Tragedy on the Danube
A fireman plunges into the Sound as a steamer arrives in Seattle with a cargo of laborers.
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.
When the steamer Danube got within ten miles of Seattle, one of the firemen committed suicide by jumping overboard. His name was Robert Hutchinson, and his movements were not observed by anyone on board except Mrs. Myers, the captain's wife, who saw him come up from below, coolly get on the rail, and plunge into the waters of the Sound. She gave the alarm, and the steamer, which was running at full speed, was slowed down as quickly as possible. A boat was lowered and sent after the man, but through a telescope, he was seen to sink before the boat reached him. Nothing was known of Hutchinson's history.
“Mrs. Myers, the captain's wife, saw him come up from below, coolly get on the rail, and plunge into the waters of the Sound.”
The Danube was a regular vessel in the trans-Pacific labor trade, which often brought laborers from Asia through Victoria to Seattle. The brutal conditions of the hold described in the wider context of this page illustrate the human toll of the era's exploitative labor systems, which remain a dark chapter in maritime history.
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