A Final Port of Call
When a lonely sailor died in a local hospital, the Coast Seamen's Union ensured his burial reflected his true brotherhood, not a stranger's fate.
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 Coast Seamen's Union, having discovered that Patrick Blessington, who died of typhoid pneumonia at Grace hospital last Monday and was buried on the following day as a United States marine, was one of its members, held new funeral services yesterday. During his last illness, Blessington said that he had no friends, and gave no information as to his relatives, but on the day of the burial the Coast Seamen's Union discovered that Blessington was a member of the union, and the officers at once arranged to pay him a last tribute as a brother. In accordance with their wishes, the body was exhumed from Mount Pleasant cemetery, and yesterday afternoon twenty-two members of the union assembled at Cross Co.'s and listened to the funeral services conducted by Rev. George H. Lee. At the conclusion of the services the remains were interred in the Coast Seamen Union lot in the I. O. O. F. cemetery.
“Blessington said that he had no friends, and gave no information as to his relatives, but... the officers at once arranged to pay him a last tribute as a brother.”
This 1892 account highlights the vital role of mutual aid societies in a frontier city where workers often arrived alone and without family. It serves as a reminder of how labor unions once provided not just professional advocacy, but the social and ritual safety net for the transient working class that defines Seattle's history.
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