The Haunted Steamer: A Maritime Labor Standoff
When the steamer Premier broke a propeller blade, her superstitious crew blamed a 'hoodoo' fireman—sparking a strike and an emergency standoff 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.
The steamer Premier seems to be having very bad luck of late. Early yesterday morning, on the trip from Whatcom (Bellingham) to Seattle, she broke one of the two flukes remaining on her wheel in Bellingham Bay and came in with only one. On reaching Port Townsend, the firemen on the steamer struck because one of their number was discharged. The strike was of short duration, for an understanding was reached, and the steamer continued on her way, arriving here about 9 o'clock last evening, several hours behind time. The fireman was discharged, it is claimed, because some of the engineers considered him a 'hoodoo.' He was firing on the Eva when she blew up, and as the Premier has been having a bad streak of luck lately, it was whispered around among the men in a jocular way that the fireman was a 'jinx.' Yesterday morning, when one of the two flukes on the wheel broke, the more superstitious of the crew became uneasy and expressed a desire to be rid of the fireman, and Chief Engineer T. G. Mitchell accordingly gave him his time. Both sides were perfectly uncommunicative last night as to the nature of the agreement under which the firemen returned to work, but the firemen were at their posts, and it is understood that the discharged man was reinstated.
“The more superstitious of the crew became uneasy and expressed a desire to be rid of the fireman, and Chief Engineer T. G. Mitchell accordingly gave him his time.”
While modern maritime operations rely on safety protocols rather than folklore, the tension between workplace stability and the scapegoating of individual workers remains a timeless labor struggle. The 'hoodoo' fireman story highlights how, in moments of technical failure and high stress, labor relations can quickly collapse into irrational workplace drama.
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