry 
Tall, founded Tall’s Travel Shop 
in Seattle in 1917, designing and 
selling elegant luggage for a 
generation that dressed up to 
board trains and ocean liners. 
After World War II, Harry sold his 
shares to help his son—Merideth’s 
father, Leonard—open Tall’s 
Cameras, another beloved Seattle 
institution. Entrepreneurship, it 
seemed, ran in the family.
Years later, Tall was working in 
a machine shop when she and her 
future business partner, Phil Lepley, 
began tossing around business ideas.
“We had the idea of exporting 
apples to Colombia and importing 
roses,” Tall would later recall. Like 
many first-time founders, they 
cycled through concepts that were 
imaginative but not quite right.
How a Freezing Night in Oslo 
Changed Northwest Travel
Travel, however, was never far from 
her mind.
“When I was a kid, I loved every 
travel experience we had,” Tall said. 
“You’d get on a Pan Am plane and 
see the flight attendants in their 
white gloves and pillbox hats. They 
were so happy to see you. I loved the 
magic of travel.”
Pan Am famously christened its 
transoceanic aircraft “Clippers”—an 
homage to the swift 19th-century 
sailing ships that once 
carried passengers 
and cargo across 
the globe. The word 
evoked speed, 
romance, and a 
certain golden-age 
glamour—qualities Tall 
would later borrow for 
her own venture.
Tall began her 
hospitality career 
as a travel agent, escorting clients 
to destinations as far-flung as Hong 
Kong. But arranging trips through 
third parties left her restless.
“I wanted to control the experience 
my customers had,” she said. “As 
an agent, I could say, ‘I think you’re 
going to love this hotel--I was there 
last year and it was wonderful.’ You 
did your research. But then they go, 
and maybe since then the manager 
left, and it’s just not the way it should 
have been.”
Victoria seemed the ideal short-
haul destination. “Nobody has ever 
not liked Victoria,” she said. “There’s 
natural beauty, history, wonderful 
hotels, great restaurants.”
She also envisioned something 
quietly radical: car-free travel.
“I don’t love driving,” Tall admitted. 
“There’s something magical about 
walking on in one country and 
walking off in another, downtown to 
10
Merideth Tall poses in front of the first Victoria Clipper.
Merideth Tall and her crew stand ready to welcome guests on 
board for one of the Victoria Clipper I’s first sailings.

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