A Narrow Escape on Lake Washington
A canoeist finds himself in deep water after a sudden wave capsizes his craft in the center of the lake.
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.
George Riley, of Riley Bros., had a narrow escape from drowning yesterday at Lake Washington. He was out in a canoe, which was overturned by a big wave when he was in the middle of the lake. Mr. Riley hung on to the canoe until a boat manned by William A. Carle and J. Van Alen, who saw the accident, came to his rescue. Further than a thorough wetting, he suffered no bad effects from his ducking.
“He was out in a canoe, which was overturned by a big wave when he was in the middle of the lake.”
Today, Lake Washington is a bustling hub for recreational boating and home to the I-90 and 520 floating bridges, but for a lone canoeist in 1892, the open water posed a genuine and immediate peril. The rescue by fellow citizens echoes the longstanding local culture of maritime vigilance that remains a staple of life on the Puget Sound.
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