The Battle for the Bark Elsinore
Striking sailors trail a tugboat in a high-stakes effort to prevent non-union labor from shipping out.
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 bark Elsinore sailed for San Diego from Smith's Cove Sunday evening with a cargo of 750,000 feet of lumber. Captain Johnson was determined to have a non-union crew, and the union men were just as determined that he should not. They watched the vessel for two days before she sailed to prevent non-union men from going on board. But the crew was placed in the hold of the tug Mystic when the vessel was ready for sea. The captain and his officers raised the anchor, and the tug towed the vessel out to Port Discovery, put the non-union men aboard, and left her. The union men suspected that the crew was in the hold of the tug, and they boarded her and attempted to raise the hatch, but Captain Morrison informed them that if they did it would be at their peril, so they gave it up. They followed the vessel out over two miles when the tug had her in tow, expecting that an attempt would be made to put the non-union men on board.
“Captain Morrison informed them that if they did it would be at their peril, so they gave it up.”
This standoff at Smith's Cove reflects the long history of maritime labor militancy in Seattle. Today, the site is dominated by massive industrial and port infrastructure, but the tension between organized labor and employer-led end-runs remains a persistent theme in Pacific Northwest industry.
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