The Captain Who Vanished After the Bottle Cost Him His Ship
Turned out of a Chilean freighter for drunkenness, old Capt. John Maaeke has disappeared from Port Townsend—and his son in Valparaiso is demanding answers.
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.
PORT TOWNSEND, Aug. 21.—[Special.]—Capt. John Maaeke, who was turned out of the Chilean ship Emma Louisa several months ago for intemperance, is missing. His son, who is prominently associated with a big mercantile house in Valparaiso, has written here for information concerning his father. Capt. Maaeke was old and feeble, and some of his friends believe that he went to San Francisco and took passage on a sailing vessel for Chile. His son threatens to have the owners of the vessel prosecuted in Chile for turning the old man adrift, and penniless too, in a foreign port.
“His son threatens to have the owners of the vessel prosecuted in Chile for turning the old man adrift, and penniless too, in a foreign port.”
Port Townsend was a bustling port of call for deep-water crews in 1894, and a captain's dismissal could strand an old sailor far from family and home. The story of a son in Chile demanding accountability for his father's fate still resonates in today's conversations about aging workers, maritime labor, and who bears responsibility when a job ends badly.
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