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35 stories matching seaman

  1. A Widow Paid Her Dues. The Society Had $30 Left.

    A Seattle-based benefit order collapsed after a member died in North Yakima, leaving his widow to chase $1,000 through a vanished organizer and an empty treasury.

    Aug 20, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

  2. The Express Driver's Abandonment: A Frontier Scandal

    A local expressman faces public condemnation after seducing two young women in northern settlements and fleeing town with his family's savings.

    Jan 25, 1885Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyScandal

  3. The Waterfront Vigilante: A Seattle Harbor Scandal

    A customs official and a boatman ambushed a crew of sailors returning to shore at Point Hudson, leading to a senseless shooting that left a seaman's life hanging in the balance.

    May 28, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerWater Street, Port Townsend, Jefferson CountyTrue Crime

  4. The Sailor Who Hung by His Own Neck

    A seaman aboard the English ship Halewood survives a sixty-foot fall after a piece of rigging snags his throat in mid-air.

    Mar 6, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay · Strange But True

  5. A Crippling Debt: The Maritime Fight for Justice

    After a seaman's hand was crushed working on the bark Cambridge, a legal battle for unpaid wages and damages unfolds in the Seattle District Court.

    Feb 17, 1877Puget Sound DispatchSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay

  6. The Unsinkable Seaman

    After losing his leg in a shipboard accident, an American sailor invents a wooden limb that keeps him working the high seas.

    Jun 7, 1904The Tacoma TimesTacoma, Pierce CountyWork & Pay · Strange But True

  7. A Sailor's Crushed Hand and the Ship That Had to Answer for It

    A seaman's right hand was crushed aboard the bark Cambridge at Port Blakely. He sued in Seattle for unpaid wages and $5,000 in damages, dragging the vessel into federal court.

    Feb 3, 1877Puget Sound DispatchBainbridge Island, Kitsap CountyWork & Pay

  8. The Man Who Crushed His Hand: A Seaman’s $3,000 Fight for Justice in Seattle

    In the early days of Washington Territory, a sailor named Robert Johnson sued a ship’s captain and his vessel after a workplace accident left him permanently disabled. It was one of the first major labor lawsuits heard in the new federal court.

    Jan 20, 1877Puget Sound DispatchPort Blakely, Bainbridge Island, Kitsap CountyWork & Pay

  9. The Devil's Range

    A drunken seaman's terrifying hallucination on a Port Townsend stove.

    Mar 11, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPort Townsend, Jefferson CountyStrange But True

  10. The Global Blacklist Fighting Sailors to the Grave

    Thousands of mariners across Europe and America launch a simultaneous strike against the Shipping Federation’s 'discharge book' system.

    May 26, 1911The Labor JournalEverett, Snohomish CountyWork & Pay

  11. The Price of a Seaman's Hand

    A mariner sues for $3,000 in damages, claiming gross negligence led to a permanent injury aboard a ship docked at Port Blakely.

    Feb 10, 1877Puget Sound DispatchPort Blakely, Bainbridge Island, Kitsap CountyWork & Pay

  12. Shipboard Rebellion on the Pleiades

    A Tacoma steamship officer learns that the crew has its own code of justice after attempting to flog a cook.

    Apr 8, 1904The Tacoma TimesTacoma, Pierce CountyWork & Pay

  13. Search Underway for Missing Fern Hill Lad

    Police are scouring the city for fifteen-year-old Harry Seaman, who vanished from his home last night.

    Apr 12, 1909The Tacoma TimesFern Hill, Tacoma, Pierce CountyTrue Crime

  14. The Forgotten Sailors: A Call for Reform in the U.S. Navy

    A seasoned veteran of the U.S. Navy writes from Port Townsend in 1886 to lament the decline of practical seamanship and the lack of decent pensions for sailors who have served their country for decades.

    Jul 22, 1885Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerPort Townsend, Jefferson CountyWork & Pay

  15. Union Longshoremen Boycott Lodging House

    A seaman is assaulted for refusing to leave a blacklisted boarding house in a labor dispute.

    May 1, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay

  16. A New Sanctuary for Seattle's Waterfront

    Civic leaders mobilize to establish a dedicated Seamen's Home and library, seeking to instill 'frugal, industrious, and temperate' habits among the men of the sea.

    Feb 23, 1878Puget Sound DispatchPresbyterian Church, Seattle, King CountyWork & Pay

  17. The Captain’s Silence: A Seattle Court Rules on Brutality at Sea

    In a landmark Admiralty case heard in Seattle in 1872, Judge Jacobs holds ship owner E.A. Nickels liable for the brutal beating of sailor Frank Griffin, establishing that a captain's failure to stop abuse is an endorsement of it.

    Aug 29, 1872Puget Sound DispatchSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay

  18. The Dynamite of Gilman: A Murderous Grudge Ends in Lynching

    In a fit of rage over a domestic dispute, Albert Schaeffer blew up his neighbor's home in Gilman, killing three people. The town’s response was swift and brutal.

    Jan 8, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyDisasters

  19. The Con Man Who Sold the Seattle Circus

    A clever swindler fleeced the city's elite by selling them on imaginary contracts for a Ringling Brothers circus that was never coming to town.

    Jul 6, 1903The Evening StatesmanSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

  20. The Ghost of the Gatherer: A Captain’s Suicide Haunted by His Own Cruelty

    Decades after a horrific voyage where officers maimed and murdered sailors to escape their 'demoniac' captain, the master of the ship dies by suicide in Puget Sound, fulfilling a prophecy of vengeance.

    Jan 27, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyWork & Pay · True Crime

  21. The Night They Walked to an Indian Village: A Shipwreck Survivor’s Tale

    After the steamer *Port Gordon* smashed against rocks near Destruction Island, four men survived a nightmare of broken lines and drowning comrades by building a raft from hatches—and then walking ten miles through the brush.

    Mar 7, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerNeah Bay, Clallam CountyDisasters

  22. Union and Non-Union Seamen Clash at Port Townsend

    A saloon becomes a battleground as a labor dispute over shipping jobs descends into a violent, armed confrontation.

    Aug 12, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPort Townsend, Jefferson CountyWork & Pay

  23. The Waterfront War of 1891

    A two-hour standoff between striking sailors and city officials paralyzes Port Townsend, leading to arrests and a near-riot.

    Aug 13, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPort Townsend, Jefferson CountyWork & Pay · True Crime

  24. A Violent Scuffle in Old Town

    A longtime Tacoma patrolman is hospitalized with severe injuries after attempting to arrest a disruptive sailor in a waterfront saloon.

    Mar 24, 1904The Tacoma TimesOld Town, Tacoma, Pierce County

  25. The Wreck of the Bark Archer

    After a violent storm capsized their ship off the coast of Cape Flattery, the crew faced fire and rising seas in a desperate struggle for survival.

    Mar 31, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerCape Flattery, Neah Bay, Clallam CountyDisasters

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