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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 11 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 7 |
| 1893 | 8 |
| 1894 | 15 |
| 1895 | 15 |
62 stories matching fleet
- The Neah Bay Sealing Fleet Returns
Local Makah hunters report a windfall catch during the seal migration, demonstrating the significance of traditional maritime economies.
- Seattle's Revenue Cutter Heads to Bering Sea to Crack Down on Seal Poachers
The U.S. revenue cutter Grant sails from Seattle for Sitka and the Bering Sea, carrying orders to seize illegal sealers; two fast new launches are being built at Port Townsend.
- The Makah Nation’s Fleet Challenges the Seal Hunters
With firearms banned, the Makah sealers of Neah Bay turn to traditional hunting methods, outmaneuvering white commercial competitors.
- The Navy's Test of Bellingham Bay Coal
Secretary Herbert clarifies that Bellingham Bay coal tests for the Pacific fleet are not conclusive, signaling a win for Senator Squire against British interests.
- The Yorktown Stays Put
A diplomatic win for the Seattle Chamber of Commerce keeps a U.S. Navy steamer stationed in local waters.
- Seattle’s Turn Toward Global Power
While mourning lives lost in the Samoan crisis, local boosters embrace the promise of a massive naval expansion—and the federal contracts that come with it.
- The Great Fleet of the Northwest
As Seattle's harbor crowds with vessels, a maritime shift signals a new era for local tugboat commerce.
- The Navy Preferred British Coal. Seattle Wouldn’t Let It Go.
When the Bering Sea fleet was ordered to take Comox coal instead of Puget Sound fuel, Senator Squire and local coal men forced a test—and threatened to take the fight to the Senate.
- The 'Mosquito Fleet' Gears Up to Patrol the Sound
A new revenue cutter, the Sybil, joins the effort to clamp down on smugglers navigating the complex and intricate channels of the Washington coast.
- The Burglar Who Got Away: Old Soldier's Failed Identification Frees Suspect
Herman Wendt, 19, released after James Bowie couldn't positively identify him as the man who broke into his South Seattle home—but Wendt remains a suspect in a recent murder.
- The Unlucky Travelers of the Puget Sound
A small steamer encounters the harsh realities of the Sound, leaving passengers stranded in the fog.
- The Struggle for Safe Passage on the Sound
A local captain makes the case for mandatory pilotage to prevent costly shipwrecks in the foggy straits.
- Blood and Bullets in Colville
A railroad worker's lethal temper leads to a dramatic manhunt near Colville as a suspect flees on horseback after a double shooting.
- The Shipping Hub of the Northwest
A census of vessels loading in early 1891 reveals Seattle's emerging dominance in the maritime coal trade.
- The Empire of the Pacific
Senator Watson C. Squire argues that Puget Sound is a defenseless frontier, vulnerable to the British naval presence at Esquimalt.
- The Strategic Dream of a Nicaragua Canal
A 1894 editorial argues that the United States must build and control a canal through Central America to project naval power and secure the Pacific coast.
- Canoe Capsizes on Lake Washington
Two men were rescued by a passing steamer after their canoe was swamped by high winds near Madrona Park.
- A Becalmed Regatta on Puget Sound
Seattle yachtsmen battle a dying wind and a frustratingly tedious afternoon during a club regatta on the Sound.
- Marine Greyhounds for the Sound
New patrol boats for the Revenue Cutter Service are to be built locally in Port Townsend to crack down on smuggling.
- A Great Pacific Sealing Race
Two schooners racing from Cape Flattery to the Bonin Islands set what might be the longest, closest race on record for the sealing fleet.
- Kill Every Seal? An Alaska Official's Radical Fix for the Bering Sea
Sheldon Jackson told a Seattle reporter that wiping out the Pribilof herd was cheaper than chasing Canadian poachers—and warned that England would bulldoze the boundary if the U.S. didn't fight.
- The Army's Top General Scouts Magnolia Bluff for Puget Sound's Defenses
Lt. Gen. John Schofield, passing through Seattle en route to Alaska, endorses Magnolia Bluff as the site for a new army post and predicts a great commercial future for the Sound.
- The Sealing Wars: Customs vs. Navy
Tensions rise at Port Townsend as federal authorities clash over how to enforce restrictive sealing laws on local schooners.
- The Ghostly Harvest of the North Pacific
A brutal accounting of how 19th-century pelagic sealers, operating out of Washington ports, pushed a species to the brink of extinction through industrial-scale slaughter.
- The High-Stakes Gamble for Fur Seals
As tensions mount in the Bering Sea, a local merchant readies his schooner with experimental steam launches, betting that international diplomacy—or flags of convenience—will secure his haul.