The Strawberry Shootout on the Sehome
A minor dispute over stolen fruit on a Puget Sound excursion steamer escalates into a violent, multi-shot confrontation between crew members.
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.
In an altercation on board the steamer Sehome last night at 11:15 o'clock, two deckhands, James Garvie and John M. Smith, were shot and seriously wounded by the steward of the boat, Peter Ward. A basket of strawberries was the innocent cause of the affray. For a considerable period there had been trouble between the steward's department and the deck. Steward Ward missed some of his finest berries and set a watch to catch the thief. About 11 o'clock last night, Captain Bullene heard a scuffle on the main deck. He heard the steward accuse Smith of having stolen the berries. The lie was passed, and Ward struck out in defense of his integrity. Captain Bullene and his chief mate, Tom Coffin, separated the combatants, whereupon Ward drew a revolver and emptied five chambers into the bystanding group. Two shots were aimed at Smith, one lodging in his hip. Then, turning to the mate, he said, 'I'll teach you to interfere where you have no business,' and fired in Mate Coffin's direction. None of those shots hit their mark, but one found lodgment in the fleshy part of the arm of the deckhand Garvie. Ward was finally disarmed and locked in his cabin. Ward asserts the men were the aggressors and that he only drew the revolver to protect himself.
“A basket of strawberries was the innocent cause of the affray.”
Workplace tensions on maritime vessels are as old as the industry itself, though rarely do they escalate to live gunfire over fruit. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the volatile nature of unregulated labor environments on Puget Sound in the late 19th century.
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