Union and Non-Union Seamen Clash at Port Townsend
A saloon becomes a battleground as a labor dispute over shipping jobs descends into a violent, armed confrontation.
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 trouble which has been brewing between the Coast Seamen's Union and non-union sailors culminated to-night in a shooting affray. A trio of union seamen went into the Latona, a non-union boarding house, owned by Max Levy, and called for drinks. An altercation arose between James Connors, a union seaman, and Charles Gunnerson, Levy's boarding house runner, which resulted in a fist fight. Connors, Levy and Gunnerson each drew a revolver and began firing. Six shots were fired. Levy's crowd asserts that the union sailors fired the first. When the fusillade of shots subsided, Connors was found to have two bullets in his back, one through the shoulder and another in the hip. Two other spectators were slightly injured by stray bullets. The saloon was completely demolished. In the meantime, about twenty union sailors appeared and took charge of the town, the police being powerless for the time being to stop a riot. A crowd began to congregate, and the sailors loudly demanded the arrest of Levy and Gunnerson. Levy was taken out the back way and locked in the city jail unobserved. Several union sailors then attempted to enter the Latona saloon, where Gunnerson was barricaded and armed with two pistols. He fired half a dozen shots through the door at the crowd without effect. After considerable parley, Gunnerson consented to accompany the police across the street to the city jail. The union sailors began to imbibe liquor, and ugly threats were made against the prisoners who were taken out of the city jail and placed in the county jail. Robert Kirk, also runner for Levy, was arrested, charged with shooting. At 10 o'clock tonight, when the telegraph office closed, indications pointed to a riot and further bloodshed before morning.
“At 10 o'clock tonight, when the telegraph office closed, indications pointed to a riot and further bloodshed before morning.”
This violent confrontation between union and non-union workers in Port Townsend reflects the intense labor volatility of the 1890s, a decade marked by extreme economic depression and strikes. Just as today's port labor relations and gig-economy struggles surface on docks and in warehouses, late 19th-century maritime work was a flashpoint for labor organizing and social upheaval.
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