The Tragic Disappearance of a Smuggling Sloop
Twelve people, including ten Chinese laborers and two young girls, are believed to have perished in the treacherous straits separating Victoria from the American side during a high-stakes human smuggling operation.
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.
It is now certain that a disaster cutting short the lives of ten Chinamen and two women has happened in the straits that separate Victoria from the American side. Last Saturday night, a small sloop left Esquimalt harbor containing four notorious Chinese smugglers who have been connected with the traffic for four years, six native coolies who had been kept here for some weeks awaiting a favorable opportunity to get across to Port Townsend, and two young girls who arrived on the Empress of China from Hongkong in September. These latter were aged 19 and 13 and were bought in Victoria for $1,100 and $1,300 respectively—a fact of this barter being exposed fully in the Colonist at the time. Since the sloop left, nothing has been heard of her, and after the heavy storms in the straits during the past few days, there is little possibility of their being safe. This afternoon, a fisherman about six miles down the coast picked up an oar, rudder, and mast on the beach, which have been identified as belonging to the sloop.
“These latter were aged 19 and 13 and were bought in Victoria for $1,100 and $1,300 respectively—the fact of this barter being exposed fully in the Colonist at the time.”
This 1892 report highlights the brutal human cost of restrictive migration laws, mirroring contemporary debates surrounding the dangers of border crossings and the exploitation of vulnerable migrants. The commodification of lives described here remains a grim reminder of how legislative barriers have historically driven desperate populations into the hands of smugglers and onto perilous waters.
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