A Waterfront Brawl Over a Knife
When a sailor from the USS Iowa gets slashed in a street quarrel, he refuses to press charges against his shipmate.
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.
Charles A. Shute, a bluejacket of the battleship Iowa, was slashed in the leg by a shipmate in a quarrel Saturday night. The affray happened near First Avenue and Columbia Street. Shute refused to make a complaint to the police. He claims that his companion was flourishing a large knife and he was attempting to take it away from him as he was cut.
“Shute refused to make a complaint to the police. He claims that his companion was flourishing a large knife and he was attempting to take it away from him as he was cut.”
This 19th-century street scuffle near First and Columbia reminds us that Seattle’s waterfront has long been a place of intense, sometimes violent, social friction. While modern downtown Seattle is defined by tech headquarters and luxury high-rises, the intersection remains at the heart of the city's shifting civic character.
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