The Sea Captain’s Return to Seattle

When the Oregon Improvement Company sent its fleet of steam colliers to this coast, Captain Frank Worth came out in command of the Umatilla and remained in her for several years. He was a skillful navigator and a genial gentleman. Finally, through no negligence or carelessness of his, the ship struck at Flattery Reef and came near being lost. Captain Worth had to leave the ship, but after he had gone, his first officer, O'Brien, who was floating around on a life raft, returned to the ship just as she slid off the rock. He succeeded in having her towed into Esquimalt harbor, where she sank, but was eventually raised and is today the finest steamship sailing out of San Francisco for the north. However, when she resumed her old route, Captain Worth was not placed in command of her. He had a family to support and took the first job offering, which was the command of a small tug boat on the Sound. The boat in question was the Little Fisherman, and the trouble she got into with the customs authorities over smuggling opium is fresh in the minds of newspaper readers and need not be recounted here. At any rate, Captain Worth moved to Victoria and has since been in command of a schooner sailing in the north. Yesterday afternoon, Captain Worth returned to Seattle and to a reporter of the Post-Intelligencer, he said: 'I have grown tired staying away and sending money here to defend people who are amply able to defend themselves, and I have come to stay. I am prepared to meet any accusations of wrong-doing which may be brought against me. I will be in Seattle a few days, after which I will return to Port Townsend and fix up route business matters, and come back to Seattle, where I expect to make my headquarters in the future.' Captain Worth is enjoying good health and looks to be in the best of spirits.