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Shanghaied in Tacoma

A waterfront boarding house keeper is caught in the act of kidnapping a sailor in Tacoma.

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.

Penny Daly, the proprietor of a sailors' boarding house, was found tonight attempting to shanghai John Thompson aboard the ship Archdale. Thompson was badly beaten when he resisted. Additionally, Peter C. Pyatt of Whatcom was swindled at the depot by sharpers who tricked him into paying money on the pretext of freight costs, though one of the scammers was later arrested.

“Penny Daly, proprietor of a sailors' boarding house, was tonight found attempting to shanghai John Thompson aboard the ship Archdale.”

— Printed in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893
Then · 1893133 years apartNow · 2026

The practice of 'shanghaiing' sailors was a notorious part of maritime history in West Coast ports like Tacoma and Seattle. It speaks to the brutal labor conditions of the era, where crews were often forcibly recruited to fill positions on merchant ships.

The original page

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-03-26. Library of Congress, Chronicling America.

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About this story

From
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, MAR 26, 1893, Page 7
Rights
Public domain
Place
47.25527, -122.44802 · placed automatically
The paper in the Library of Congress catalog ↗