Union Seamen Defeated at Port Townsend
A bitter strike of sailors on the Puget Sound ends in failure after boarding house tactics and non-union labor break the blockade.
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 battle between non-union sailors and the Coast Seamen's Union came to a final termination in Port Townsend today, the union sailors being compelled to succumb. All vessels which have been lying by for ten days past loaded for sea, but which were unable to obtain crews, were supplied today and will proceed immediately to sea. In order to maintain the fight, the union sailors opened a boarding house in this city, and all non-union men, upon arrival in town, were immediately captured and kept at this boarding house and not allowed to sign for a voyage. Every steamer touching at the docks here was met by a gang of thirty to fifty union sailors on the lookout for non-union men. The fight has been kept up vigorously, but today when it was found that the agents had been too smart for them, and that all the vessels had secured non-union crews from other parts of the Sound, their camp was broken up. The master of the union boarding house accepted advance money and was glad to ship the men in his house. This will be the end of the conflict.
“The battle between non-union sailors and the Coast Seamen's Union came to a final termination here today, the union sailors being compelled to succumb.”
This 1893 maritime strike highlights the long history of labor volatility on the Puget Sound, echoing the region's enduring tension between union organization and corporate control of the waterfront. The use of 'boarding house' tactics reflects a time when labor supply and housing were inextricably linked in the maritime industry.
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