The Waterfront Salmon Strike and the Ghost of a Deal
A broken promise of a buyer, a scuffle over fishing rights, and the quiet departure of Chinese cannery workers reveal the volatility of the Seattle fishing industry.
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.
A change came yesterday in the fishing situation, and all the union fishermen went out with their seines. There was a good run of salmon, mostly silversides and a few jacks. The announcement made the night previous at the fishermen's meeting that all the catch could be sold to Mr. Drysdale of the Point Roberts cannery had given the men hope that the fight was over, although doubts were heard along the waterfront. The union men brought their fish across the harbor yesterday, but none of the dealers wanted them. A.G. Dunn, of Ainsworth & Dunn, declined to buy, giving preference to the men running the firm's own seine after his crew had been beaten by union men the previous day. It was later learned that Mr. Drysdale had not even been at Point Roberts to make a bargain. Meanwhile, the steamer Angeles arrived carrying 41 Chinese cannery workers on their way home to Astoria after completing their contracts. One man, Wong Sing, died of diarrhea during the voyage, and his remains were sent to Portland.
“The announcement made the night previous... had given the men hopes that the fight was over, although doubts of the truth of the story were heard on every side along the waterfront.”
This 1893 labor struggle highlights the precarious nature of Seattle’s early maritime economy and the racialized tensions that defined its labor force. Today's commercial fishing industry in the Pacific Northwest still grapples with consolidation and volatility, though the overt violence and exclusionist policies of the era have evolved into modern regulatory and supply chain challenges.
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