The Tides Returned His Wife's Missing Luggage
A crate of household goods meant for a new arrival in Seattle was lost overboard at Fort Canby, only to wash up on a local beach—addressed directly to the owner.
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.
Mr. McGraw went to the beach the morning of November 22 to work up some logs into firewood. A little ways from the logs he was working on, he saw what appeared to be a box that had floated ashore. Upon going up to it, what was his surprise, not to find it a box that it resembled, but that it was addressed to himself. He got a wheelbarrow and wheeled it to his house, opened it, and found it to contain a sewing machine and other household utensils, which were shipped as part of Mrs. McGraw's freight, who has just arrived from her old home in Missouri. Mr. McGraw found that the box had been knocked overboard from the La Conner the night before whilst unloading some goods at Fort Canby. It is a rather curious coincidence that the box should have been brought in by the tide and deposited on the beach within a stone's throw of his house.
“It is a rather curious coincidence that the box should have been brought in by the tide and deposited on the beach within a stone's throw of his house.”
This charming, serendipitous tale highlights the realities of 19th-century maritime logistics in the Puget Sound, where the sea was the primary highway. It serves as a reminder of how life in early Seattle was dictated by tides and water-bound transit, a geography that still defines the city today.
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