The Bold Smuggler of the 'Ina'
A Victoria-based steamer brazenly docks at the city landing in broad daylight to coal up, while its captain blurs his ship's identity to evade detection.
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 little British Columbia steamer Ina, which smuggled in thirty-two Chinese men caught by Collector McKenzie Monday night, proves to be one of the most daring of her class. After discharging her Mongolian freight at West Seattle between Sunday night and Monday morning, she came over to the city side and coolly backed into the boat landing between the fireboat Snoqualmie's slip and the Seattle Coal and Iron Company's bunkers, lying there until Monday noon. The captain needed coal, and with his craft lying there, his men secured coal in sacks from the bunkers and trucked it down the fireboat slip to their steamer. This occupied several hours, and meanwhile, the captain came ashore and got gloriously full. One of the fireboat employees went aboard the Ina and was astonished to find such a small craft carrying such big compound engines, saying she must be very speedy. Even Capt. McAllep of the fireboat did not have his suspicions aroused initially; he noticed the craft, but thought she was new because he saw the words 'Ina of Olympia' on a strip of canvas fastened to the stern. Capt. McAllep later realized this was a clever trick to cover up her home port of Victoria. After taking coal, getting drunk, and displaying gold coins under the very shadow of the custom house, the captain steamed out and went on his way rejoicing, having completely bypassed custom clearance.
“The captain... takes the palm for pure gall in a foreign port.”
This 1893 incident highlights the persistent, porous nature of the Puget Sound maritime border, a theme that has dominated regional history from the Exclusion era to modern debates on immigration and enforcement. The brazenness of the captain—operating under the literal shadow of the custom house—echoes the long-standing tension between the region's geography and the reach of federal authority.
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