The Yacht That Stirred Up International Trouble
A Seattle yacht owner returns home to rumors of arrest after a six-week hunting trip to Vancouver Island.
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 yacht Gracie Felix, Captain A. M. Towle, which had been on a six-weeks' cruise around the northern end of Vancouver Island, sailed into Seattle harbor Sunday evening and anchored in the bay opposite the northern part of the waterfront. The Gracie cleared from the Seattle custom house on November 20 for Nanaimo. Capt. Towle says that the whole time, except about three days, was devoted to a pleasure cruise, hunting and fishing. Towle was very much annoyed at the report sent out from Victoria that the Gracie was liable to seizure for not having entered and cleared there, and for the intimation that she was engaged in crooked business. On the way back the Gracie was boarded by an English revenue cutter under orders from Victoria. The officer found the yacht's papers all right, as she had cleared from Nanaimo with permission to cruise around the northern part of the island, and she was not molested. Here in Seattle the story that the Gracie was liable to seizure was treated as a bare lie. Capt. Towle said the reason given for such reports was that the people of Victoria wanted to put possession of the fastest yacht on the Sound for next season's races.
“He was very much annoyed at the report sent out from Victoria that the Gracie was liable to seizure for not having entered and cleared there.”
Border disputes and suspicions between Pacific Northwest neighbors are a long-standing tradition. While today's concerns might focus on trade tariffs or tourism, the Gracie Felix incident captures the era's territorial anxiety over maritime borders in the Salish Sea.
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