The Unlit Cabin of the West Seattle Ferry
A man sues the ferry company for $5,000 after falling in the dark, claiming their failure to light the cabin led to his permanent injury.
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.
Charles H. Brown yesterday brought suit in superior court against the West Seattle Land and Improvement Company for $5,000 damages by personal injuries received by the alleged negligence of its employees. He alleges that on November 27, in the dark of the evening, he went down to the ferry boathouse to take the steamer Perhaps for West Seattle. He bought a ticket of the West Seattle Land and Improvement Company, and alleges that the Perhaps had been chartered by the company to run as a ferry to West Seattle in place of the steam ferry City of Kingston, which was then being repaired. There was no light in the cabin of the steamer, he states, and he had no knowledge of its interior arrangements. He climbed over the side of the craft and into the cabin, as all passengers were compelled to do. In stepping down from the deck running around the side of the steamer to the floor, he put his foot on a joist which did not support him. As a consequence, he says, he fell and severely tore and sprained his right leg and ankle, causing it to become black and blue and to give him much pain. These injuries, he alleges, have permanently disabled him, he fears. He therefore sues for the large sum mentioned as damages, alleging that the accident was the result of the negligence of the employees of the company in failing to warn him of his danger and to light the cabin of the steamer.
“There was no light in the cabin of the steamer, he states, and he had no knowledge of its interior arrangements.”
This 1893 slip-and-fall lawsuit highlights the pre-standardization chaos of Seattle's early cross-water transit, a precursor to the massive public infrastructure of today's Washington State Ferries. Like modern debates over ferry reliability and safety, commuters in the 1890s faced real risks when traveling between the growing neighborhoods and the central waterfront.
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