The 'Oscar and Hattie' Proves a Bounty of Fish
A schooner returns from Alaska, signaling the dawn of a new independent fishing industry in Puget Sound.
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.
It is reported from Port Townsend that the schooner 'Oscar and Hattie' has returned from a successful fishing trip in northern waters. She sailed far north to Alaska, where she found all that could be desired in the way of fishing grounds. Her owner, Captain Johnson, declares himself 'more than satisfied' with the result of his first cruise. The trip was both pleasant and profitable, and no time will be lost in repeating it. The 'Oscar and Hattie,' it will be remembered, is one of the fishing schooners which came out from Massachusetts upon a venture in North Pacific waters. Upon the result of their venture a great deal depends, since two hundred or more sails are waiting, eager to come if a field of profitable labor can be found here. The success of the 'Oscar and Hattie' is therefore a subject for special congratulation. It confirms the good reports already made by Captain Solomon Jacobs' schooners, also from Gloucester, and will almost certainly lead to a very large increase of our fishing fleet. Fishing by small schooners is surely destined to be among the important productive industries of Washington. To the halibut and other fishery interests just now being developed, will soon be added the large seal fishing industry of Alaska. This is now engrossed as a monopoly by the Alaska Commercial Company, whose exclusive privileges expire in two years. From that time, the great sealing business will be in the hands, not of a monster monopoly but of scores and hundreds of small independent fishermen like Capt. Jacobs and Capt. Johnson.
“From that time, the great sealing business will be in the hands, not of a monster monopoly but of scores and hundreds of small independent fishermen.”
In 1888, Seattle's economy was shifting toward resource extraction, fueled by the hope of breaking monopolies and empowering independent operators. Today, the struggle for a 'fair field' in Seattle remains centered on local control and the resistance against concentrated corporate ownership in industries from housing to tech.
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