A Dagger on the Ocean Dock
A man brandishing a knife confronts a sea captain on the Seattle waterfront over an unpaid wage dispute, prompting a dramatic intervention by the Chief of Police.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A man rushed up to Chief of Police Murphy about four o'clock yesterday afternoon and informed him that there was a man on the Ocean Dock swearing that he would kill either Captain Hanson of the steamship Walla Walla, or his first officer, Mr. George Adams. The Chief hastened to the wharf and there found a small, heavy-set man, apparently about 30 years of age, dark-complexioned, who was comfortably well-dressed, clutching a white-handled dagger. The Chief told the man to come with him.
'Have you a warrant?' asked the dangerous-looking man.
'I do not need one,' replied the Chief.
'Then I do not know as I will go with you,' was the reply.
'Oh, yes, you will go,' said the Chief, 'but you can take your choice, whether you go dead, or alive, it is immaterial to me.'
'If that is the case,' he replied, 'I will go.'
At Justice's court, Captain F. Hanson of the Walla Walla was put on the stand and testified as follows: 'I am Captain of the steamer Walla Walla. I have seen the defendant before. I left the ship to get a newspaper and was going towards a newsstand on Mill Street. This defendant came along and stopped me. He demanded pay for work he had done on the ship, which I do not know anything about. He drew a dagger and said I should either pay him the money he claimed I owed him, or he would put the dagger into my body. I asked him to come to the ship so the mate could identify him, and he refused to do so. He still demanded payment and tried to use the knife on me. He appeared to be very angry at the time. I finally got away from him and sent for a policeman.' The prisoner gave his name as Frank Deoslai, and still had the dangerous dagger on his person. It was taken from him, and he was sent to jail to await the action of the Grand Jury.
“I do not know as I will go with you. ... Oh, yes, you will go, but you can take your choice, whether you go dead, or alive, it is immaterial to me.”
This 1887 incident on the Seattle waterfront highlights the era's brutal labor conditions and lack of institutionalized worker protections. Today, while wage theft remains a major issue for gig and manual workers in Seattle, the resolution of such disputes has shifted from the docks to the courtroom, though the feeling of helplessness among workers persists.
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