A Warning to the Shanghaiers of Tacoma
A notorious boarding house keeper is sent to prison for his brutal, predatory business practices.
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.
Denny Doyle, a sailors' boarding house keeper, was today sentenced to one year's imprisonment and ordered to pay a fine of $1,000 for attempting to shanghai James Thompson aboard the ship Archdale. Thompson resisted and was terribly beaten about the face and body. Judge Reed, of the municipal court, told Doyle he would make an example of him as a warning to others who might attempt to sell a man into slavery aboard a ship for a few dollars. Doyle has appealed the case to the superior court.
“Judge Reed... told Doyle he would make an example of him as a warning to others who might attempt to sell a man into slavery aboard a ship for a few dollars.”
In the 1890s, Tacoma's docks were sites of violent exploitation where workers were kidnapped and sold to ship captains. Today, the maritime industry has shed these violent labor practices, though the fight for fair treatment and against exploitation at the water's edge remains a resonant theme in Pacific Northwest labor history.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.