The Fiery End of the Steamer E. W. Purdy
A freight steamer loading hay near La Conner is reduced to a smoldering wreck by a midnight blaze, leaving its crew destitute and stranded.
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 side-wheel steamer E. W. Purdy was entirely destroyed by fire early yesterday morning in Sullivan's slough, a few miles from La Conner. Capt. W. K. Merwin and the crew returned to this city on the steamer Fairhaven yesterday and gave an account of the disaster. The steamer arrived in Sullivan's slough Saturday to load hay. Soon after 11 o'clock, the crew had thirty-one tons on board. A few minutes after midnight, the fireman found the engine room filled with smoke too dense to enter. The fire broke out, enveloping the house in flames. Despite ordering the pumps, the crew could do nothing as the vessel burned like tinder. The engineer narrowly escaped through a window after opening the throttle. The crew lowered the boat and barely made it to the bank. Capt. Merwin, the last to leave, noted the vessel burned down to the keel. The crew lost all their clothes and money, but were cared for by local businessman Mr. Foster and the captain of the Fairhaven. The E. W. Purdy, built in 1888, was a total loss of approximately $6,000, and carried no insurance.
“The boat and cargo burned like tinder, and it was found necessary to abandon her immediately.”
Steamboat travel was the vital, yet volatile, circulatory system of the Puget Sound in the late 19th century. The sudden loss of the E. W. Purdy mirrors the precarious nature of maritime commerce in an era before modern communication, where a single fire could instantly bankrupt a small business venture.
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