The Galley Explosion on the Steamer Glide
A cook's dangerous attempt to spark a galley fire with coal oil leads to an explosion and a narrow escape from disaster on the Puget Sound.
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.
On Thursday morning at 4 o'clock, when the steamer Glide was four miles from Point Monroe, the cook got up to build a fire in the galley stove. In doing so, he picked up a can of coal oil and began to pour oil over the burning kindling, when the can exploded, throwing its flaming contents over the cook and onto the galley floor. The cook's screams aroused the passengers, who burst open the door between the dining room and the galley, and jerked the man from his terrible situation. They rushed down stairs and the engineer, realizing the trouble, threw blankets over him and smothered the fire, which was rapidly consuming his clothing and his hair. In the meantime, the floors and sides of the galley were in flames, and the bustling of the boat had created a draft, and allowed the fire to extend into the dining room. A line of hose was connected with the main donkey pump, and ten minutes after the first alarm the flames were extinguished. The steamer proceeded to Seattle for repairs.
“The cook's screams aroused the passengers, who burst open the door... and jerked the man from his terrible situation.”
Steamer travel across Puget Sound was the lifeline of the region in the 1880s, much like our modern ferry system. While the technology has changed from coal-oil stoves to diesel engines, the inherent danger of fire on crowded wooden vessels remains a haunting, relatable anxiety for anyone who has traveled our waterways.
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