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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1854 | 1 |
| 1863 | 2 |
| 1876 | 6 |
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 5 |
| 1887 | 5 |
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| 1892 | 10 |
| 1893 | 8 |
| 1894 | 16 |
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| 1910 | 1 |
88 stories matching cutter
- The Revenue Cutter Steward’s Opium Cache
A longtime employee of the U.S. revenue cutter 'Oliver Wolcott' is arrested for smuggling opium from British Columbia, exposing a decade-long secret life.
- The Day the Sloop Fired on a Federal Cutter
In 1860, twenty-four Port Townsend citizens chartered a sloop to save $5 on fares to Olympia. When intercepted by a revenue cutter, their captain opened fire with a brass howitzer—only to discover he’d just threatened the U.S. government.
- A Crew Called the Iona Unseaworthy. The Cutter Called It Mutiny.
Before the Italian bark Iona could leave Port Townsend, its sailors refused to sail. A survey said the ship was sound; a revenue cutter's officer put the men in irons and warned them of a mutiny trial.
- The Silent Cutters of Puget Sound
A standoff at the Custom House reveals that government revenue vessels sat idle while local sailors risked their lives in the waves.
- 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 Bering Sea's Brazen Seal Poachers, as Told by a Port Townsend Captain
A sealing schooner back from five months in the Bering Sea describes a coordinated scheme of lookouts, false alibis and cached skins used to outwit the revenue cutters.
- The Rogue of the Sound
A smuggler on the Puget Sound recounts a brutal night of human trafficking and violence, offering a chilling glimpse into the lawless reality of the 1880s maritime border.
- The Plot to Hijack the Revenue Cutter
Confederate sympathizers were rumored to be conspiring to seize a U.S. revenue cutter in the Puget Sound, heightening Civil War tensions in the Pacific Northwest.
- U.S. Cutter Seizes Poaching Schooners off Cape Flattery
Defying a violent storm, the U.S. revenue cutter 'Grant' hunts down two schooners accused of illegal seal hunting in forbidden waters.
- Waterfront Spectacle: Sailors Race Cutters in the Tacoma Harbor
Thousands gathered at the Tacoma docks to watch the U.S. Navy sailors of the cruiser *Tacoma* compete in a spirited boat race.
- A Treasury Man Finds Seattle 'a Revelation'—and Vows to Crush Puget Sound Smuggling
Assistant Secretary Charles S. Hamlin arrives by revenue cutter to inspect customs, promise more launches and officers, and warn opium and Chinese smuggling rings that the federal government is coming.
- A Runaway Horse Crashes Into a Tacoma Shop
A spooked horse hitched to a cutter careened down St. Helens Avenue before smashing through a storefront, meeting a tragic end.
- The Forgotten Wreck of the St. Stephen
For six weeks, the federal revenue cutter Wolcott sat idle while the public clamored for a search for survivors of a shipwreck off the Washington coast.
- The Governor, the British Officer, and One Tiny Revenue Cutter
Elisha P. Ferry's old colleague recalled how the territorial governor ordered a British garrison off San Juan Island—backed by a worn-out cutter and a howitzer or two.
- The Gambler’s Gamble: How a Frenchman’s ‘Little Bit’ Sparked a Seattle Riot
In the early days of Seattle, a dispute over a small sum of money at a boarding house escalated into a violent brawl involving three gamblers and a local resident, highlighting the volatile nature of frontier justice.
- The Ghost Ship of Puget Sound
While a steamer crew vanished into the waves, Port Townsend customs officials sat in their offices waiting for 'official notification' before launching a rescue, fueling public outrage.
- The 'Pompous Autocrat' of the Sound
A Seattle newspaper lashes out at a revenue cutter captain who refused to aid a vessel in distress, claiming his uniform shouldn't be 'rubbed the wrong way.'
- The 1894 Railroad Strike Reaches Seattle—and the Militia Digs In
As the great Pullman-era railroad strike collapses in Washington, saboteurs burn trestles on the Northern Pacific, federal troops and the revenue cutter Grant move in, and Seattle's Civil War veterans pledge themselves to 'law and order.'
- A 13-Year-Old Stole $7. He Got Five Years in Reform School.
A Springdale meat cutter's missing change led to a child's five-year sentence — a window into early-1900s juvenile justice.
- The $100-Acre Garden: How Puyallup’s ‘Rich Farming’ Made Landlords Rich and Farmers Poor
In the fertile valleys of Tacoma County, land speculators from Philadelphia are buying up prime soil for $150 an acre, turning subsistence farming into a high-stakes real estate game.
- The Great Congressional Shutdown of 1876
A historic clash between the House and Senate left federal workers across the country—and the crew of a local Revenue Cutter—stranded without pay.
- Surveyors Armed at Sucia Islands
Tensions rise over property disputes as land surveyors face armed interference in the San Juan Islands.
- The Willard Ainsworth's Dangerous Nine-Month Cruise
A Seattle sealing schooner heads for the coast of Japan and Siberia, defying revenue cutters and maritime pressure to secure a massive catch.
- Two Hundred Axes Clear the Woods for a 2,500-Soldier Colony
Port Angeles turned out an ax-and-saw brigade to fell forty blocks of townsite timber before a Michigan colony of veteran soldiers arrived — and the Secretary of the Interior steamed in to bless the work and the squatters' shaky claims.
- Critics Question Government’s Failure to Save Stranded Mariners
A local editor slams the inaction of the revenue cutter Wolcott after a sealing schooner wrecks near Vancouver Island.
Also about this, in other words
- The Renting Prospect on the Snohomish River
A rare glimpse into the early housing market of the Snohomish valley, where a riverside property seeks a tenant for a multi-year term.
- A High-Stakes Yacht Race on Puget Sound
The cutter American triumphs over the Edna M. in a thrilling twelve-mile regatta off the Seattle waterfront, as local yachtsmen battle wind, tide, and mechanical mishap.
- A Saw Blade, a Slipped Foot, and a Surgeon's Race to Save a Worker's Arm
A worker's foot slipped against a circular saw, severing the artery and nerve in his right arm; doctors ligated the artery and stitched the nerve.
- The Logger Who Waited in Silence
A brutal ax wound and a stoic patience define the daily risks of Puyallup Valley labor in 1876.
- A Waterfront Brawl Over a Knife
When a sailor from the USS Iowa gets slashed in a street quarrel, he refuses to press charges against his shipmate.
- The Judge Who Refused to Break a Strike
While other courts rushed to silence workers, Judge Henry Caldwell of the U.S. Circuit Court set a radical precedent: railroad workers had the right to strike and the right to be heard.
- Squatter’s Rights and the Railroad Tie Cutters
A land dispute in Maple Valley leads to the arrest of six men accused of harvesting timber on claimed but contested land.
- The Saw That Conquered the Snohomish Timber Frontier
Before high-tech machinery, local loggers relied on the 'Silver Steel' saw, a tool marketed as the most efficient way to fell the giants of Washington Territory.