The Ghost Ship Majestic
A vessel sailing from Seattle with a load of coal vanishes, leaving behind a crew of eleven and a city of worried families.
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.
It is feared that the gale that wrecked the Volant also sent the bark Majestic to the bottom. She is now thirty days out from Seattle, and was caught in the storms of December 23 and 24. She was an old vessel and heavily loaded with coal. The general opinion among sailors is that her seams opened and she went down quickly. The Majestic left San Francisco on November 8, made a fair passage to Seattle, and sailed for her return on December 13. The bark was forty years old and had not been repaired for twelve years. The crew of eleven included Captain O. Lorentz, first mate H. Anderson, and sailors Thomas Leland, George Sweeney, C. G. Clark, N. J. Olsen, and Charles Brown, the last five of whom were members of the Seamen's Union of the Pacific.
“The general opinion among sailors is that her seams opened and that she went down quickly.”
In the 1890s, the maritime industry was the backbone of Seattle's economy, yet workers faced immense peril in aging vessels that often succumbed to the unforgiving Puget Sound weather. Today, while modern safety standards and radar have replaced such fatal uncertainty, the city's maritime culture remains a constant, rhythmic reminder of our dependence on the sea.
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