The Price of a Steamboat Collision
Federal Judge Hanford orders the steam collier Willamette to pay $30,000 for a fatal 1892 collision with the steamer Premier.
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 steam collier Willamette and her owner, the Oregon Improvement Company, were mulcted in the sum of $30,000 by a decision handed down by Judge Hanford in the suit for damages brought against the steamer Willamette by the relatives of those killed and injured in the collision between the steamers Willamette and Premier near Marrowstone Point on October 8, 1892. As the result of that accident, four people were killed and many wounded. Judge Hanford holds that the Willamette was at fault and awards damages to the plaintiffs in sums ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. In his decision, Judge Hanford noted the fog over Admiralty Inlet and blamed the disaster on the 'stupidity or perversity' of the Willamette's master, who deviated from his course and rammed the Premier at a 45-degree angle, cutting into her hull to the keel.
“The Willamette, instead of pursuing her proper course, keeping on the east side of the inlet, deviated to the westward and took a course aimed with fatal accuracy toward the approaching Premier.”
Maritime safety on the Salish Sea has been a concern since the earliest days of commerce, shifting from the steam collisions of the 1890s to today's complex ferry and shipping routes. The legal precedent set here regarding liability for passenger safety remains a fundamental aspect of maritime law in the Pacific Northwest.
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