A Cry for Help, Then Two Arms Above the Tide Flats
Fred Wyott borrowed his roommate's boat for an evening fishing trip near Commercial and Charles streets. Neighbors heard him cry out but could not reach him in time.
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.
James East reported to Capt. Brennan of police headquarters last night that Fred Wyott, aged 37 years, was drowned on the tide flats near the corner of Commercial and Charles streets at 6:13 o'clock by falling out of a boat.
Wyott was East's room mate, and at 7:30 o'clock in the evening borrowed East's boat to go fishing. East came to the city, but on returning home was informed by one of his neighbors that the man who had been in the boat had been drowned. He said that he heard a cry for help, and on looking out on the water saw near the boat two arms reaching out of the water. Before assistance could arrive the arms had disappeared. The boat belonged to East, so there can be no question about the identity of the man who lost his life.
Wyott was an Englishman, unmarried, and had lived in Seattle seven years. He was a member of the Coast Seamen's Union, and worked on the barkentine Skagit last November and the schooner Hueneme last March. An effort was made last night to locate the body.
“Before assistance could arrive the arms had disappeared.”
In 1894 Seattle's tide flats were a working waterfront of skiffs, mud and industry, not the stadium district it is today. Wyott's death is a reminder that the city's shoreline has always been a place of labor and risk, and that a familiar body of water can turn deadly in minutes.
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