The Great Sound Steamboat Race of 1892
When two passenger steamers left Everett in a desperate, high-stakes dash for the Seattle docks, the local passengers witnessed a spectacle of steam and speed.
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 State of Washington defeated the Greyhound by about three lengths yesterday afternoon in an exciting race from Everett to Seattle. The boats left Everett at 3 o'clock, the Greyhound taking the lead by a half-length. The race to within a mile of Edmonds was close and exciting, the relative positions remaining unchanged. A short distance from Edmonds, the Washington forced ahead, and the Greyhound, which usually stops for water and fuel, neglected to do so, keeping on, evidently bent on regaining the lost ground. Both boats were now being pushed for all there was in them and the passengers became greatly excited over the contest. Captain Harrington, of the State of Washington, was determined to maintain the lead and ordered the engineer to push her. At five-mile rock, the State of Washington still had the lead by a small distance and kept it to the finish. When the victorious boat docked at Baker's wharf, the enthusiasm of the eighty passengers, officers and crew, found full vent in cries of wild delight.
“Both boats were now being pushed for all there was in them and the passengers became greatly excited over the contest.”
Steamboat racing was the high-speed transit drama of the 19th-century Puget Sound. While today's commuters on the Kitsap or King County Water Taxis might prefer a predictable schedule over a drag race, the intense rivalry between transit operators echoes the modern competition for dominance over our regional waterways.
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