Union Sailors Clash With Non-Union Crew at Port Gamble
A violent confrontation breaks out as union men attempt to remove a non-union crew from a barkentine, leading to seven arrests by a federal marshal.
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.
Seven sailors—Henry Carbe, Hartwig Weasel, James Rivers, William Brown, August Anderson, Dan Campbell, and Pat Mullen—were brought to the city from Port Gamble yesterday by Deputy United States Marshal E. W. Mudgett and lodged in the county jail. They face charges for attempting to kidnap the non-union crew of the barkentine Katie Flickinger or conspiring to defeat the laws of the United States. The vessel had arrived from San Francisco three weeks prior with a non-union crew, prompting the captain to request a federal marshal for protection. On Saturday night, sailors from Seattle arrived in a sloop, joined by others from nearby vessels, to forcibly remove the crew. The attackers were met with resistance from townspeople, boat captains, and the deputy marshal. During the brawl, one crewman was struck on the head with an iron belaying pin. The arrested men claimed ignorance of the charges, though a relative admitted their union affiliation.
“The charge against them will be either attempting to kidnap the non-union crew of the barkentine Katie Flickinger or conspiring to defeat the laws of the United States.”
This 1893 labor conflict at Port Gamble echoes the long history of maritime and industrial strife in Puget Sound. Today, battles over labor organizing and the 'gigification' of work continue to challenge legal and social norms in Seattle, mirroring the 19th-century struggle between union labor and corporate-controlled crews.
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