Tragedy on the Sound: Two Edmonds Men Lost at Sea
A supply mission for an Odd Fellows dance turns into a frantic search as two prominent citizens vanish during a gale.
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 town of Edmonds is in a fever of excitement over the loss of two of its prominent citizens, W.P. Kingston and Frank Harrington, who have been missing since last Sunday evening and are supposed to have been drowned from an open boat in Bailey's Bay during the series of storms that prevailed Sunday night and all day Monday. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Edmonds had arranged to give a grand St. Valentine's Day ball in the town hall on Wednesday evening. The two missing men were on the committee of arrangements. Kingston and Harrington volunteered to cross the Sound to Whidbey Island, some fifteen miles, and bring back a boatload of clams. They procured an open skiff, not over staunch, and started amid the hearty goodbyes of friends. That was the last ever seen of them. Steamers have passed and repassed along the bay every day since, but no sign of men or boat has been seen. Kingston was 38 years old, a real estate agent in Edmonds, and leaves a wife and four children. Harrington was 32, single, and an engineer employed in the mills. The news was brought to Seattle by R. Merchant, who had been engaged to furnish music for the ball, which has been postponed.
“The more sanguine people of Edmonds are expressing the hope that the two men are still alive on board some outward bound vessel which chanced to pick them up.”
The precarious reliance on open boats for transit between Whidbey and the mainland remains a defining challenge of Puget Sound geography. While modern ferry systems have replaced the humble skiff, the dangerous, unpredictable nature of the Sound's waters continues to be a reality for those traversing it.
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